Shallow Foundations:

Settlement
CENG442

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Definition
◾ Settlement is the vertically downward movement of
foundation due to the compression of underlying
soil because of increased load.

◾ Maximum Settlement
(Smax) is the absolute maximum
downward movement of any part of a foundation.

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Sources of Settlement
◾ Application of structural loads
◾ Weight of recently placed fill
◾ Falling GWT
◾ Underground mining or tunneling
◾ Formation of sinkholes
◾ Secondary compression of the underlying soil
◾ Lateral movement resulting from nearby excavation
that indirectly cause settlement

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◾ Differential Settlement is the
maximum settlement difference
between two points in a building
element. Differential Settlement
= Smax – Smin
◾ Angular Distortion is another
method of expressing
differential settlement.
• Angular Distortion = Differential
Settlement/Length of element =
(Smax - Smin)/L

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Safe Angular Distortion

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 Components of Settlement

◾ Settlement has three components in

general:
➢ Elastic (immediate) settlement (Si)
➢ Primary consolidation (time dependent)
settlement (Sc)
➢ Secondary consolidation (compression)
settlement (creep) (Ss)

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 Settlements Terms
• Elastic/Immediate Settlement
• The settlement which is caused by the elastic deformation of dry or
moist soils without any change in moisture content.
• Primary Consolidation Settlement
• The time-dependent component of total settlement that results from
the dissipation of excess pore pressure from the soil mass.
• Secondary Settlement
• Secondary compression is the compression of soil that takes place
after primary consolidation. Even after the reduction of hydrostatic
pressure some compression of soil takes place at slow rate. This is
known as secondary compression. Secondary compression is
caused by creep, viscous behavior of the clay-water system,
compression of organic matter, and other processes

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 Consolidation
• Normally consolidated — A condition in which the initial
vertical effective stress is equal to the pre-consolidation
pressure.
• Over consolidated — A condition in which the initial vertical
effective stress is less than the pre-consolidation pressure.
• Pre-consolidation (over consolidation) pressure — The
vertical effective stress that the soil has been experienced in its
geological history.
• Over consolidation ratio — The value of the pre-
consolidation pressure divided by the initial vertical
effective stress.

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• Immediate settlement
• The time-independent component of total settlement that occurs as the load is
applied to the soil.
• Primary compression
• In general, it is the process in which reduction in volume takes place by
expulsion of water under long term static loads.
• Secondary compression
• The time-dependent component of total settlement which occurs after
primary consolidation and results from creep under constant effective
stress.
• Total settlement
• The total vertical displacement of a foundation or earth structure that takes
place after construction.

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Design Requirements
◾ Settlement of a foundation must be less than allowable
total settlement
◾ Differential settlement must be less than allowable
differential settlement
◾s  sa
◾sd  sda
◾ The design must satisfy both of these requirements.

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Tolerable Settlements of Building
• Burland and Wroth (1974) defined some parameters relevant to
foundation settlement that are explained through Figure. The points A,
B, C, D, and E represent points on a raft foundation or isolated pad
foundation that have settled to A’, B’, C’, D’, and E’, respectively. The
definitions of these parameters are as follows:

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European Committee Recommendations

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Bjerrum(1963)
• Bjerrum (1963) recommended the limiting angular distortion, 𝛽𝑚𝑎𝑥for various structures

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Soviet Code of Practice (1955)

L/ H, the ratio of the length to the height of a building

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 Elastic (immediate)
Settlement
Based on the theory of
Elasticity

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Stress-Strain Relationship & Hooke’s Law

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Elastic Settlement on Theory of Elasticity

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Variation of If with Df /B

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 Example
• A flexible shallow foundation 1 m x 2 m is shown
in Figure. Calculate the elastic settlement at the
center of the foundation.

Figure: Elastic settlement

below the center of a foundation
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Elastic settlement of foundation on
saturated clay

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Example

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Solution

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