Module III
LALNA S S
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
KMCTCE
1
When a soil deposit is loaded, deformation will occur
due to change in stress. The total vertical downward
deformation at the surface resulting from the load is
called Settlement.
Similarly when load is decreased (e.g during excavation)
the deformation may vertically upward and is known as
swelling.
Estimate of settlement and swelling are made using
identical procedures.
2
Types with respect to Permanency
a)Permanent settlement
b)Temporary Settlement.
Types with respect to Mode of Occurrence
a)Primary consolidation settlement (Sc)
b)Secondary consolidation settlement (Ss)
c)Immediate settlement (Si)
Types with respect to Uniformity
a)Uniform settlement
b)Differential settlement
3
Permanent Settlement (Irreversible settlement):
This type of settlement is caused due to distortion brought about
by sliding and rolling of particles under the action of applied
stresses
The sliding and rolling will reduce the voids resulting in reduction
of volume of soil deposit.
The increased in stresses may also crush the soil particles while
alter the material and produce some settlement.
This type of settlement is permanent and undergoes insignificant
recovery upon removal of load.
Settlement due to consolidation (both primary and Secondary)
generally falls under this category.
4
Settlement due to elastic compression of soil are
usually reversible and recover a major part upon load
release. release.
Immediate settlement falls under this category.
This settlement is generally small in soils.
5
PRIMARY CONSOLIDATION SETTLEMENT (Sc):
These settlements are time dependent or long term
settlements and completion time varies from 1-5 years
or more.
This is also known as Primary consolidation (i.e the
settlement caused due to expulsion of water from the
pores of saturated fine grained soils (clays).
This type of settlement is predominant in saturated
inorganic fine grained soil (clays).
6
SECONDARY CONSOLIDATION
This is the consolidation under constant effective stress
causing no drainage.
This is very predominant in certain Organic soils, but
insignificant for inorganic soil.
This is similar to creep in concrete.
7
This type of settlement is predominant in coarse
grained soils of high permeability and in unsaturated
fine grained soils of low permeability.
The completion time is usually few days (say about 7
days).
Usually this type of settlement is completed during
construction period and is called build in settlement.
Also known as short term settlement.
8
UNIFORM SETTLEMENT:
When all the points settle with an equal amount, the
settlement is known as uniform settlement.
This type of settlement is possibly only under relatively
rigid foundation loaded with uniform relatively rigid
foundation loaded with uniform pressure and resting on
uniform soil deposit, which is a very rare possibility.
This type of settlement may not endanger the structure
stability but generally affects the utility of the structure
by jamming doors/windows, damaging the utility lines
( sewer, water supply mains etc)
9
When different parts of a structure settle by different
magnitude, the settlement is called differential
settlement.
This is very important as it may endanger the
structural stability and may cause the structural
stability and may cause catastrophic failure.
If soil is granular, then differential settlement will be
2/3 of the total maximum settlement.
In case of cohesive soil, possible differential
settlement is about 1/3 of the maximum settlement.
10
11
Maximum Settlement : It is the absolute maximum
downward movement of any part of building element.
Maximum Settlement = Smax
Differential Settlement : It is the maximum difference
between two points in a building element. Differential
Settlement = Smax - Smin
Angular Distortion : It is another method of expressing
differential settlement.
Angular Distortion = Differential Settlement/Length of
element = (Smax - Smin)/L
12
Total settlement of a foundation occurs mainly due to
following causes
immediate settlement due to distortions within
foundation soil
primary consolidation settlement
secondary consolidation settlement.
13
1. Immediate or Elastic Settlement (Si)
Takes place during or immediately (Less than 7 days duration)
after the construction of the structure. Normally computed using
elastic theory.
2. Primary Consolidation Settlement (Sc)
Decrease in volume or compression takes place due to expulsion
of water in the voids resulting from a long term static expulsion of
water in the voids resulting from a long term static load and the
consequent escape of pore water
3. Secondary Consolidation Settlement (Ss)
Occurs at constant effective stress, with volume change occurring
due to rearrangement of soil particles.
