IMPORTANCE OF GEOLOGY

IN BUILDING
CONSTRUCTIONS
Geological Considerations Involved in the Construction of Buildings
⚫ Multistoreyed buildings are designed as frame structures.
⚫ They are supported on the floors on beams and cross-beams and these beams
in turn are supported on pillars.
⚫ The pillars transmit the loads to the underground soil through the foundation,
which may be of different shapes such as Shallow foundation, raft
foundation, deep foundation.
⚫ The type of foundation is selected based on the building load and the
geological conditions of the underground soils and the bed rocks.
⚫ The greater is the building load, the stronger should be the underground soil,
to withstand the load of the building.
⚫ When a building is constructed at a site, without properly considering the
underground strata or it bearing capacity, it is likely that the building may
settle excessively or differentially, causing development of cracks in the
Basic Requirements of a Building Foundation.
⚫ The foundation should be capable of bearing the design loads,
without exceeding permissible stresses on the foundation
material, such as concrete, etc.
⚫ The building foundation should be capable of transmitting the
building load uniformly to the subsoil zone ; and the bearing
pressure of the supporting soil must be within the permissible
limits of settlement.
⚫ The building foundation should be laid on stable, hard soil or
hard rock to control shrinkage of the sub soil zone.
 BUILDING FOUNDATIONS ON SOILS
⚫ From economical point of view most of the buildings are founded on
soils, since they can not be taken deeper up to the level of the bed
rocks.
⚫ Although it is always preferable for the building to rest the foundation
on hard rocks.
⚫ Before the construction of multi-storeyed and important buildings, soil
testing report of the underground soil is required to know the depths
and types of soil strata existing at the building site.
⚫ The bearing capacity test of the soil is carried out to design the area
required for dispersing the design load of the building and to decide
whether shallow foundation or deep pile foundation will be required.
BUILDING FOUNDATIONS ON THE DEEPER HARD ROCKS
⚫ If the bed rock level is available at reasonable depth it is always
economical and advisable to take the foundation of the building upto
that level in case of very major and heavy buildings.
⚫ The depth of the bed rock as well as the depth of the water-table can
be easily determined with the help of geophysical surveys,
particularly by the electrical resistivity method.
⚫ If the bed rock lies below the weathered and ground water zone, the
pile foundation should be considered and the foundation should be
up to that depth when it encounters sound hard bed rock.
⚫ The selection of the pile material will depend upon the quality of the
ground water, depth of bed rock, etc and their number will depend
upon the design, load, size, etc. to be worked out on the basis of
design of piles.
 BUILDINGS FOUNDED ON SURFACE BED ROCKS
⚫ In areas where the bed rocks are easily available near the surface, the
foundations can be designed much easily compared to the bed rocks
that are available at deeper depths.
⚫ When bed rocks are available on the surface, without properly
investigating the substrata, they should not be taken to be hard and
strong foundations.
⚫ Their depth, continuity, strength parameters, absence of fractures,
faults, ete. will have to be taken into consideration in advance.
⚫ Considering all such factors, the foundation of the buildings shall be
designed safe for providing level surface and to perform the
following functions :
⚫ General distribution of load
TYPES OF SETTLEMENT IN BUILDINGS
⚫ All buildings usually settle down. However the extent of settlement
decides whether the building will be safe or not.
⚫ When the settlement of a building exceeds the permissible values, it leads
to the development of cracks and ultimate collapse of the building.
⚫ The types of settlements mainly governed by the types of the rocks and the
soils existing below the building, which is enough to emphasize the
importance of the underground strata, and hence of the geology of the area
in building construction.
⚫ The settlement in a building is of two types .
• settlement
• differential settlement.
⚫ Differential settlement is more dangerous than the settlement. However
if they exceed allowable permissible values, may cause severe damage to
the building, and its failure.
GEOLOGICAL FACTORS AFFECTING SETTLEMENT IN
BUILDINGS
GEOLOGICAL CAUSES OF SETTLEMENT OF BUILDINGS:
❖ Elastic compression of the foundation and the sub soil.
❖ Consolidation of the foundation soil.
❖ Shrinkage and swelling of the clays existing in the underground strata.
❖ Mining subsidence of the region.

GEOLOGICAL CAUSES OF DIFFERENTIAL SETTLEMENT IN

BUILDINGS:
Geological discontinuities, structural dislocations, lithological variations
of the underground strata.
Non-uniform pressure distribution from the foundation.
Excessive ground water seepage into the foundation.
Unequal freezing, thawing and swelling of the soils.
 GEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AND THEIR
IMPORTANCE IN THE DESIGN OF BUILDING
FOUNDATIONS.
⚫ In order to design a safe foundation for a building all the factors must
be thoroughly studied after conducting detailed geological surveys to
determine the bed rock configuration and position of sub-soil water.
⚫ The geological investigations may include :
⚫ The study of the regional geology to know about the type of
soils and rocks existing in the given area.
⚫ Performing geo-physical surveys.
⚫ Actual drilling of bore holes at the site to confirm the results
obtained form the geological history of the region and
geophysical tests.
⚫ For designing building foundations in the ground water zone, detailed study of
the aquifer characteristics as well as of the quality of the underground water may
become essential.
⚫ The quality of water may decide the material of the piles to be used . If excessive
sulphate content in the ground water is present, it may severely corrode the cement
concrete piles.
⚫ Similarly, corrosive waters may cause harm and damage to steel piles if adopted in
such waters.
⚫ The type of aquifers existing in the under-ground strata will determine the water
bearing capacity of the soil, which shall help to adopt preventive measures against
ground water seepage into the foundation, thereby minimizing the chances of shear
failures of the foundation due to reduced weight of the structure.
⚫ This shall become more important for buildings constructed near the sea-shores or
rivers or other surface water bodies like lakes, reservoirs, etc., where extra
precautions will even be required to maintain.
⚫ Some barriers within the soil zone must be introduced, otherwise a water-squeezing
problem will occur in the foundation.
⚫ For designing a building foundation in a mining region,
extra precaution should be taken.
⚫ Help of mining engineers may be required to demarcate
the abandoned mines of the area.
⚫ While designing the foundation in the mining area or its
nearby area, precautions should be taken specially in case
of heavy building installations.
⚫ Deep foundations and well foundations are generally
recommended in such areas.
⚫ While constructing a building at a hill slope, proper study and
investigation should be carried out to identify the
characteristics of underground rocks and their possible
behaviour on loading.
⚫ The building construction in sloppy ground is not
recommended but if it is utmost necessary to construct building
at these places, geological investigation is must needed before
construction.
⚫ While designing buildings in highly seismic zones, the
seismic intensity prescribed must be studied and should be
duly followed while undergoing building construction. The
building foundations in seismic areas should be rested on
hard rocks.