Chapter-3: Shallow Foundation Design

• It is a widely accepted practice to assume that shallow foundations are rigid so that
the variation of pressure under the foundations will be linear.

• The distribution of pressure will be uniform if the centroid of the foundation

coincides with the resultant of the applied loads or varies linearly if not coincided.

• The design of any foundations consists of two main steps;

❖Geotechnical design which is covered in ES EN-1997-1.

❖Structural design which is covered in ES EN 1992-1-1.

• For both design steps, the type and magnitude of the loads acting on the foundation
can be obtained from the analysis of the superstructure.
GEOTECHNICAL DESIGN (PROPORTIONING)- ES EN-1997-1
✓The main requirements in geotechnical design of foundations are:
• The pressure on the soil should not exceed the bearing capacity of the soil.
• The settlement of the structure should be within the permissible limits.
✓These two requirements decide the dimensions (Width & Length) of the footing from
bearing capacity and settlement requirements. This is known as Proportioning of
foundation.
✓The criteria for proportioning based on bearing capacity are; the maximum stress due
to applied load is less than or equal to the bearing capacity of the soil and the minimum
stress due to applied load is greater than or equal to zero .
GEOTECHNICAL DESIGN (PROPORTIONING)- ES EN-1997-1
 GEOTECHNICAL DESIGN (PROPORTIONING)- ES EN-1997-1
• For the proportioning of shallow foundations, ES EN-1997-1 gives three methods;
1. Prescriptive method
2. Analytical method
3. Semi-empirical method
Here, only prescriptive and analytical method are discussed.
• The new code (ES EN-1997) does not provide presumed allowable bearing capacity values
for soils (it only gives for rocks). The old code EBCS-7 provides presumed allowable
bearing capacity for different types of soils (see table in your handout).
• Proportioning using analytical method (using the soil strength parameters φ and c)
• The bearing resistance of the soil should be checked using a well known method (e.g.
Meyerhof or Hansen bearing capacity equation).
• At the serviceability limit state (SLS), the settlement of the foundations should be
calculated and checked against permissible limits. For framed buildings, the allowable
total settlement is; 50-75mm for foundations on sand and 75-135mm for foundations on
clay.
 GEOTECHNICAL DESIGN (PROPORTIONING)- ES EN-1997-1

During bearing capacity equations, two states of loading conditions, namely:

i. Initial or instantaneous or short-term loading condition (Undrained condition) and
ii. Final or long- term loading condition (Drained condition).

Long term (drained condition)

(short-term loading condition (Undrained condition)

 STRUCTURAL DESIGN (ES EN 1992-1-1)
The structural design for reinforced concrete foundation includes:
• Selecting an appropriate grade of concrete and reinforcing steel.
• Determining the required foundation thickness.
• Determining the size, number & spacing of the reinforcing bars.
• The load combination for the design load will be;

1. Wide-beam Shear
• Wide-beam shear (also known as one way shear) is a shear force acting on a vertical
section across the width or length of the footing. The critical section for wide-beam shear
is at a distance d from the face of the support, and it should be checked at this critical
section.
i. Wide-beam shear calculation
• For strip and isolated footings, the wide-beam shear force, VEd, can be calculated by
taking the force due to the soil pressure at the critical section. For combined, strap and
mat foundations, it can be calculated from the shear force diagram.
 STRUCTURAL DESIGN (ES EN 1992-1-1)
• Hence the applied wide-beam shear stress (in kPa) will be;

ii. Wide-beam shear resistance

According to clause 6.2.2(1) of ES EN 1992-1-1, the design wide-beam shear resistance
of a footing without shear reinforcement, VRd,c, (in KN) is given by:
 STRUCTURAL DESIGN (ES EN 1992-1-1)
• Hence the resisting wide-beam shear stress (in kPa) will be;

• To determine the footing effective depth (during

design), equate the applied wide-beam shear
with the resistance, i.e. VEd = VRd,c
STRUCTURAL DESIGN (ES EN 1992-1-1)
2. Punching Shear
• Punching shear arises when a concentrated load or reaction acts on a relatively small
area, called the loaded area Aload of a slab or a foundation.
i. The basic control perimeter, u1
• The basic control perimeter u1 may normally be taken to be at a distance 2d from the
loaded area (from face of column).
 STRUCTURAL DESIGN (ES EN 1992-1-1)
ii. Punching shear calculation
• For footings, the punching shear should be checked at the face of the column, and at the
basic control perimeter u1 (at 2d from column face).
• For footings, the soil pressure within the control perimeter should be subtracted when
determining the design punching shear force. Hence, the reduced applied punching shear
force, VEd,red, (in KN) is given by;
STRUCTURAL DESIGN (ES EN 1992-1-1)
• Therefore, the design applied punching shear stress, νEd, (in kPa) will be;
 STRUCTURAL DESIGN (ES EN 1992-1-1)
iii. Punching shear resistance
• According to clause 6.4.4(1) of ES EN 1992-1-1, the design punching shear resistance of a
footing without punching shear reinforcement, νRd,c, (in kPa) is given by;

