Design project
SEV200 – Geotechnical investigation and Design
Last update: 09/05/2020
Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 Scenario 1
2.1 Spread footing analysis and design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
3 Site and ground information 4
4 Requirements 4
4.1 Pressure under footings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.2 Proposing an improved design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.3 Cross sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.4 Settlement calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.5 Response to feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.6 Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5 Submission 8
A Boreholes information 9
B Oedometer test results 11
1 Introduction
This assessment task is an individual analysis and design project. It simulates some of the steps
involved in real geotechnical designs for structures.
The aim of this assessment is to help you further develop and demonstrate the following skills:
• Applying soil mechanics principles and theories to analyse stresses and deformations
• Self management and addressing feedback
• Critical thinking and visualisation
• Problem solving through proposing a foundation design
• Report writing
2 Scenario
A greenfield has been investigated for development. There are plans to build a residential area,
a shopping centre and the necessary road network. A schematic figure of the development plan
is shown in Fig. 1.
Figure 1: Schematic figure showing the development plan.
2.1 Spread footing analysis and design
The structural design team has provided you the column loads and their locations for a couple
of structures. Column locations are shown in Fig. 2.
The building footprints shown with shaded light blue areas in Fig. 2 is given so that you can
see which columns belong to which building and have no other significance. The site boundary
in Fig. 2 identifies the geometrical limits on the foundation design.
Table 1 lists the column loads. The load distribution on the wall (W1) is shown in Fig. 3.
Two initial footing designs for these structures are provided as shown in Figs. 4 and 5,
codenamed ID1 and ID2, respectively. As is clear from Fig. 4, ID1 includes a single L-shaped
mat footing, and ID2 includes two rectangular footings.
1
Site boundary
30
28
C13
26
C14
24 C12
B3
22
W1
20
18
16 C11
14
12 C10 C8
10 B2
C4
8 C9
C2
6 B1 C6 C7
C5
4
C1 C3
2
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26
Figure 2: Building footprints and column locations. Grid dimensions are in m.
Table 1: Column loads for columns shown in Fig. 2.
location Vertical load
Column x (m) y (m) F (kN)
C1 2.0 2.0 2000
C2 2.0 6.0 1900
C3 6.0 2.0 1900
C4 8.0 8.0 2800
C5 11.0 4.0 1500
C6 19.0 5.0 1500
C7 23.0 5.0 1900
C8 23.0 11.0 2500
C9 17.0 7.0 1500
C10 17.0 11.0 1900
C11 20.0 15.0 2600
C12 23.0 23.0 2100
C13 19.0 26.0 2500
C14 15.0 24.0 2800
2
00
00
11
11
00
00
10
10
0
70
0
50
50
0
40
40
m
m
14
15
17
18
19
21
22
23
24
Figure 3: Load distribution on the W1 wall. Load intensities shown are in kN/m.
Site boundary
30
28
C13
26
C14
24 C12
22 FX
W1
20
18
16 C11
14
12 C10 C8
10
C4
8 C9
C2
6 C6 C7
C5
4
C1 C3
2
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26
Figure 4: First initial footing design (ID1) for the structures shown in Fig. 2. Another designed
footing outside the site boundary is also shown (FX).
3
Site boundary
30
28
C13
26
C14
24 C12
22 FX
W1
20
18
16 C11
14
12 C10 C8
10
C4
8 C9
C2
6 C6 C7
C5
4
C1 C3
2
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26
Figure 5: Second initial footing design (ID2) for the structures shown in Fig. 2. Another designed
footing outside the site boundary is also shown (FX).
You need to analyse one of the given initial footing designs and propose an improved footing
design for these structures. The main constraints for this design practice are listed in Section
4.2.
It should be noted that this practice is a very simplified and incomplete version of a real
foundation design project. As you will later see in SEV362 – Geotechnical Engineering, in large
projects where you have to calculate the bearing capacity of the soil, the bearing capacity is not
independent of the foundation size.
3 Site and ground information
The site and ground information are provided to you in form of a number of borelogs in Section
A. You will need to combine the borelog information to compile a geological cross section of the
site (see Section 4.3).
The given soil layers include a clay layer on top. This is the same soil you will work on in your
laboratory tests. For consolidation settlement calculations, you need to find the consolidation
parameters of this clay layer. Oedometer test results on this clay layer are provided in Appendix
B using which you can calculated the required consolidation parameters.
