Civil Engineering

III/I Prepared by : AP

Foundation Engineering (Course outline)

 Chapter -1: Introduction (1 hr. , 2 marks)

 Chapter -2: Soil exploration (6 hrs., 12 marks)

 C hapter-3: Lateral earth pressure theories and retaining walls (10 hrs., 16 marks)

 Chapter-4: Arching in soil and braced cuts (3hrs., 4 marks)

 Chapter-5: Flexible retaining structures and coffer dams (3hrs., 4 marks)

 Chapter -6: Bearing capacity and settlement of shallow foundations (6 hrs, 12 marks)

 Chapter -7: Mat foundations (3 hrs., 6 marks)

 Chapter- 8: Pile foundations (6 hrs., 12 marks)

 Chapter -9: Well foundations (4 hrs., 8 marks)

 Chapter -10: Foundation soil improvements (3 hrs., 4 marks)

References:
 Foundation analysis and design, J.E. Bowels, Mc Graw Hill publications, 5th edition

 Principles of foundation engineering, B. M. Das, Thomson’s 5 th edition

 Basic and applied soil mechanics, Gopal Ranjan,A.S.R. Rao, New age international
publications, second edition

 Soil mechanics and foundation engineering, K. R. Arora, Standard publishers, edition of

1997

 A text book of soil mechanics and foundation engineering, V.N.S. Murthy, CBS
Publishers, 4 th edition

 A text book of foundation engineering: R.K. Poudel,Ramesh Neupane , New age

international publications, 2 nd edition

 Pile foundation analysis and design, H.G. Polous, E.H. Davis, John Wiley and sons edition
of 1980

 Lecture notes of I.O.E. pulchowk, class lectures of DKB, various internet websites etc.

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Evaluation and marks distribution

 Total = 125 marks = 100 (Theory)+ 25(practical)

 100(Theory) = 20 (Assessment) + 80 (final)

Evaluation of practical

 A site visit to site investigation project (as far as possible) and then each student has to
submit a report in specified format.

 Objective questions

 Class presentation on a group

Evaluation of assessment

 Based on Monday test, class performance, attendance, and final assessment and class
presentations .

Chapter – 1.0

Introduction
Foundation Engineering:

 In a broad sense, foundation engineering is a art of selecting, designing and

constructing the elements that transfer the weight of structure to the
underlying soil or rock.

 The role of engineer is to select the type of foundation,its design and

supervision of construction.

 Before the engineer can design a foundation intelligently, he must have a

reasonably accurate conception of the physical properties and the arrangement
of the underlying materials. This requires detailed soil explorations.

The foundation engineer should posses the following information:-

 Knowledge of soil mechanics and background of theoretical analysis

 Composition of actual soil strata in the field.

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 Necessary experience-precedents-what designs have worked well under what

designs have worked well under what conditions-economic aspects

Engineering judgment or intuition - to find solutions to the problems.

Definition of foundation

 The lowest part of a structure which acts as a medium to transfer loads coming
from the superstructure to the underlying soil is termed as foundation.

Or

Foundation is the lowest load-bearing part of a super structure, typically below

ground level.

Requirements (Functional)

 A foundation must be properly located with respect to further influence which

may affect the performance of foundation adversely.

 A properly designed foundation is one that transfers the structural load

throughout the soil without overstressing of soil which can result in either
excessive settlement or shear failure, both of which can damage the structure.

Types of Foundation:

 Shallow foundation : ( Df/B less or equal to 1)

 Deep Foundations : ( Df/B, greater than 4)

Where,

Df = Depth of foundation

B = Width of foundation

 Shallow foundation located just below the lowest part of the superstructure
they support; deep foundations extend considerably deeper in to earth.

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Types of shallow foundation:

Wall footing (strip or continuous footing)

2. Spread footing, (wall, isolated column footing)

[Link] foundations

[Link] or cantilever footing

[Link] foundation or raft foundation

Spread foundation:

Spread foundations are used to support an individual point load such as that due to
a structural column. They may be circular, square or rectangular. They usually
consist of a block or slab of uniform thickness, but they may be stepped or hunched
if they are required to spread the load from a heavy column. Spread foundations are
usually shallow, but deep pad foundations can also be used.

Combined footing:

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Strap or cantilever footing:

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Strip Foundation:

Strip foundations are used to support a line of loads, either due to a load-bearing
wall, or if a line of columns need supporting where column positions are so close
that individual pad foundations would be inappropriate.

Mat Foundation:

A mat foundation is a thick reinforced concrete slab which supports the entire load
(from bearing walls and column loads) of a structure or a large portion of the
structure. A mat is required when the loads are heavy and the soil is very weak or
highly compressible. A mat foundation comes to be more economical than the
individual footings when the total base area required for individual footings exceeds
about one half of the area covered by the structure.

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Types of Deep foundation:

1. Pile foundation

2. Pier foundation

3. Well or caissons

Pile foundation:

A pile is a long slender structural member made up of steel, concrete or wood which
is used to transfer load to a deeper strata below ground surface. Pile foundation is a
deep foundation (depth greater than 4 times width). It’s basically a substructure that
is supported by a group of piles which may be either driven in the ground or bored
and then cast in situ. Pile foundations are used to transfer loads from soil of low
bearing capacity to stiff layers of soil or rock with higher bearing capacity. Piles may
be subjected to vertical or lateral loads or a combination of vertical and lateral loads.

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Pier foundation:

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Well foundation :

Loads on foundation:

 Dead Load

 Live load

 Wind loads

 Earthquake Forces

Depth and location of foundation depends on:

[Link] of significant volume changes in soil

2. Adjacent structures and property lines

3. Ground water

4. Underground defects

Zone of significant volume changes in soil :

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 Clays having high plasticity shrink and swell considerably up on drying and
wetting respectively.

 Volume change is greatest near ground. Decreases with increasing depth.

Volume changes usually insignificant below a depth from 1.5-3.0 m and does
not occur below volume changes.

Factors affecting the foundation:

 The functions of structure

 The load foundation carry

 Subsurface conditions

 Cost of foundation in comparison to cost of superstructure.

Other factors:

 Constructability

 Service life

 Need of client

 Type of superstructure

 Environmental considerations

 Margin of safety.

 Risk level

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Steps for selection of foundation:

[Link] the required information concerning nature of superstructure and loads to

be transmitted to the foundation.

2. Obtain subsurface and soil conditions from soil investigation.

3. Explore the possibility of constructing any one of the types of foundations under
existing condition.

4. One or more types of foundations are selected on the basis of preliminary studies,
make more detailed studies.

5. Estimate the cost of each promising types of foundation and choose the type of
foundation that represents the most acceptable compromise between cost and
performance.

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