ARC 308

Theory of Design of Structures III

Pad Footing
Design – BS
8110
 Learning Outcomes
By the end of this topic, you will be able to:
1. Define an isolated footing stating where it is used.
2. Calculate the plan area of the footing.
3. Calculate the effective depth of the footing.
4. Calculate bearing pressures associated with the
critical loading arrangement for ultimate limit state.
5. Check that the shear stress at the face of the column.
6. Determine the reinforcement areas required to resist
bending using ultimate loads.
7. Check the thickness for two way punching shear.
8. Check the thickness for one way or wide beam shear.
9. Show the reinforcement details.

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 Foundations
 Foundations are required primarily to carry the dead and
imposed loads due to the structure’s floors, beams, walls,
columns, etc. and transmit and distribute the loads safely to
the ground (Fig. 1).

Figure. 1: Loading on Foundations

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 Foundations
 The purpose of distributing the load is to avoid the safe
bearing capacity of the soil being exceeded otherwise
excessive settlement of the structure may occur.
 Foundation failure can produce catastrophic effects on the
overall stability of a structure so that it may slide or even
overturn (Fig. 2). Such failures are likely to have tremendous
financial and safety implications. It is essential, therefore, that
much attention is paid to the design of this element of a
structure.

Figure. 2: Foundation failures:

(a) sliding failure;
(b) overturning failure

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 Types of Foundations
 There are many types of foundations which are commonly
used, namely strip, pad and raft. The foundations may bear
directly on the ground or be supported on piles. The choice
of foundation type will largely depend upon
1) ground conditions (i.e. strength and type of soil) and
2) type of structure (i.e. layout and level of loading).
3) cost of the footing
 Pad footings are usually square or rectangular slabs and used
to support a single column (Fig. 3).

Figure. 3: Pad P
footing: (a) plan; (b)
elevation

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 Types of Foundations
 The pad may be constructed using mass concrete or
reinforced concrete depending on the relative size of the
loading.
 Continuous strip footings are used to support loadbearing
walls or under a line of closely spaced columns (Fig. 4).

Figure. 4: Strip footings: (a) footing supporting columns; (

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 Types of Foundations
 Strip footings are designed as pad footings in the transverse
direction and in the longitudinal direction as an inverted
continuous beam subject to the ground bearing pressure.
 Where the ground conditions are relatively poor, a raft
foundation may be necessary in order to distribute the loads
from the walls and columns over a large area. In its simplest
form this may consist of a flat slab, possibly strengthened by
upstand or downstand beams for the more heavily loaded
structures (Fig. 5).

Figure. 5: Raft foundations. Typical sections through raft foundation: (a)

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7 flat slab; (b) flat slab and downstand; (c) flat slab and upstand.
 Types of Foundations
 Where the ground conditions are so poor that it is not
practical to use strip or pad footings but better quality soil is
present at lower depths, the use of pile foundations should be
considered (Fig. 6).

Figure. 5: Piled foundations

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 Types of Foundations
 The piles may be made of precast reinforced concrete,
prestressed concrete or in-situ reinforced concrete.
 Loads are transmitted from the piles to the surrounding strata
by end bearing and/or friction.
 End bearing piles derive most of their carrying capacity from
the penetration resistance of the soil at the toe of the pile,
while friction piles rely on the adhesion or friction between the
sides of the pile and the soil.

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 Foundation Design
 Foundation failure may arise as a result of (a) allowable
bearing capacity of the soil being exceeded, or (b) bending
and/or shear failure of the base.
 The first condition allows the plan-area of the base to be
calculated, being equal to the design load divided by the
bearing capacity of the soil, i.e.

𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛 𝐿𝑜𝑎𝑑
𝐺𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 = < 𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑆𝑜𝑖𝑙
𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎

 Base Areas: Since the settlement of the structure occurs during

its working life, the design loadings to be considered when
calculating the size of the base should be taken as those for
the serviceability limit state (i.e. 1.0Gk + 1.0Qk).

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 Foundation Design
 The calculations to determine the strength of the foundation,
that is the thickness of the base and the areas of bending
and shear reinforcement which depend on resultant ground
pressures, should be based on ultimate loads (i.e. l.4Gk +
1.6Qk).

 In this section, we shall design a pad footing only.

 It should be borne in mind that in most design cases, the
design process would be similar to that for beams and slabs.