4 Requirements
You have to complete the following requirements in this project:
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1. Calculate the foundation pressure under one of the given initial designs, ID1 or ID2 (see
Section 4.1)
2. Propose an improved foundation design (see Section 4.2)
3. Provide a geological cross section of the site (see Section 4.3)
4. Calculate the settlements (see Section 4.4)
5. Respond to feedback and self-reflection (see Section 4.5)
6. Write the final report (see Section 4.6)
These are explained in more details below.
4.1 Pressure under footings
As the first step in this project, you need to calculate the pressure distribution (foundation
pressure) under one of the initial footing designs in Figs. 4 and 5, due to the given column loads
in Fig. 2, Table 1, and Fig. 3.
This part basically involves only statics calculations. To calculate the foundation pressures,
you need to:
1. find the centroids of the given footing
2. find the resultant forces and moments at this centroid
3. calculate the pressure distribution based on the resultant forces
Dedicated studio sessions are scheduled to help you complete this task.
Many other calculations in this project depend on the results of this task. You have the
chance to submit your calculations of this part as a separate submission under the title of Design
project - Interim and receive feedback to correct possible mistakes for your final report. For
further information, see Sections 4.5, 5, and the rubric for this assessment task.
4.2 Proposing an improved design
Analysis of the foundation pressure for the given foundation design can give you insights to
improve the design. Ideally a good design will cause a near uniform pressure distribution on
the foundation. To be able to systematically improve the foundation pressure, it is necessary
to calculate the centre of pressure for each group of columns which are to be placed on a single
footing.
There are few important design requirements that have to be satisfied:
1. You have to use only spread footings. Deep foundations (e.g. piles) are not allowed in this
project.
2. The foundation pressure should not exceed the nominal bearing capacity of the soil which
is 120 kPa.
3. The footings cannot go beyond the given site boundaries.
4. Separate footings should have the minimum distance of 0.5 m from each other. If other
requirements force you to have smaller distances, you have to merge the close footings into
one footing.
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5. The column should have a minimum distance of 0.5 m from the footing edges in all direc-
tions.
You can easily and quickly verify that constraints 1, 3, 4, and 5 are satisfied by both of the initial
designs, ID1 and ID2. You will be able to verify the constraint 2 for the initial design you choose
to work on after completing the task in Section 4.1.
There will be dedicated studio sessions to help you complete this task. Many other calcu-
lations in this project depend on the results of this task. You have the chance to practice on
this task and receive feedback to improve your final report during a dedicated design activity
in week 7 (intensive week). For further information, see Sections 4.5, 5, and the rubric for this
assessment task.
4.3 Cross sections
Borelogs information is provided in Section A. You are required to prepare a geological cross
section of the ground based on these borelogs. You need to prepare the 2-dimensional cross
sections, and provide a brief description of how the geology varies across the site. This brief
written description should include comments on the elevation differences of the ground surface
and the geology.
4.4 Settlement calculations
You have to calculate the total settlement under your proposed design. The total settlement is
the sum of elastic (immediate) and primary consolidation settlement. Secondary consolidation
settlement can also be considered to attract a small bonus mark but is not required in this
project.
You mainly need to calculate the settlements under your own proposed design. However, by
calculating settlements under your chosen initial design and comparing them with settlements
under your proposed design you can compare the two designs in this aspect as well which can
improve your mark as indicated in the “improved design and supporting discussion” section in
the rubric.
Settlement calculations depend on the foundation pressure you have calculated before and
also the soil profile you have found through creating the geological cross section (see Section
4.3). The required soil properties for elastic settlement calculation are provided along with the
borelogs in a separate document which is available on the unit website (the same one that you
would use for your cross section).
For consolidation settlement calculation, apart from basic soil properties given in borelogs,
raw oedometer test results are provided as an Excel file on the unit website (follow this link).
Also see Appendix B. From oedometer results you can calculate the necessary parameters you
need in calculation of consolidation settlement. You can also use computer programs like Excel
or Matlab to plot the necessary graphs instead of hand plotting.
As will be discussed in one of the classes, for nearby buildings, consolidation settlement also
depends on the order of construction. For your proposed design, you need to discuss the effect of
construction order on the consolidation settlement of different footings. This discussion should
be based on required calculations.
If your proposed design, like the first initial design (ID1), involves only one footing, you can
complete this requirement by considering the interaction between the rectangular footing outside
the site boundary (identified as FX) in Fig. 4. Assume a uniform pressure of 100 kPa under FX.
See the associated rubric for details about the required outputs for this task. There will be
a couple of studios dedicated to help you with this task towards the end of the trimester.
