Shallow Foundation

Design
R. Bala Gopal and Dr. S.J.Mohan
Scientists, TTRS
CSIR-Structural Engineering Research Centre,
Chennai.

Introduction
Tower Foundation costs approximately 10 to 30 percent of the cost of
the tower or 5 to 10 percent of the total cost of the transmission lines,
depending upon the type of foundation, the loading on the tower and the
type of soil.
Failures of the tower foundations are the prime cause for the collapse of
the tower than other causes.
Design of tower foundation is challenging due to variety of soil
conditions encountered and the remoteness of the construction sites.
Due to increase in transmission voltage, the loads on the tower
foundation has increased and the risk involved in the construction of
tower foundation has also increased.

Introduction
Foundations for transmission line structures must satisfy the
fundamental criteria such as adequate stability, controlled deformation
and cost effectiveness.
Transmission tower foundations are constructed in hundreds or
thousands along the line route, hence the optimization of the design is
highly desirable.
Foundations for transmission line towers vary from spread footing of
shallow type to deep foundations like piles or anchor foundation
depending on the uplift of foundation and the geological conditions of the
soil.
Design of safe and economical foundation is based on knowledge of soil
structure interaction data and settlement analysis of tower foundation.

Types of Loads on Foundations

The tower foundations are subjected to the following types of forces.
Compression or Downward thrust.
Tension or Uplift.
Lateral force or side thrust.
Overturning Moment.

Basic Design Requirements

Foundations should be strong and stable such that it take care of all
loads such as dead loads, live loads, seismic loads, erection loads etc.,
causing vertical thrust, uplift as well as horizontal reactions.
For satisfactory performance, the foundations should be able to transmit
all these forces to the soil such that the limit soil bearing capacities are
not exceeded.
Some of the basic design requirements are
Safety factors
Tower deflection due to foundation settlement.
Lateral Deflection of the Foundation.

Basic Design Requirements

Safety Factors.
The overload factors assumed in the designs are 2.5 under
normal conditions and under broken wire conditions.

Tower deflection due to foundation settlement.

The permissible deflection due to foundation settlement f
shall be less than (H/140 - s)
Lateral Deflection of the Foundation.
The lateral deflection of the foundation is limited to 12 mm,
in accordance with IS 2911 1979 relating to pile
foundations.

Vv
Vs

Vv
Vs

Vv
V

d = Gw /(1+e)

n
1 n

e
1 e

s = d (1+ w)

eS = wG

Soil with cohesion (c) and

angle of internal friction

Soil with () only

Soil with (c) only

Coarse soil

Fine grained

() uniformly graded

Shear strength of soils

Geological soil profile

Soil parameters
Bearing Capacity of soil.
Density of soil.

Angle of Earth Frustum.

Unconfined Compressive Strength Cu and Cohesion C
for clayey soil.
Poissons ratio.
Compressive strength of rocks ().
Ultimate bond strength of rock anchor interface ().

Soil parameters to be considered in Foundation Design

S. No

Type of Soil

1.

Normal Dry Soil.

a) With Undercut.
b) Without Undercut.

Angle of
Earth
frustrum
(Degrees)

Unit Weight of
Soil (Kg / mm3)

Limit
Bearing
Capacity
(Kg / mm3)

30
30

1,440
1,600

25,000
25,000

2.

Wet Soil due to presence of sub soil

water / surface water.

15

940

12,500

3.

Black Cotton Soil

a) In Dry Condition.
b) In Wet Condition.

0
0

1,440
940

12,500
12,500

4.

Sandy Soil.
a) With Clay content 0 - 5%
b) With Clay content 5 - 10%

10
20

1,440
1,440

25,000
25,000

5.

Fissured Rock / Soft Rock.

a) In dry condition
b) In wet condition.

20
10

1,700
940

62,500
62,500

6.

Hard Rock.

7.

Normal Hard Dry Soil (Murrum )

with under cut.

