Introduction To Foundation Engineering

Introduction to Foundation Engineering

 A structure is consist of two parts: super
structure and substructure.
 Super Structure is above the plinth of level
 Substructure is below the plinth level
 Substructure or foundation transmits the load
from the superstructure to the underlying soil
or rock
 Foundation Engineering is the art of
selecting, designing and constructing
structural support based on principles of soil
and mechanics
Foundation Engineering through the years
 Early foundation designs were based on precedent, intuition, and
common sense
 Empirical rules usually produced acceptable results as long as they were
applied to structures and soil conditions similar to those encountered in
the past
 The results were often disastrous when builders extrapolated the rules to
new conditions.
Foundation Engineering through the years
 By 19th century, new approaches of building construction were introduced
 Steel and reinforced concrete paved way from rigid masonry structures to
more flexible and rigid frame.
 New materials also permitted buildings to be taller and heavier than
before
 Good sites became occupied, builders were forced to consider sites with
poorer soil conditions.
Foundation Engineering through the years
 Eiffel Tower, Paris, France, built in 1887-1889
 Adjacent to a river
 Difficult soil condition (uncompacted fill and alluvial deposits)
 Pier of nearby bridge settled nearly 1-meter

 Named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company

designed and built the tower.
 Eiffel devised a new way of exploring the soils, which consisted
of driving 200-mm diameter pipe filled with compressed air.
Foundation Engineering through the years
 The foundation of the Eiffel tower needed to carry a load of about 10,000
tons
 Eiffel placed the foundations for the two legs furthest from the river on
the shallow but firm alluvial soils. The bottom of these foundations were
above GWT
 He made the foundations for the other two legs much deeper so they too
were founded on firm soils. This required 12m-excavation below the
ground surface (6m below GWT).
 “Structural engineering is the art and science of molding
materials we do not fully understand into shapes we cannot
precisely analyze to resist forces we cannot accurately predict, all
in such a way that the society at large is given no reason to
suspect the extent of our ignorance… ”
Uncertainties in Foundation Engineering
 Limited knowledge of soil conditions
 Limitations in our understanding of the interaction between a foundation
and a soil
 Difficulty in the prediction of the actual service loads that will act on the
foundation
 Past land use activities in the soil
 Engineers use factors of safety to account for the uncertainties in the
design
Rational and Empirical in Foundation Building Codes
Engineering NSCP – Buildings
 Designing foundation will require the NSCP – Bridges
UBC
use of both rational and empirical
ACI (American Concrete Institute)
techniques AASHTO
 Rational techniques are those developed
from the principles of physics and
engineering sciences
 Empirical techniques are based
primarily on experimental data
 Types of foundation:

FOUNDATIONS

SHALLOW FOUNDATIONS DEEP FOUNDATIONS

SPREAD MAT PILES CAISSONS PILE SUPPORTED

FOOTINGS FOUNDATIONS AND
PILE ENHANCED MAT

DRIVEN DRILLED AUGER OTHER

PILES SHAFTS PILES TYPES
 Types of Footings
 Wall footing or strip footing is a continuous strip of concrete that
supports a bearing wall, cantilevering out on each side of the wall
 Spread or square footings are pads that distribute the column load in two
directions to an area of soil around the column
 Rectangular footings are used to support loads on a single column where
there are boundary condition
 Combined footings are used to support more than one heavily loaded
columns.
 Cantilever or strap footing which is really two footings joined by a beam.
 Types of Footings

 Mat Foundation is a single mat or slab the supports the entire

structure. This type of foundation is frequently used with poor
soil conditions to equalize deformation.
 Pile Foundation – if a soil has insufficient bearing capacity then
it is necessary to use pile to transmit the load deeper to firmer
stratum
 Pile Caps are used to distribute column loads to group of piles
 Requirements for Foundation
 Loads must be carried by a foundation system would include the dead
load of the building and live load of its occupants and contents
 Foundation system must resist lateral loads from both ground pressure
and wind, and provide anchorage for the building superstructure against
uplift and reckoning force
 The most critical factor is the type and bearing capacity of the soil to
which the building loads are distributed
 Stability of excavation
 Economical considerations
 Strength conditions of footings
 Bearing from column on top of footing
 Dowels into the footing
 Strength of soil beneath the footing
 Shear Strength
 Reinforcement Provided
 Development length
Transcosna Grain Elevator Canada
(Oct. 18, 1913)
Leaning Tower, Pisa, Italy
Built 1173-1350
Palacio de las Bellas Artes, Mexico City
Built 1932-1934
SHALLOW FOUNDATION ANALYSIS
 Bearing Pressure
• It is the pressure along the bottom of the foundation
• Various research and field measurements have shown that
bearing pressure might not necessarily be uniformly
distributed underneath the foundation
• Factors that influence the distribution:
• Eccentricity of load
• Magnitude of applied moment
• Structural Rigidity of the foundation
• Stress-strain behavior of the soil
 Bearing Pressure
 oThe bearing pressure (q) at the bottom of  o The bearing pressure (q) at the
shallow foundation: bottom of continuous footing:

