SHALLOW FOUNDATIONS

Compiled by
Prof. G.PANNEERSELVAM
TPGIT, Vellore.
 Depth and location of foundation
On economic consideration depth of foundation is kept as
small as possible in the range of 0.5 m to 1.5 m below
ground level for buildings that do not have basement and
3.5 m or more for that with basement. Selection of depth
(Df) depends upon:
1. Presence of loose fill.
2. Zone of significant volume changes in soil.
3. Ground water table
4. Scour
5. Adjacent structures and property lines.
6. Underground defects
7. Sloping ground
8. Miscellaneous
Presence of LOOSE Fill:
One may often encounter pockets of loose fill of
recently dumped soil or construction waste at or near the
ground surface. Foundations are located at depth below
such fills.
Zone of significant volume changes in soil:
 In cold regions due to change in temperature , the soils
near the ground surface go through a cycles of freezing
and thawing with consequent changes in soil volume which
affect the foundations laid with in this zone.(Zone of
freezing)
 Similarly at shallow depth clays having high plasticity
shrink and swell considerably upon drying and wetting
respectively.(Zone of swelling)
 The foundations laid with in this zones will be affected by
abnormal stresses due to uplift and settlement.
 Hence The depth of foundation should be more than the
thickness of these zones .
ground water table:
Where ever possible foundations are not placed
below the ground water level to avoid expensive de-
watering costs during foundation construction.
Generally submergence of foundation reduce
bearing capacity of supporting soil and it should be
avoided .
So the depth (Df) must be selected suitably to avoid
such problems.
Scour:
Foundations of river crossing structures placed
below the river bed are susceptible for scour when
velocity of water in the river is high during flood . The
depth of foundation must be more than the anticipated
deepest ‘scour depth’
 Adjacent structures and property lines:
 Generally the foundation for a new structures should
not cross the property line and encroach the
neighbour’s site which leads to legal problem.
 To avoid damage to an existing structure, the
foundation for a new structure at an adjacent site
should be located well away . The adjacent edge of the
new footing must be at least a distance ‘s’ from the
edge of the existing footing where ‘s’ is the width of
the larger footing. The line from the edge of new
footing should make an angle of 45º or less with
horizontal plane
Part beyond property line 450 Existing Footing
Limit for bottom of
deeper Footing

Property line
 When new footing is placed lower than an old
footing, the existing structure may be endangered
because of the lateral flow of soil beneath the
existing footing. Therefore the excavation must
not be too close to the existing footing. Provision
of suitable bracing system for the sides of the
excavation will be an effective solution to the
problem
GL

300 Old footing

New footing on average soil
450

New footing on poor soil

S
Sloping ground:
 When the ground surface slopes downward adjacent to a
footing, the sloping surface should not encroach upon a frustum
of bearing material under the footing having sides which make
an angle of 60º with horizontal for rocks and 30º for soil slopes.
Also the horizontal distance from the lower edge of the footing
to the sloping surface shall be at least 60 cm and for rock and 90
cm for soil.

s
S 60cm in rock or
90 cm in soil 1
2
 For footings in granular soil, the line joining the lower edges of
adjacent footings should not have a slope steeper than 1:2.
Where as in clay soils the slope of the line joining lower edges
of upper footing and upper edge of lower footing should not be
steeper than 1:2
Underground defects:
Footing location is generally affected by
underground defects such as faults, caves, mines,
cavities etc. Construction must be avoided or it
must penetrate below such defects.
Construction above the sewer lines, underground
cables and utilities must be avoided

Miscellaneous:
Generally the construction closer
to the River reach , Railway line , Highway , Sea
shore , Tanks and other water bodies should be
avoided.
SUPER STRUCTURES
We the Civil Engineers construct many types
of structures to serve various needs of the
society or individual and these includes Buildings,
Dams, Bridges, Roads, Railways, Ports etc. All
these are above the ground level and visible. They
are often called
“Super Structures”
 UNDER GROUND STRUCTURES

Civil Engineers also construct structures that

are located below the ground such as Pipelines,
Tunnels, Shelters, Basements, Bunkers, Silos,
Sump etc. They are known as

“Underground Structures”
SUB-STRUCTURES
 All the structures apply the load on the soil (or
rock) on which they rest.
 If Superstructures were to be placed directly on
the soil, it would usually be over stressed and would
not be able to safely support them. To enable the
load to be transferred safely to the soil these
super structures and the soil are linked by Sub-
Structures which are invariably below ground level
and are not visible.
 WHAT IS FOUNDATION ?