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 Pad Footing Design - Steps
The general procedure to be adopted for the design of
pad footings is as follows:
1. Calculate the plan area of the footing using
serviceability loads and the bearing capacity of the
soil – assume a suitable footing self weight.
2. Calculate the effective depth (d) of the footing -
assume a suitable overall depth and a bar
diameter.
3. Calculate bearing pressures associated with the
critical loading arrangement for ultimate limit state.
4. Check that the shear stress at the face of the
column (face shear) is less than 5 N/mm2 or 0.8√fcu,
whichever is smaller.

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 Pad Footing Design - Procedure
5. Determine the reinforcement areas required to
resist bending using ultimate loads (Figure 16).
6. Check the thickness for two way punching shear,
assuming a probable value for the ultimate shear
stress, 𝑣𝑐 from the critical shear table (Figure 16 (d)
and Table 4).
7. Check the thickness for one way or wide beam
shear at its critical sections (Figure 16(e) and Table
4).
8. Show the reinforcement details (Figure 12).

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 Pad Footing Design
Values of design concrete shear stress, 𝜐𝑐 (N/mm2) for fcu=25 N/mm2
concrete (Table 3.8, BS 8110)

For characteristic strengths other than 25 Nmm−2, the design concrete shear stress,
νc, can be determined by multiplying the values in this table by the factor (fcu/25)1/3.
The values in the table are in terms of the percentage area of longitudinal tension
reinforcement (100𝐴𝑠/𝑏𝑑 ) and effective depth of the section (𝑑).
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 Pad Footing Design - Bending

h (a) Elevation

Load on shaded area to be

used in the design of bending
L (b) Plan reinforcement.

(c) Critical section for bending

B at the face of the column
(Clause 3.11.2.2 BS8110).
𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 = 𝐵𝑥𝐿

Figure 6: Critical section for bending at the face of the column

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 Pad Footing Design - Shear
1.0d
1.5d
face
1.5d shear

beam shear
Punching shear
perimeter =column Load on shaded area to be used
perimeter+8×1.5d in the design of shear
Load on shaded area to reinforcement.
be used in the design of
shear reinforcement.
(e) Critical sections for one way or
(d) Critical section for two way or beam shear and face shear.
punching shear

Figure 6: Critical section for (d) punching shear at 1.5d and (e) wide
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16 beam shear at 1.0d from the face of the column
 Pad Footing Design – Example 1
Example 1. Design of a pad footing (BS 8110)
A 400 mm square column carries a dead load (Gk) of 1050 kN and
imposed load (Qk) of 300 kN. The safe bearing capacity of the soil is 170
kN/m2. Design a square pad footing to resist the loads assuming the
following material strengths:
fcu = 35 N/mm2 fy = 500 N/mm2

Axial Load:
Dead = 1050 kN
Imposed = 300 kN

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 Pad Footing Design – Example 1
Cross-sectional areas of group of bars (mm2)

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 Pad Footing Design – Example 1
Values of design concrete shear stress, 𝜐𝑐 (𝑁/𝑚𝑚2) for 𝑓𝑐𝑢 = 25 𝑁/
𝑚𝑚2 concrete (Table 3.8, BS 8110)

For characteristic strengths other than 25 Nmm−2, the design concrete shear stress,
νc, can be determined by multiplying the values in this table by the factor (fcu/25)1/3.
The values in the table are in terms of the percentage area of longitudinal tension
reinforcement (100𝐴𝑠/𝑏𝑑 ) and effective depth of the section (𝑑).
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 Pad Footing Design
Example 2. Design of a pad footing (BS 8110)
The footing is required to resist characteristic axial loads of
1000 𝑘𝑁 dead and 350 𝑘𝑁 imposed from a 400 𝑚𝑚 square
column. The safe bearing pressure on the soil is 200 𝑘𝑁/𝑚2 and
the characteristic material strengths are 𝑓𝑐𝑢 = 35 𝑁/𝑚𝑚2 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑦 =
460 𝑁/𝑚𝑚2. Design a square pad footing to resist the loads.

Axial Load: Dead = 1000 kN

Imposed = 350 kN

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 Assignment
A column 400 mm x 400 mm carries a dead load of
800 kN and an imposed load of 300 kN. The safe
bearing pressure is 200 kN/m2. Design a square base
to resist the loads. The concrete is grade 35 and the
reinforcement is grade 460.

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 The End

Any Questions?

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