Hence the resisting punching shear force (in kN) will be;
STRUCTURAL DESIGN (ES EN 1992-1-1)
 STRUCTURAL DESIGN (ES EN 1992-1-1)
iv. Punching shear resistance at the column face
According to clause 6.4.5(3) of ES EN 1992-1-1, at the column perimeter, uo, the punching
shear stress should be checked to ensure that;
 STRUCTURAL DESIGN (ES EN 1992-1-1)
3. Bending Moment
• Bending moment is used to calculate the amount of reinforcement in footings.
• The critical section for bending moment shall be taken at the face of the column for
isolated footing or at the face of the wall for a strip footing.
• For combined, strap and mat foundations, the design bending moment can be calculated
from the bending moment diagram.
 STRUCTURAL DESIGN (ES EN 1992-1-1)
Minimum area of principal reinforcement
The minimum area of reinforcement is As,min = 0.26 fctm bt d/fyk but not less than 0.0013bt d
fctm Mean value of axial tensile strength 0.30 fck 2/3 for fck ≤ C50/60

Maximum area of reinforcement

Except at lap locations, the maximum area of tension or compression reinforcement, should not
exceed As,max = 0.04Ac

Minimum spacing of reinforcement

The minimum spacing of bars should be the greater of:
■ Bar diameter,
■ Aggregate size plus 5 mm, or
■ 20 mm.
 STRUCTURAL DESIGN (ES EN 1992-1-1)
Minimum concrete cover
Concrete cover to reinforcement (According to ES EN-1992)
• Concrete cast directly against the earth, the minimum cover should be
greater than 75mm.
• Concrete cast against prepared ground (including blinding) the
minimum cover should be greater than 40mm.
The principal steps in the design calculations are as follows:
1. Calculate the plan size of the footing using the permissible bearing pressure
and the critical loading arrangement for the serviceability limit state.
2. Calculate the bearing pressures associated with the critical loading
arrangement at the ultimate limit state.
3. Assume a suitable value for the thickness (h) and effective depth (d). Check
that the shear force at the column face is less than 0.9udVfck where u is the
perimeter of the column.
4. Check the thickness for punching shear, assuming a probable value for the
basic design shear stress
5. Determine the reinforcement required to resist bending.
6. Make a final check of the punching shear, having established rRd precisely.
7. Check the shear force at the critical sections.
8. Where applicable, foundations and structure should be checked for overall
stability at the ultimate limit state.
Axially Loaded Pad Bases
Refer to the axially loaded pad footing shown in Figure
where the following
symbols are used:
Gk = characteristic dead load from the column (kN)
Qk = characteristic imposed load from the column (kN)
W= weight of the base (kN)
L, B= base length and breadth (m)
Pb = safe bearing pressure (kN/m2 or kPa)
 Reinforced concrete pads
• Where the pad foundations require reinforcement the following checks
should be carried out to ensure:
❑ Sufficient reinforcement to resist bending moments.
❑ Punching shear strength.
❑ Beam shear strength.
• The footing is proportioned using the combination
1.0 Gk + 1.0 Qk +W
Usually W is 10% of (1.0 Gk + 1.0 Qk)
• The required area is found from the characteristic loads including the weight
of the base:
Base area = (Gk + Qk + W)/Pb = L × B m2
• The moments and shear forces should be assessed using the STR
combination:
1.35 Gk + 1.5 Qk
 Reinforcement calculation
• The critical bending moments for design of bottom reinforcement are located at
the column faces.

• After Calculating moment at the column face, reinforcement will provided as

follows
• Both beam shear and punching shear should then be checked at the
locations shown in Figure below.
• For punching shear the ground reaction within the perimeter may be
deducted from the column load
• It is not usual for a pad foundation to contain shear reinforcement, therefore
it is only necessary to ensure that the concrete shear stress capacity without
shear reinforcement (vRd,c – see Table) is greater than applied shear stress
(vEd = VEd/(bd)).

• If the basic shear stress is exceeded, the designer may increase the depth of
the base.

• In ES EN-1992 the shear perimeter has rounded corners and the forces
directly resisted by the ground should be deducted (to avoid unnecessarily
conservative designs)
Procedure for determining shear capacity for pad foundations
 Procedure for determining punching shear capacity for pad foundations
1. Determine value of factor β (β =1.0 when applied moment is zero)
2. Determine value of vEd,max (design shear stress at face of column) from:
vEd,max = β(VEd – ΔVEd) /(u0deff)
where u0 is perimeter of column
deff = (dy + dz)/2 where dy and dz are the effective depths in orthogonal
directions.
3. Determine value of vRd,max (refer Table next slide ) and check vRd,max > vEd,max
4. Determine value of vEd, (design shear stress) from:
vEd = (VEd – ΔVEd)/(u1deff)
• where u1 is length of control perimeter
5. Determine concrete punching shear capacity vRd,c (without shear
reinforcement)
6. Check vEd < vRd at critical perimeter, shear reinforcement not required