Total Settlement (S) = Si + Sc + Ss
14
Underground Erosion
Structural Collapse of Soil
Thermal Changes
Frost Heave
Vibration and Shocks
Land Slides
Mining Subsidence
Creep
Changes in the vicinity
15
16
17
[Link]: Hot dry wind and intense heat will often cause the
soil to shrink beneath the foundation. This settlement may cause
cracks to appear throughout the structure.
[Link]: Tree roots may desiccate the soil beneath a home
causing the soil to shrink and the home to settle.
[Link] Leaks: Water from plumbing leaks is often a cause to
foundation problems.
[Link]: Improper drainage is one of the leading causes to
foundation failure. Excess moisture will erode or consolidate soils
and cause settlement.
18
[Link] Foundation Construction: Insufficient steel
and inferior concrete will contribute to movement in
the slab.
[Link] Ground Preparation: Soft, low density soils
and/or improperly compacted soil beneath a home is
the leading cause of foundation failure. Cut and fill
methods are a leading cause of foundation
settlement.
[Link] Soil conditions: Poor soil and its expansion
and/or contraction contribute to foundation failure.
19
Total settlement in cohesive Total settlement in cohesion less
soils soils 20
COHESIVE SOILS
It is also known as DISTORTION SETTLEMENT as it
is due to change in shape of the soil without a change in
volume or water content.
Although the settlement is not truly elastic, it is
computed using elastic theory.
It is normally small compared to consolidation
settlement.
It is normally small compared to consolidation
settlement.
21
COHESIONLESS SOILS
Elastic as well as primary compression occur more or
less together because of their high permeability.
Because of the variation in E, elastic settlement cannot
be accurately predicted in cohesion less soils.
Hence usually either Semi-empirical approach or field
tests are used in cohesion less soils.
22
q = Net Foundation Pressure
B = Least Lateral dimension of the footing
m or µ = Poisson’s ratio
E = Young’s modulus of soil
If = Influence factor depends on the shape and rigidity of
the footing
23
24
Cohesionless soils do not obey Hooks law and the semi-
empirical formula for finding immediate settlement is
where C1 = correction factor for the depth of foundation
C2= correction factor for creep in soils =1+0.2 log10 (time in
years/0.1)
q͞ = pressure at the level of foundation,
q = surcharge ( = γ Df)
Es = modulus of elasticity,
Iz = strain influence factor.
25
The total consolidation settlement st = si + U sf
where U = degree of consolidation expressed as a ratio
which depends upon the time factor Tv given by
Tv = cv t/d2
si = immediate settlement
sf = final settlement
cv = average coefficient of consolidation
t = time at which the settlement is required.
d = distance of drainage path
26
The reduction in volume continues at a very slow rate
even after the excess pore water pressure developed
by the applied pressure is fully dissipated and the
primary consolidation is complete. This additional
reduction in the volume is called secondary
consolidation.
It is attributed to the plastic readjustment of the solid
particles and the adsorbed water to the new stress
system.
27
Theoretically, no damage occurs to the structure if the soil
settles uniformly. But may cause trouble in utilities such as
water pipe lines, sewers, telephone lines, etc.
But differential settlement causes severe damages to the
structure due to angular distortion.
It is possible to predict the maximum settlement, but difficult
to predict differential settlement.
Differential settlement is automatically controlled if the
maximum settlement is controlled.
IS : 1904 is restricting the maximum and differential
settlement for different types of structures and different types
of foundations which is known as Allowable Settlement.
28
29
30
Removal of soft soil strata, consistent with economy
Use of properly designed and constructed pile foundations
Provision for lateral restraint against lateral expulsion of
soil mass from underneath the footing
Slow construction on cohesive soils to avoid lateral
expansion of a soil mass and to give time for the pore
water to get expelled by the surcharge load
Reduction of contact pressure on the soil in order to attain
uniform settlements underneath the footings
Preloading of a building site long enough for the expected
load, depending upon the tolerable settlements
Any other methods of soil stabilization.
31
Soft saturated clay layers undergo large consolidation
settlement, depending on the structural load and depth
of clay layers.
Many plastic clays swell considerably when water is
added to them and shrink with the loss of water.
