CE 421 Md.

Hasan Imam
Earth Retaining Structures Assistant Professor, CE, UITS

Caisson:
Definition:

The name 'caisson' is French and is to be translated as a 'large chest', which refers
to the general shape of caissons.

In civil engineering a caisson could be defined as a retaining watertight case (or

box) made of wood, steel, RCC in connection with excavation for foundation of
bridges, piers in rivers, dock structures.

Use of Caisson:

1. Bridges piers and abutments in rivers lakes etc.

2. Wharves, quay walls, docks
3. Break waters and other structures for shore protection.
4. Larges water front structures such as pump houses subjected to heavy
vertical and horizontal loads.

Required condition for Caisson:

1. If the soil contains large boulders which obstruct penetration of piles or

drilled piers
2. When a massive substructures is required to extend to or below the river bed
to provide resistance against destructive forces due to floating objects, sand
scour etc.
3. When the foundation is subjected to large lateral forces.

Types of caisson:

Caissons are large size prismatic or cylindrical shells which are built deep into the
ground or water to support heavy loads.

Depending on the method of installation the caissons may be of three types,

namely

(i) open caisson

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CE 421 Md. Hasan Imam
Earth Retaining Structures Assistant Professor, CE, UITS

(ii) Box caisson or floating caisson. And

(iii) Pneumatic caisson.

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CE 421 Md. Hasan Imam
Earth Retaining Structures Assistant Professor, CE, UITS

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CE 421 Md. Hasan Imam
Earth Retaining Structures Assistant Professor, CE, UITS

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CE 421 Md. Hasan Imam
Earth Retaining Structures Assistant Professor, CE, UITS

Size and shape of the caisson:

The size of the caisson mainly governed by the following factors-

Design load:

A well foundation for a bridge pier is subjected to the following forces:

(a) Dead load (weight of pier/abutment, weight of the well and relevant weight of
bridge structure).

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CE 421 Md. Hasan Imam
Earth Retaining Structures Assistant Professor, CE, UITS

(b) live load (all superimposed. vertical load including traffic load),
(c) wind force,
(d) forces due to water currents.
(e) forces due to tractive effect of vehicles. braking force and/or those caused by
restraint to movement of bearings,
(f) centrifugal forces in case the well is located on a curve,
(g) buoyancy,
(h) earth pressure,
(i) temperature stress, and
U) seismic forces
Normally three combinations or the forces are considered for stability analysis
which are grouped as
1. N case-All forces except temperature and seismic forces.

2. (N + T) case-All forces including temperature except seismic forces.

3. (N + T + S) case :All forces including temperature and seismic forces.

Skin friction:
Unit skin friction:
For clay soil fs = α c ;
where, α = adhesion factor ( 0.45 to 0.5)
For Sandy soil, fs = k q tanδ
Where, k = 1- sinϕ
.δ =soil- pile interface angle (0.5 ϕ to 0.8 ϕ)
Typical skin friction of different soil-

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CE 421 Md. Hasan Imam
Earth Retaining Structures Assistant Professor, CE, UITS

Bearing Capacity:

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CE 421 Md. Hasan Imam
Earth Retaining Structures Assistant Professor, CE, UITS

Concrete seal:

Example Problem on Caisson:

Q.: A caisson foundation shown in the following figure. Will the caisson be self
sinking? If not self sinking then determine the following

a) the required amount of ballast.

b) the thickness for self sinking.

Also check its sufficiency against bearing capacity failure.

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CE 421 Md. Hasan Imam
Earth Retaining Structures Assistant Professor, CE, UITS

Solution:

Submerged weight of caisson:

Volume of concrete = ( )

So submerged weight of caisson = ( )

Skin friction:

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CE 421 Md. Hasan Imam
Earth Retaining Structures Assistant Professor, CE, UITS

Check for bearing capacity:

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CE 421 Md. Hasan Imam
Earth Retaining Structures Assistant Professor, CE, UITS

For

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