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4.5 Response to feedback
As noted in the previous sections and also the unit guide, you have the chance to submit an
interim version of your work on a number of the tasks in this assessment item and receive timely
feedback. A certain mark is associated to submission of these tasks and action based on the
received feedback and self-reflection.
You should assign a small section of your report to briefly explain how you implemented
the received feedback. You should not use more than a single page on this section. You can
also record your responses to feedback received from other means, including but not limited to
studios, discussion forum, and self-reflections relevant to this project in this section. For more
information, please refer to the rubric.
4.6 Report
You need to compile your results and outcomes in form of a technical report. In your report you
should have the following sections:
1. Soil properties: here you would summarise the properties of the soil profile based on your
cross sections, given soil properties, and your analysis of raw test results. See Section 4.3
2. Analysis of the initial foundation design: see Section 4.1.
3. Proposed design: see Section 4.2.
4. Settlement calculations: see Section 4.4.
5. Response to feedback and self-reflection: see Section 4.5.
You can break the above sections into subsections if necessary. You can also add sections if
needed.
Your report should be professionally written and organised, with correct citation and cross
referencing style. You should also respect the page limit stated in the unit guide, i.e. maximum
15 A4 pages including figures, tables, and appendices.
The minimum formatting requirements for this report are as follows:
1. The report should be typed on A4.
2. Cover page with your name and student ID.
3. Table of content (this can be included on the cover page like this document).
4. Pages should be numbered.
5. Margins should be reasonable, i.e. not smaller than 1 cm or larger than 5 cm on any side.
6. Figures and tables should be numbered and have captions. For figures, captions should be
placed below them, and for tables, captions should be placed above them. There shouldn’t
be a page break between a Table or Figure and its caption.
7. Sections and subsections should be numbered.
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5 Submission
The completed report should be submitted to the dedicated electronic drop box on the unit
website by the end of week 12, i.e. no later than 9:00 am on Monday 8 June 2019.
As noted in previous sections, you need to submit an interim report to receive feedback and
improve your final report. The Design report – Interim is to be submitted to a dedicated
electronic drop box on the unit website by the end of mid-trimester break, i.e. no later than
9:00 am on Monday 13 April 2019. No extension will be approved for this part.
Further to this interim report, a design activity is scheduled during week 7 for ALL students
to practice on their design proposals and receive feedback. There are also weekly studios to help
you on almost all the requirements of this report.
Both interim and final reports should be submitted as single PDF files.
8
A Boreholes information
The topography map of the site is provided in Fig. 6. The numbers on the contour lines are
elevation (natural ground level) from the base measured in meter.
Figure 6: Topography map of the site and location of the boreholes. Grid distance is 5 m.
Location of the boreholes are shown in Fig. 6. Borelogs for different boreholes are shown in
Fig. 7 and Table 2. Water table is found at the elevation of 87.0 ± 0.2 m.
To calculate elastic settlement, assume the effective values of E = 100 MPa and µ = 0.4 for
Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio of the whole soil profile, respectively.
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BH1 BH2 BH3 BH4 BH5
Depth (m) Depth (m) Depth (m) Depth (m) Depth (m)
0 0 0 0 0
0.2 0.5
1.2
2.3
3.1
5 5 5 5 5
6.8
8.1
8.8 9.1
9.6
10 10 10 10 10
12.9
14.0
15 14.9 15 15 15 14.8 15 15.0
TP S1 S2 BR
Figure 7: Borelogs.
Table 2: Soil properties of different layers.
Soil Properties
TP Top soil: ML – Sandy silt with low plasticity.
Moist field density: ρ = 1549 kg/m3
Specific gravity: Gs = 2.62
Water content: w = 6.50%
S2 This is the soil tested in the laboratory for the geotechnical
report.
For general properties refer to your geotechnical report.
For consolidation properties see Appendix B.
S1 SC – Clayey sand with gravel
Moist field density: ρ = 1957 kg/m3
Specific gravity: Gs = 2.71
Water content: w = 29.3%
BR Bed rock (Sandstone)
10
B Oedometer test results
Oedometer test results are uploaded as a spreadsheet on the unit site. You can find and download
this file by going to Resources > Assessments > Design Project > Oedometer results, or
simply by following this link.
To be able to calculate the consolidation parameters (Cc and Cs ), you would also need the
mass of dry sample after the oedometer test which is missing from the spreadsheet. This value
is
Ms = 130.7 g
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