Foundations constructed on such expansive clays are
subjected to large uplifting forces during swelling.
when a project encounters difficult foundation
condition, the existing ground properties can be
modified which is called as ground improvement
techniques.
32
Involves placement of a surface load, known as
surcharge, prior to construction of structure in order to
pre compress the foundation soil.
It minimises the post construction settlement and also
increases the shear strength of sub soil.
Most attractive in following conditions
Soil or other material is readily available for use as
surcharge
The foundation soil drains rapidly so that the time
required for pre loading is relatively short. This requires
a short drainage path for which sand drains or
prefabricated vertical drains (PVD) installed in clayey
soils or low permeable soils. 33
Preloading is surcharging the ground with a
uniformly distributed surface load prior to the
construction of the structure such as Buildings,
Embankments, Motorways, and Runways Tanks etc.
The purpose is to take up the setlements under the
Civil Engineering structures before they are built.
Soils suitable for preloading: Compressible soft to
medium soft saturated clay sand silts,organic
clays,peats.
34
Conventional Preloading
The simplest solution of preloading is a preload,
[Link] means of an embankment.
When the load is placed on the soft soil, it is initially
carried by the pore water. When the soil is not very
permeable, which is normally the case; the water
pressure will decrease gradually because the pore
water is only able to flow away very slowly in
vertical direction.
In order not to create any stability problems, the load
must mostly be placed in two or more stages.
35
36
The temporary surcharge can be removed when the settlements
exceeds the predicted final settlement.
This should preferably not happen before the remaining excess
pore pressure is below the stress increase caused by the
temporary surcharge.
By increasing the time of temporary over loading, or the size of
the over load, secondary settlement can be reduced or even
eliminated.
This is because by using a surcharge higher than the work load,
the soil will always be in an over consolidated state and the
secondary compression for overconsolidated soil are much
smaller than that of normally consolidated soil. This will benefit
greatly the subsequent geotechnical design.
37
•Preloading technique may not work sometimes alone
due to a thick uniform soft clay layer or permeability
of the clay is very low.
Sotime for precompression is very long and not
practical or surcharge will be very high for reasonable
waiting periods.
Because of its low permeability, the consolidation
settlement of soft clays takes along time to complete.
To shorten the consolidation time, vertical drains are
installed together with preloading either by an
embankment or by means of vacuum pressure.
38
Therefore, the vertical drain installation reduces the
length of the drainage path and, consequently,
accelerates the consolidation process and allows the
clay to gain rapid strength process and allows the
clay to gain rapid strength increase to carry the new
load by its own
39
40
There should not be any base failure during preloading
Duration of preloading should be within the time
allotted by construction schedule
There will be no damage to adjoining structures
There will be no undue disturbances to nearby
communities
Settlement after construction should be within the
range of tolerances
Cost is less compared to other methods
41
The zone of influence of each drain in a triangle pattern
is hexagonal in plan, which can be approximated by an
equivalent circle of radius R, where R = 0.525 S.
In case of a square pattern, the radius of circle of
influence R is equal to 0.564 S.
42
Depends on
Degree of consolidation required prior to start of
structure
Time available for consolidation
Economic consideration
43
Cost involved is comparatively less
Simple conventional construction equipment needed for
earth moving job is sufficient for preloading works.
Cost of monitoring instruments are cheap.
Effect of preloading can be observed periodically from
field instrumentation and makes possible future
predictions about the behaviour.
Provide uniform improved properties of ground.
The fill material after completion of preloading can be
subsequently used in same project for site preparation.
44
To receive adequate drainage properties, sand has to
be carefully chosen which might seldom be found
close to the construction site.
Drains might become discontinuous because of
careless installation or horizontal soil displacement
during the consolidation process.
During filling bulking of the sand might appear
which could lead to cavities and subsequently to
collapse due to flooding.
45
Construction problems and/or budgetary burdens
might arise due to the large diameter of sand drains.
The disturbance of the soil surrounding each drain
caused by installation may reduce the permeability,
the flow of water of water to the drain and thus the
efficiency of the system.
The reinforcing effect of sand drains may reduce the
effectiveness of preloading the subsoil
46