30

1,600

1,25,000

40,000

Types of Foundation

Pad and Chimney Foundation

Steel Grillage Foundation
Concrete Spread Footing
Precast Foundation
Raft Foundation

Pad and Chimney Foundation

Steel Grillage Foundation

Concrete Spread Footing

Precast Foundation

Raft Foundation

Design Procedure for Foundation

The design procedure of Foundation consists of two parts
Stability Analysis

Check for Bearing Capacity.

Check for Uplift Resistance.
Check for Side thrust.
Check for Over-turning.
Check for Sliding.

Structural Design of Foundation

Structural Design of Chimney.
Structural Design of Base Slab.

Theory of bearing capacity

Shear failure of
punch and dye

Theory of shallow foundation

Bearing Capacity Calculations

(a) Bearing Capacity of Shallow Foundation
Case 1: General Shear Failure

1
qu CN c sc d cic q( N q 1) sq d qiq BN r sr d r ir w'
2
Case 2: Local Shear Failure

qu

2
1
CN c' sc d c ic q ( N q' 1) sq d q iq BN r' sr d r ir w'
3
2

N c' , N q' , N r' , N , N , N are bearing capacity factors,

c
q r
sc , sq , sr are shape factors,
d c , d q , d r are depth factorsand
ic , iq , ir are inclinatio n factors.

Check for Bearing pressure

The maximum toe pressure p on the soil is determined from
the equation
W M
p 2 t
B Zt

Ml

Z
l

where
W is totalvertcaldown thrust including over weigh t of footing.
B is the base dimension of the footing.
M t , M l are momentsat thebase about transverse and
longitudin al axis of the footing.
Z t , Z l are the section modulus of the footing.

The maximum p on the soil shall not exceed the limit bearing
capacity of the soil.

Concrete Spread Footing

Check for Uplift Resistance

(a) Vertical Surface Theory.
The shear resistance along the sides of the cylinder is calculated
and added to the dead weight of the soil and the footing.
(b) 300 Cone Theory.

The dead weight within the frustum is considered to provide

resistance against uplift. The cone method is conservative only for
shallow foundations.

Uplift Soil Resistance for Rectangular Footings

(a) Shallow Foundation (Rectangular Footing)

Uplift Resistance Tu 2CD B L D 2 2 s f B L B K u tan W

(b) Deep Foundation (Rectangular Footing)
Uplift Resistance Tu 2CH B L 2 D H 2s f B L B HK u tan W

where
B, L, D are dimensions of footing.
mD
Shape factor s f 1
for shallow foundation and
B
mH
s f 1
for deep foundation.
B

K u K p tan and K p tan2 45

2
3

Check for Uplift Resistance

The ultimate resistance to uplift is given by

UR Ws W f
where
Ws is the weight of soil in frustrum of cone.
Wf is the buoyant weight / overload of foundation .
Note: The location of the ground water table has to be taken into
account, depending upon the type of foundation i.e., dry or wet or
partially submerged or fully submerged.

Calculation of Volume of soil in Frustrum of Cone

Volume of upper portion of soil.

A1 B 2 4 * B * H L * tan * H L2 tan2

A2 B 2 4 * B * H L * tan H U * tan * H L * tan H U * tan 2

HU
A1 A2 A1 * A2
3
Volume of lower portion of soil.

VU

VL B 2 * H L 2 * B * H L2 * tan 1 3 * * H L3 * tan2

Calculation of Weight of soil (Ws) in Frustrum of Cone

Calculation of buoyant weight / overload of foundation

 Soil uplift resistance becomes the decisive factor for the

selection of type of footing in case of self supporting towers.
Uplift resistance is provided by the shear strength of the
surrounding soil and the weight of the foundation.

Angle of earth frustrum for calculating the uplift resistance is

generally taken as 2/3rd of the angle of internal friction.
Apart from the soil properties, uplift resistance is affected by
the degree of compaction and the ground water table.
In case of under cut type of foundation, the resistance to uplift
is greater than the identical footing without under cut.
In cases where frustrum of earth pyramid of two adjoining legs
superimpose each other, the earth frustrum will be assumed by
a vertical plane passing through the centre line of the tower
base.

