6.

Foundations

Plain concrete foundations Table 8

Minimum percentage of reinforcement required

Strip and pad footings may be constructed from plain concrete fck fctm Minimum % (0.26 fctm /fyka )
provided the following rules are adhered to. 25 2.6 0.13%
■ In compression, the value of acc, the coefficient taking account of 28 2.8 0.14%
long-term effects applied to design compressive strength 30 2.9 0.15%
(see Cl. 3.1.6), should be taken as 0.6 as opposed to 0.85 for 32 3.0 0.16%
reinforced concrete. 35 3.2 0.17%
■ The minimum foundation depth, hF, (see Figure 8) may be 40 3.5 0.18%
calculated from: 45 3.8 0.20%
50 4.1 0.21%
Key
a Where fyk = 500 MPa.

where:
sgd = the design value of the ground bearing pressure
fctd = the design concrete tensile strength from Exp. (3.16) Selected symbols
Symbol Definition Value
For many situations this is unlikely to offer any savings over the current Ac Cross sectional area of concrete bh
practice of designing for hf ≥ a. As Area of tension steel
As, prov Area of tension steel provided
The possibility of splitting forces, as advised in Clause 9.8.4 of Eurocode
As, req’d Area of tension steel required
2–1–1, may need to be considered.
d Effective depth
Eurocode 2 allows plain concrete foundations to contain reinforcement deff Average effective depth (dy + dz) /2

for control of cracking. fcd Design value of concrete compressive strength acc fck /gc
fck Characteristic cylinder strength of concrete
fctm Mean value of axial tensile strength 0.30 fck2/3 for fck ≤ C50/60

Rules for spacing and Gk Characteristic value of permanent action

(from Table 3.1, Eurocode 2)

h Overall depth of the section

quantity of reinforcement leff Effective span of member See Section 5.3.2.2 (1)
M Design moment at the ULS
Crack control Qk Characteristic value of a variable action
Refer to Chapter 2, originally published as Getting started 9. Qk,w Characteristic value of a variable wind action
VEd Design value of applied shear force

Minimum area of principal reinforcement vEd Design value of applied shear stress
VRd,c Design value of the punching shear
The minimum area of reinforcement is As,min = 0.26 fctm bt d/fyk but not
resistance without punching shear reinforcement
less than 0.0013bt d (see Table 8). vRd,c Design value of the punching shear stress
resistance without punching shear reinforcement
Maximum area of reinforcement vRd,max Design value of the maximum punching shear
resistance along the control section considered
Except at lap locations, the maximum area of tension or compression
x Depth to neutral axis (d – z)/0.4
reinforcement, should not exceed As,max = 0.04 Ac
xmax Limiting value for depth to neutral axis (d – 0.4)d where d ≤1.0
z Lever arm
Minimum spacing of reinforcement acc Coefficient taking account of long term 0.85 for flexure and
The minimum spacing of bars should be the greater of: effects on compressive strength and of axial loads, 1.0 for
■ Bar diameter, unfavourable effects resulting from the way other phenomena
load is applied (From UK National Annex)
■ Aggregate size plus 5 mm, or
b Factor for determining punching shear stress
■ 20 mm. d Ratio of the redistributed moment to the elastic
bending moment
Deep elements gm Partial factor for material properties
For deep elements the advice in Eurocode 2 for the side faces of deep r0 Reference reinforcement ratio fck/1000

beams may be followed. The UK National Annex recommends that 0.2% rl Required tension reinforcement at mid-span As l bd
to resist the moment due to the design
is provided in each face. The distance between bars should not exceed loads (or at support for cantilevers)
the lesser of twice the beam depth or 300 mm. For pile caps the side c0 Factor for combination value of a variable action
face may be unreinforced if there is no risk of tension developing. c1 Factor for frequent value of a variable action
c2 Factor for quasi-permanent value of a variable action

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