GL GL

2 weak
soil
Supporting
GL Soil/Rock bed rock

R
o
a
d
 SUB WAY &Tunnel

Retai
ning
wall
Roa
d
Trai
n
 SUPERSTRUCTURE, SUBSTRUCTURE &
Foundation
 The part of the visible structure above the
ground level is known as Superstructure.

 The part of the structure hidden below the

ground level and not visible to the eye is
known as Sub-Structure.

 The sub-Structure and the supporting soil or

rock stratum put together is known as
FOUNDATION
 FOUNDATION
 The lower most part of the
structure which transmits the load
of the superstructure , on a wide
area to the underlying Soil or Rock
strata without detrimental (without
causing any shear failure or
excessive settlement)to the
structure is called foundation.
 TYPES OF FOUNDATIONS
 SHALLOW FOUNDATIONS:
The foundations which are
laid at a lesser depth are known as
shallow foundation.
 DEEP FOUNDATION:
The foundations which are
laid at a greater depth are known as
deep foundation.
TYPES OF SHALLOW FOUNDATIONS
 Spread Footings/Individual column
footing/Isolated footing (Square, Circular,
Rectangular)
 Continuous Footings,
 Strip raft ,
 Ring foundation
 Combined Footings(Rectangular,
Trapezoidal and Strap Footing)
 Mat or Raft Foundations ( Uniform mat,
Thickened mat , Ribbed mat, Cellular mat ,
Rigid frame mat, Pile supported mat &
Floating mat
Mat Foundations
 DEEP FOUNDATIONS

When do Use Deep Foundations?

• Upper soils are weak, structural loads are
high; Area required for spread footings are
too large
• Upper Soils are subjected to scour/
undermining
• Foundation must penetrate through water(oss)
• Need to support large uplift load or moment
• Need to support large lateral loads
TYPES OF DEEP FOUNDATIONS
• Piles – Prefabricated Members
driven into ground
• Drilled Shafts – Drill Cylindrical
Hole and insert reinforcing & fill
with concrete
• Caissons – Prefabricated box or
cylinder sunk into ground and
filled with concrete
Drilled Shaft Foundations
• Also called:
Piers
Drilled Piers
Bored Piles
Cast-in-place Piles
Caissons
Drilled Caissons
 26
Drilled Shaft Construction
 27
Drilled Shaft Construction
 28
Drilled Shaft Construction using Casing
• Construction in Caving soils (using casing)
Drill the hole as before until the caving
soil stratum is encountered.
Insert casing through the caving soil
stratum.
Drill through the caving soil stratus
(inside the casing) into non-caving soil.
Place reinforcement and concrete and
then extract casing.
 29
Drilled Shaft Construction using Casing
 30
Drilled Shaft Construction using Casing
 31
Caisson Foundation
 OTHER TYPES OF DEEP
FOUNDATIONS
 Mandrel driven shells – Thin corrugated
steel shells driven into ground and filled
with concrete.
 Auger Cast Piles – Drill a slender
cylindrical hole with hollow-stem auger
and then pump grout through auger hole
while auger is slowly retracted.
Pressure Injected Footings – Cast in place
concrete that is rammed into the soil
using a drop hammer.
 Foundation Engineering
 In a broad sense, foundation engineering
is the art of selecting, designing and
constructing the elements that transfer
the weight of structure to the
underlying soil or rock safely without
detrimental to the structure.
 The role of an engineer is to select the
suitable type of foundation, to design
safe and economical foundation and to
supervise the quality of construction .
REQUIREMENTS OF GOOD FOUNDATION

For a satisfactory performance and to serve

the need and function for which the whole
structure is built , a foundation must satisfy the
following three basic criteria:
1. Location and depth criterion : A foundation
must be properly located and founded at such a
depth and location that its performance is not
adversely affected by factors such as lateral
expulsion soil, seasonal volume change ,
presence of adjoining structures.
REQUIREMENTS OF GOOD FOUNDATION
2. Bearing capacity criterion: A foundation must be
safe against shear strength failure or soil rupture.
An adequate factor of safety must be provided to
preclude bearing capacity failure.

