10/7/2020

MS Civil Engineering
CV503 Foundation Engineering (Fall 2020)

Bearing Capacity of
Shallow Foundations

Mubashir Aziz, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering,
National University of Computer & Emerging Sciences Lahore
mubashir.aziz@lhr.nu.edu.pk

Topic Objectives

• The difference between contact pressure and

bearing capacity?

• How to calculate bearing capacity and how does it

change with the loading conditions?

• How to represent results of bearing capacity

analysis to the designer?

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Septs for Design of Foundations

1. Calculate the loads (D.L., L.L., etc.).
2. Obtain representative soil profile and establish GWT position.
3. Decide minimum depth and type of foundation.
4. Determine Allowable Bearing Capacity (qa) of soil.
5. Determine footing size.
6. Compute contact pressure & check stresses in lower strata.
7. Compute total and differential settlements.
8. Check stability against sliding, overturning, uplifts.
9. Proceed with structural design.
10. Construction aspects.

Foundation Design Aspects

PART-1: Geotechnical Design Requirements
• Type of foundation (Shallow/Deep)
• Foundation depth
• Foundation size (Bearing Capacity & Settlement Analysis)
• Possible construction problems (GWT, stability of excavations, chemical attacks)
and their solutions

PART-2: Structural Design Requirements

• Thickness of pad
• Steel reinforcement
• Shop drawing and construction specifications
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Shallow Foundations-Bearing Capacity

(Geotechnical Strength Requirements)

Bearing Capacity Failures

Both compressive and shear stresses are induced in the soils by shallow
foundations which depend on q and size of footing.

Bearing capacity failure occurs when:

• q is large enough or footing is small
• Shear stress > shear strength of soil

Types of B.C. Failure

1. General Shear Failure (Terzaghi, 1943)
2. Local Shear Failure (Terzaghi, 1943)
3. Punching Shear Failure (Vesic, 1963)
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(i) General Shear Failure

Buldging on Failure
both sides

Ultimate failure occurs

on one side only

• Most common mode of bearing capacity failure

• Applicable to narrow footings placed at shallow depths
• Continuous failure surface develops
• Failure is sudden accompanying by tilting
• Occurs in Rocks/Undrained Clays/Dense Sands (DR > 67%)
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(ii) Local Shear Failure

Failure
Little buldging
/ tilting

• Shear surface is well defined below the footing only

• Ultimate B.C. is not well defined from the pressure-settlement curve
• Loose-to-medium dense sands (30% < DR < 67%)

(iii) Punching Shear Failure

Failure
No buldging
/ tilting

• Occurs in loose sands (DR < 30%) or highly compressible clays or

when footing is placed at a considerable depth.
• Slip surface is restricted to vertical planes
• Failure is slow and time consuming (conditions are drained)
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General Remarks
• In a lab shear test on c - f soil, if failure occurs at a
small strain (< 5%), general shear would probably
occur in the field. For failure strains > 10%, local
shear failure may govern.
• For cohesionless soils, if f > 36o (general shear) and
if f < 29o (local shear) is possible.
• Deep foundations (D/B > 4) are always governed by
punching shear.
• For practical shallow foundation design problems,
check the general shear failure and then conduct the
settlement analysis (This will protect local/punching
shear implicitly).
Modes of failure of model circular
foundations in Sand (Vesic 1973) 9

Methods of Bearing Capacity Analysis in Soil

1. Full-Scale Load Tests (most precise, expensive)

2. Load Tests on Model Footings (low cost, limitation of scale-factor)

3. FEM Analyses (detailed stress analysis on critical/unusual projects)

4. Limit Equilibrium Analyses (mostly used, stress vs. strength,

includes empirical factors developed from model tests)

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(1) Full-scale load tests (2) Load tests on

model footings

(4) Limit equilibrium analyses

(3) FEM analyses

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Simple Bearing Capacity Formula

(Nc = 2π = 6.28)
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Geometry of Failure Surface for

Terzaghi’s Bearing Capacity Formulas

Log-Spiral Curve
r = ro eqtanf

For soils with f = 0 (UU conditions), the log-spiral becomes a circle. i.e. qult = 2 π c 13

Terzaghi’s Bearing Capacity Formula Terzaghi (1943)

qult = Sc c ′ Nc Resistance from

cohesion
Resistance from
+ s ’zD Nq overburden

Resistance along
+ Sg 0.5 g ′ B Ng sliding surfaces

Terzaghi’s shape factors obtained

from model tests
Footing Continuous Square Circular
Sc 1.0 1.3 1.3
Sg 1.0 0.8 0.6

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Vesic’s General Form of Bearing Capacity Equation

qult = c ′ Nc Sc dc ic gc bc + s ’zD Nq Sq dq iq gq bq + 0.5 g ′ B Ng Sg dg ig gg bg

Meyerhof (1963)

Relatively small changes in the geometry of the failure

surface below the footing can create significance
differences in Ng especially in soils with high f – values. 15

Shape Factors

Ignore shape factors for

continuous footings
because for B/L = 0, sc, sq, sg = 1

Depth Factors

• D/B ≤ 1, k = D/B
• D/B > 1, k = tan-1(D/B)
(tan-1 term in radians)

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Load Inclination Factors

For loads that don’t act perpendicular to the base of footing, but still
act through its centroid
For loads inclined For loads inclined
in B direction in L direction

i-factors = 1, if load acts perpendicular to the base of footing and/or f = 0.

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Base Inclination Factors

If the applied load is inclined at a large angle from the vertical, it may be better to incline
the footing base to the same angle so the applied load acts perpendicular to the base (But
difficult to construct such footings)

b-factors = 1, if the base of the

footing is level

Ground Inclination Factors

Footings located near the top of a slope have a lower B.C than those on level ground.

g - factors = 1, if the ground

surface is level (b = 0)
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Groundwater Cases for Bearing Capacity Analysis

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Example-1: A 3 m square footing is to be built as shown. Compute the ultimate

(nominal unit) bearing capacity and the column load that will cause shear
failure in soil.

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Practice Problem:

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Design of Spread Footings

Design of spread footings against bearing capacity failure, hence satisfying a
geotechnical strength requirement, may be performed using either the ASD
or the LRFD method.

Design the foundation so that the bearing

pressure, q, does not exceed qa
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Example-2: A column with the design vertical load 450 k will be supported on a spread
footing located 3 ft below the ground surface. The underlying soil has an undrained shear
strength of 2000 psf and unit weight of 109 pcf. The GWT is at a depth of 4 ft. Determine
minimum footing width to maintain a safety factor of 3 against bearing capacity failure.

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LRFD Method
1. Compute the nominal unit bearing capacity, qn, using Terzaghi’s or Vesic´’s
method.

2. Compute the nominal downward load capacity, Pn (i.e. load required to

produce a bearing capacity failure).

3. Obtain the appropriate resistance factor, f, from the appropriate code

(ASCE, AASHTO, etc.).

4. Compute the factored column load, Pu, using the same standard used for
the resistance factors.
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RESISTANCE FACTORS AT GEOTECHNICAL ULTIMATE LIMIT STATES FOR

FOOTING DESIGN USING THE LRFD METHOD (AASHTO, 2012)

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5. Compute the factored weight of the foundation, which is treated as a dead load, as
gDWf , where gD is the load factor for dead load.

6. Design the foundation so that the following condition is satisfied:

Example-3:

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Selection of Soil Strength Parameters

• Most difficult part of performing B.C. analyses
• qult is very sensitive to changes in shear strength parameters (c’ & f’)
• Hence, use a fairly conservative interpretation of field and lab test data
when assessing soil strength parameters

Degree of Saturation and Location of GWT

Design for the worst-case conditions i.e. use the saturated strength when
performing B.C. analyses

Drained vs. Undrained Strength

• For saturated clays – use su
• For saturated sands – use c’ & f ’ in B.C. analyses
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Bearing Capacity Analysis: Local & Punching Shear

• Rarely need to compute the local or punching shear bearing capacities because
settlement analyses implicitly protect against this type of failure.
• However, Local or punching shear will govern the final design for:
1. Shallow, narrow footings on loose sands
2. Footings supported by a thin crust of strong soil underlain by very weak soil.

Terzaghi's Method Vesic's method

(for sands with Dr < 67%)

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Bearing Capacity on Layered Soils

(Soils where c, f, and g vary with depth)
Three primary ways to compute bearing capacity for foundations on non-
uniform soils:

1. Evaluate the B.C. using the lowest values of c’, f’, and g in the zone
between the bottom of the foundation and a depth B below the
bottom. (Most conservative approach)

2. Use weighted average values of based on the relative thickness of

each stratum in the zone between the bottom of the foundation and
a depth B below the bottom. (see Example)

3. Consider a series of trial failure surfaces beneath the footing and

evaluate the stresses on each surface using methods employed in
slope stability analyses. (Most precise, most tedious)
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Example-4: Using weighted average values of c’, f’, and g, compute the factor of safety
against bearing capacity failure for the given square footing.

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