HERIOT - WATT UNIVERSITY

School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society

Foundation Engineering
CLASS EXAMPLE
A strip footing is 2.0m wide and is founded at a depth of 1.0m below ground surface on a
sandy soil shown schematically in the Figure below. The soil has characteristic shear strength
parameters ck' = 0 and k' = 34 and a unit weight of 16kN/m3 above the water table and
18.5kN/m3 below the water-table. The water-table is currently at 4.0m below ground surface,
but there is the possibility that this may rise to 1.0m below ground surface. If the foundation
is subjected to vertical design (i.e. factored) loads of 600kN/m, which is inclusive of the
weight of the footing, calculate,
(i)

the ratio (design resistance of the soil)/(design loading) with the water-table at
4.0m below the ground surface (this ratio is called the over-design factor, ,
see section 7.7.2 in the notes).

(ii)

the over-design factor, , if the water-table rises to 1.0m below the ground
surface.

For the foundation, you can assume that the weight of concrete equals the weight of soil
removed from the excavation. For these calculations, use Design Approach 1 and partial
factor set Combination 2 (M2 + R1) from Tables (a) and (b) appended.
600kN/m run

Ground surface
1.0m

2.0m

General Bearing Capacity equation (drained condition for strip)

Resistance/Unit Area, (R/A) = c'Nc + q'Nq + 0.5BN
Bearing capacity factors (Eurocode 7):
Nc = (Nq-1)cot' ; Nq = etan' tan2(45 + '/2) ; N = 2(Nq-1)tan'
Shape factors:
Take as unity
Depth factors (after Hansen):
1

dc = 1 + 0.4(D/B) ; dq = 1 + (2tan'(1 Sin')2(D/B)) ; d = 1.0

Table (a): Partial Factors for Soil Parameters (EN 1997-1:2004):

Set
Soil Parameter

M1

M2

Angle of shearing resistance*

1.0

1.25

Effective cohesion

1.0

1.25

Undrained shear strength

1.0

1.4

Weight Density

1.0

1.0

* This factor applied on tan'

Table (b): Partial Resistance Factors (EN 1997-1:2004):

Set
Resistance

R1

R2

R3

Bearing

1.0

1.4

1.0

Sliding

1.0

1.1

1.0

SOLUTION