𝑷
    𝒃

𝒃
  𝑩 
Example:
  
The 5-ft square footing supports a column load of 100 kips. Compute
the bearing pressure
Example:

A  400 kN vertical downward column load acts at the centroid of a



1.5-m square footing. The bottom of this footing is 0.4m below the
ground surface and the top is flash with the ground surface. The
groundwater table is at a depth of 3 m below the ground surface.
Compute the bearing pressure.
Solution:
  
Example:

A  0.7m
 wide continuous footing supports a wall load of 110kN/m. The
bottom of this footing is at a depth of 0.5m below the adjacent ground
surface and the soil has a unit weight of 17.5kN/m3. The gwt is at a depth
of 10m below the ground surface. Compute the bearing pressure. Assume
footing thickness is 0.3m.
Solution:
  

𝑷
 𝒃

𝒃
  𝑩 
 Net Bearing Pressure
  
Net bearing pressure (q’) is the difference between the gross bearing
pressure, q, and the initial vertical effective stress, 𝜎′, at depth D

Net bearing pressure is the increase in vertical effective stress at depth D

Example:
The
   mat foundation in figure is to be 50m wide, 70m long, and 1.8m thick. The sum of
the column and wall loads is 805MN. Compute the average bearing pressure, then
compare it with the initial vertical effective stress in the soil immediately below the
mat.
Solution:
  
Solution:
  
Foundation with eccentric or moment loads
• Most foundations are built so the vertical load
acts through the centroid, thus producing a fairly
uniform distribution of bearing pressure

• However, it is also necessary to accommodate

loads that act through other points

• Eccentric loads produce a non-uniform bearing

pressure distribution
 Foundation with eccentric or moment loads
•
   Spread Footing:
For

 For Continuous Footing:

 Foundation with eccentric or moment loads
•
   Spread Footing:
For

 For Continuous Footing:

 One-way loading (if eccentricity occur only in the B direction)
 bearing pressure distribution is approximated to be linearly distributed underneath the foundation
depending on the value of e.

  𝑃 +𝑊 𝑓 6𝑒   𝑃 +𝑊 𝑓 6𝑒
𝑞 𝑚𝑖𝑛 = ( 𝐴
− 𝑢𝐷 )( 1−
𝐵 ) 𝑞 𝑚 𝑎𝑥 =( 𝐴
−𝑢𝐷 )( 1+
𝐵 )
 One-way loading (if eccentricity occur only in the B direction)
• If e>B/6 as shown, there would be no contact
pressure in some section of the base area

• This will cause excessive tilting

• Therefore foundations with eccentricity

should satisfy e≤ B/6
 Two-way eccentric loading (if eccentricity occur both in the B and L
directions)
 
• for the contact pressure to be compressive along the entire base of the footing the following

condition should be met:

• If satisfied:
Example:
The 5-ft wide continuous footing is subjected to a concentric vertical load of 12k/ft and
a moment load of 8 ft-k/ft acting laterally across the footing. The ground water table is
at a great depth. Determine whether the resultant force on the base of the footing
acts within the middle third and compute the maximum and minimum bearing
pressure.
Solution:
  

 
Example:
The mat foundation shown will support four grain silos. These are cylindrical structures used to store
grains. Each of the silos has an empty weight of 29MN, and can hold up to 110MN of grain. The mat has
a weight of 60MN. Since each silo is filled independently, the resultant load imposed on the mat does
not necessarily act through the centroid. Evaluate the various loading conditions and determine whether
eccentric loading requirements will be met. If these requirements are not met, determine the minimum
mat width B, needed to satisfy these requirements.
 Solution:
1. Check one – way eccentricity
The greatest one – way eccentricity occurs when two adjacent silos are full, and
the other two are empty.
 
Solution:
2. Check two – way eccentricity
The greatest two – way eccentricity occurs when one silos is full and the other three are
empty.
 
Solution:
Revised
   Design:
Example:
A  bearing
 wall carries a dead load of 5.0 k/ft and a live load of 3.0 k/ft. it is
supported on a 3 ft wide, 2 ft deep continuous footing. The top of this is flush
with the ground surface and the ground water table is a depth of 35 ft below the
ground surface. Compute the bearing pressure.

Solution: