Week 5: Introduction to Footing Design

Structures which are designed to be supported by the earth such as buildings, bridges, dams, towers, etc
consists of two parts; the superstructure or the upper part and the substructure element which
interfaces the superstructure and the supporting ground.

Foundation is defined as the substructure and that adjacent soil or rock which will be affected by the
substructure elements and its load.

Foundation Engineering is the science and art of applying the principles of soil and structural mechanics
together with engineering judgement (the art) to solve the interfacing problem.

Foundation Engineer is a person who by reason of experience and training can produce solution for
design problems of foundation engineering.

The transmission of these large superstructure loads to the soil can be by use of
a.) Shallow Foundation – termed footings, spread, combined or mats. Foundation depth is generally Df
≤B.
b.) Deep Foundation – piles or caisson with Df > 4B to 5B.
c.) Retaining structure – structure used to retain soil or similar mass such as grain, coal, ore in a
geometric shape other than occurring naturally under the influence of gravity.
d) Special foundation – foundation not classified as shallow/deep foundation or retaining structure.

Foundation types and typical usage

Spread Footings Individual columns, Any conditions where bearing

Wall Footings Walls, bridge piers capacity is adequate for applied
load. May use on single stratum:
firm layer over soft layer or soft
layer over firm layer. Check
immediate,
differential and consolidation
settlements

Mat Foundation
Pile Foundations Floating
Same as spread and wall
footing Very Heavy column
load, usually reduces
differential and total
settlement.
In groups (at least 2) to
Carry heavy column, wall
loads: requires pile ca
Generally, soil bearing value is less
than for spread footings, over one
half of the building covered by
individual footings check
settlement.
Poor surface and near surface
soils. Soils of high
bearing capacity 20 -50 m below
basement or
ground surface, but by distributing
load along pile

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 shaft soil strength is
adequate. Corrosive soil may
require use of timber or concrete
pile material

Caisson ( shafts 75 cm
In diameter ) generally
bearing or combination
of bearing and skin
resistance
Larger column loads than Poor surface and near surface
for piles but eliminates soils: soil of high
pile caps by using caisson bearing capacity is 8 – 50 m below
as column extension ground surface

Retaining walls Permanent retaining Any type of soil in back of wall.

Bridge abutments structures Usually of controlled backfill

Sheet-piles Temporary retaining Any soil; waterfront structure may

structures Structures as excavations, require special alloy or corrosion
Waterfront structures, protection. Cofferdams require
cofferdams Control of fill material

Types of Footings

Wall footing a continuous strip of concrete that supports a

bearing wall
Isolated spread or single column footing – square or
rectangular, These are widely
used for columns with light loads and are closely
spaced.
Combined footing a longer rectangular slab strip that supports two
or more individual column. These are usually
used due to property line restrictions
or when isolated footings overlaps.

Raft, floating or mat footing single thick mat of slab that support all the
columns
of a entire structure. This kind of foundation is
used when the soil strength is very
low or when the column loads are large but piles
or caissons are not used. The
excavation for this footing is usually very deep
such that the amount of earth removed is
approximately equal to the building weight.

Pile caps slab of reinforced concrete used to distribute

loads on group of piles.

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ALLOWABLE SOIL PRESSURE qa , Source NSCP
Minimum depth of Maximum permissible Increase in value Maximum value
Classificat footing below value if footing is at for each 1 m of
ion of adjacent virgin minimum depth depth that footing
Materials ground is below minimum
depth

2
1

0 0

Compact 0.6 2 *7500 *75 *5000 *50

Coarse
sand

Compact 0.6 2 *5000 *50 *3300 *33 40000 40

Fine sand 0

Loose 0.9 3 *2500 *25 *1600 *16 15000 15

sand 0

Hard clay 0.6 2 20000 200 13300 133 40000 40

or Sandy 0
Clay

Medium 0.6 2 10000 100 3300 33 30000 30

stiff clay 0
or
Sandy
clay

Compact 0.6 2 5000 50 3300 33 20000 20

inorganic 0
sand
and silt
mixture

Loose 0.9 3 2500 25 1600 16 5000 50

inorganic
sand
Silt
mixtures

Soft 0.9 3 5000 50 830 8.3 10000 10

sandy 0
Clay or
clay
Loose
organic
and

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 silt mixtur
es and
muck

A. Critical Section for Moment

Footings are similar to beams or slabs carrying the
effective soil pressure as the load and the column as
support, so it is subject to moment.

For isolated footings, the critical section for moment are located as follows:

a) At the face of column, pedestal or walls for footing supporting a column, pedestal or wall

❖ Moment at critical section

𝑞𝑢 2
𝑀𝑐𝑠 = 𝐵𝑐
2
Where:
qu=Pu/Area of Footing

b) Halfway between middle and edge of wall for footing supporting a masonry wall

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 ❖ Moment at critical section

𝑞𝑢 2
𝑀𝑐𝑠 = 𝐵𝑐
2
Where:
qu=Pu/Area of Footing

c.) Halfway between face of column and edge of steel base plate, for footing supporting a
column with steel base plate.

B. Shear in Footings
The shear strength of slabs and footings in the vicinity of the column, concentrated load or reaction is
governed by wide beam shear or one-way shear and two way or punching shear. It must be noted that
stirrups are not allowed in footings.