3. Settlement criterion: The settlement of a

foundation, especially the differential settlement ,
must be within the permissible limit. Excessive
settlement may affect the utility of the
structure , spoil appearance of the structure and
in some cases , may even cause damage to the
structure.
 BEARING CAPACITY - TERMS
1)The total pressure (qg) at the base of the footing due to
the weight of the superstructure, self weight of the
footing and the weight of soil fill over the footing is
known as gross pressure or the gross
loading intensity, qg.
2)The difference between the gross pressure
and the overburden pressure (γD) at the
base of the footing is called the 1
net pressure or the net loading
intensity, qn. GL GL

qn = qg - γ D 2 D

3)The maximum gross intensity of

loading that the soil can support at
the verge of shear failure is
called the ultimate bearing capacity, qu.
 BEARING CAPACITY - TERMS
4) The maximum net intensity of loading that the soil
can support at the verge of shear failure is called
net ultimate bearing capacity qun and is given by the
equation. qun = qg - γ D

5)The maximum net intensity of loading that the soil

can safely support without the risk of shear failure
is known as net safe bearing capacity, qns. It is
obtained by dividing qnu by a factor of safety, F.
Usually , a factor of safety of 2.5 or 3 is used.
qns = qun /F
6)The maximum gross intensity of loading that the
soil can safely support without the risk of shear
failure is known as gross safe bearing capacity, qs .
Thus,
qs = qns + γ D
BEARING CAPACITY - TERMS
7) The maximum net intensity of loading that can
be allowed on the soil without exceeding the
permissible settlement value is known as safe
bearing pressure, qns . No factor of safety is used
when dealing with settlement.
8) The maximum net intensity of loading that can
be imposed on the soil without
i)the possibility of shear failure and
ii)the possibility of excessive settlement
is called allowable bearing capacity qa . Hence, it
is the smaller of the net safe bearing capacity
(shear failure criterion) and safe bearing pressure
(settlement criterion).
BEARING CAPACITY Theories
Bearing Capacity Failure
 Types/Modes of Failure
General shear failure
 This type of failure occurs in dense and very dense sands
and also in stiff and hard clays. (ID> 65, N > 30, ϕ=36º)
 Stress- strain curve in the triaxial test shows a
pronounced peak and failure occurs at very small strain.
 The soil dialates or expands during shearing
 Failure occurs at small vertical strain accompanied by
large lateral strain. Sinking of base is less than 7%
 A loaded base sinks or tilts suddenly into the ground
showing a surface heave of the adjoining soil along well
defined slip surface.
 Failure zone is well defined.
General shear failure
 Local shear failure
 This type of failure occurs in loose and medium sands medium to
soft clays. (ID= 15 to 65, N= 10 to 30, ϕ <30º)
 Stress- strain curve in the triaxial test shows a no peak and
failure occurs at very small strain.
 Failure occurs with large vertical strain with little or no heave.
 Failure starts at localized spots beneath the foundation and
migrates outwards part by part gradually leading to the ultimate
failure.
 Sinking of base may rang from 15 to 20 % General Shear failure
 The failure zone is difficult to defined

Local shear failure

STRESS
Punching shear failure

STRAIN
LOCAL SHEAR FAILURE
 Punching shear failure
 This type of failure occurs in very loose and soft
saturated clays. In this the loaded base simply
sinks into the ground.
 The vertical movement of the base causes
compression of the underlying soil.
 The sinking progresses , due to shear failure along
the vertical faces around the periphery of the
base.
 The soil beyond the base remains relatively intact.
 The failure neither shows surface heave nor any
evidence of formation of slip surface.
 Large vertical strains are involved with practically
no lateral deformation.
Punching shear failure