Check for Side Thrust

K p HB

1 Sin
Kp
1 Sin

In case of tower with inclined stub angle with diagonal bracing, the
shear force is equal to the horizontal component of the force in the
diagonal bracings.

In case of towers with vertical footings, the horizontal load on the tower
will be divided equally between the number of leg.

The shear force causes bending stresses in the unsupported length of

the stub angle as well as the chimney and tends to overturn the
foundation

Due to lateral load, the chimney will act as a cantilever beam free at the
top and fixed at the base and supported by the soil along its height.

Hence the chimney has to be designed for bending moment combined

with down thrust / uplift.

The stability of a footing under lateral load will be dependent upon the
amount of passive pressure mobilized in the adjoining soil as well as
the structural strength of the footing in transmitting the load to the soil.

Check for Over - turning

Stability of foundation against overturning under the
combined action of uplift and horizontal shears may be
checked by the following criteria.
The foundation over-turns at the toe.
The weight of the footing acts at the centre of the base.
The part of the earth cone which stands over the heel causes the

stabilising moment. For design purpose, half the weight of the

cone of earth acting at the base is taken and it is assumed to act
through the tip of the heel.

For stability of foundation against overturning,

Stabilising Moment > Overturning Moment

Check for settlement

(2) Consolidat ion settlement.
C
p p
S c c H c log10 0
1 e0
p0

(1) Immediate settlement.

1 2

S i I p qB
E
s
where
I p - influence factor for settlement.

where
Cc - Compression Index
e0 initial void ratio

q intensity of pressure kg/cm 2

H c Thickness of compressible layer.

Poisson's ratio of the soil.

E s Modulus of elasticity of soil kg/cm

p Pressure due to externalload, kg/cm 2

B Width of foundation, cm.

Maximum Foundation Deflection f

s f ( H / 140)

Structural Design of Chimney

Minimum percentage of steel is based on the area of concrete required to

resist the direct stress and not on the actual area of the chimney with large
cross - sectional area.

Minimum number of longitudinal bars provided in a column shall be four in

square chimney and six in circular chimney.

The bars shall not be less than 12mm in diameter.

Minimum longitudinal reinforcement shall not be less than 0.12% of the

cross-sectional area shall be provided.

Spacing of stirrups shall not be less than the following.

The least lateral dimension of the chimney.
Sixteen times the smallest diameter of the longitudinal bar to be tied.
Forty eight times the diameter of the transverse stirrups/lateral ties.

Diameter of the polygonal links or lateral ties shall not be less than onefourth of the diameter of the largest of the longitudinal bar and in no case
less than 6 mm.

Structural Design of Base Slab

Footings shall be designed to sustain applied loads, moments and
to ensure that the any settlement which may occur may shall be as
uniform as possible and the bearing capacity of the soil is not
exceeded.
Thickness at the edge of the footing shall not be less than 15 cm
(5cm lean concrete plus 10 cm structural concrete). In case of plain
concrete footing, the thickness at the edge of the footing shall not
be less than 5cm.
Bending Moment.
The BM at any section shall be determined by passing through
the section of a vertical plane which extends completely across
the footing and the moment of the forces acting over the entire
area of the above plane.
The greatest BM shall be computed at sections located at (1)
The face of the Chimney, (2) sections where the thickness of the
footing changes.

Structural Design of Base Slab

Shear and Bond.
The shear strength of the footing is governed by the more of the
following conditions.
The footing acts essentially as a wide beam, with potential
diagonal crack extending in a plane across the entire width; the
critical section for this condition shall be assumed as a vertical
section located from the face of the Chimney at a distance equal
to the effective depth of the footing.
Critical Section
The critical section for checking the development length in a
footing shall be assumed in a plane same as those for the
determination of the Bending Moment or at the vertical plane where
abrupt change of sections occur.