❖ Critical section for one-way shear

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 a) Shear carried by concrete
1
𝑉𝑐 = √𝑓 ′𝐵𝑑
6 𝑐
b) Shear Force at critical section

𝑉𝑢 = 𝑞𝑢 𝐵𝑎

c) Allowable Shear force

𝑉𝑢𝑎 = ø𝑉𝑐

❖ Critical section for Two-way (punching) shear

a.) Punching Shear Perimeter

𝑏𝑜 = 2(𝑎 + 𝑑 ) + 2(𝑏 + 𝑑 ) = 2(𝑎 + 𝑏 + 2𝑑)
b.) Shear force at Critical section

𝑉𝑝𝑢 = 𝑃𝑢 − 𝑞𝑢 (𝑎 + 𝑑 )(𝑏 + 𝑑)

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 c.) 𝑉𝑐 is the smaller of:

2 √𝑓𝑐′
𝑉𝑐 = (1 + )( 𝑏𝑜 𝑑)
𝛽𝑐 6
𝐿𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑛
Where: 𝛽𝑐 =
𝑆ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑆𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑛

1 ′
𝑉𝑐 = √𝑓𝑐 𝑏𝑜 𝑑
3
d) Allowable Shear force
𝑉𝑝𝑢𝑎 = ø𝑉𝑐

I. Design of square Isolated Footings Supporting an axially loaded column.

Given: Column Loads and dimensions, fc’,fy, qa,hs,

Required: Footing size, footing depth, Area of reinforcement

C. General Procedure

1. Assume initial depth of footing

2. Solve for effective soil bearing pressure

𝑞𝑒 = 𝑞𝑎 − 𝛾𝑐 𝐷 − 𝛾𝑠 ℎ𝑆
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 𝐶𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑛 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑
𝐷 = 𝑘√
𝑞𝑎

3. Solve for the required area of footing

𝐶𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑛 𝐿𝑜𝑎𝑑
𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 =
𝑞𝑒

4. Solve for designing soil bearing pressure

𝑃𝑢
𝑞𝑢 =
𝐵2
Where:

𝑃𝑢 = 1.4𝑃𝐷 + 1.7𝑃𝐿

5. Determine the effective depth of the footing (usually governed by two way or punching shear)

❖ Critical Section for two-way (punching) shear.

𝑉𝑝𝑢 = 𝑃𝑢 − 𝑞𝑢 [(𝑎 + 𝑑)(𝑏 + 𝑑)]

Allowable punching shear stress

𝑉𝑝𝑢𝑎 = ∅𝑉𝑐

1
𝑉𝑝𝑢𝑎 = ∅ (√𝑓𝑐′ 𝑏𝑜 𝑑)
3
𝑏𝑜 = 2(𝑎 + 𝑑 ) + 2(𝑏 + 𝑑 ) = 2(𝑎 + 𝑏 + 2𝑑)
Area of c.s = [(a+d) (b+d)]

Note: Equating Vpu to Vpua leads to a quadratic equation in terms of d

Note: another method of determining d is by iteration that is by assuming a value of d and
solving Vpu and Vpua, Vpu ≤Vpua trial value of d

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d = B/6 to B/5

Minimum depth of footing

The depth of footing above the bottom of reinforcement may not be less than 150 mm for footings on
soil and 300 mm for footings on piles.

6. Check for one-way shear

• Shear force at critical section

𝑉𝑢 = 𝑞𝑢 𝐵𝑎

• Allowable Shear
1
𝑉𝑢𝑎 = ∅( )√𝑓𝑐′ 𝐵𝑑
6
Note: Vua ≥ Vu

7. Design reinforcement by moment

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Design Sequence:

𝑀𝑐𝑠 𝑓𝑦 1.4
1. 𝑅𝑢 = 𝑚= 𝜌𝑚𝑖𝑛 = 𝜌𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 0.75𝜌𝑏
∅𝐵𝑑2 0.85𝑓𝑐 ′ 𝑓𝑦

1 2𝑚𝑅𝑢 𝐴𝑠
2. 𝜌 = [1 − (√1 − )] 𝐴𝑠 = 𝜌𝐵𝑑 𝑁𝑜 =
𝑚 𝑓𝑦 𝐴1

8. Check for development length

Critical sections for development length of reinforcement in footings. The development of reinforcements
in footings is in accordance with section 5.12.The critical sections for development of reinforcement is
assumed to be at the same location as those of critical moment.

𝐿𝑑𝑎 = 𝑎𝑣𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑝𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ

Basic Development Length of bars in tension

For 32 mm bar & smaller and deformed wire

0.02𝐴𝑏 𝑓𝑦
𝐿𝑑𝑏 =
√𝑓𝑐′

but not to be taken less than 0.6dbfy

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For 36 mm bar
25𝑓𝑦
𝐿𝑑𝑏 =
√𝑓𝑐′

Where:
Ldb = basic development length (mm)
Ab = area of one bar (mm2)
db = diameter of one bar (mm)
fc’,fy in MPa

Note: Lda ≥Ldb, development length rarely governs design of As

D. Distribution of Flexural or Main Reinforcement

One-way footing – footings reinforced in one direction only

Two-way footing – footings reinforced in two directions

In square one way or two-way footings, reinforcement maybe distributed uniformly across the entire
width of the footing.

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