HERIOT - WATT UNIVERSITY

School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society

Foundation Engineering
CLASS EXAMPLE
Estimate the elastic settlement and ultimate consolidation settlement under the centre
of a uniformly loaded area 3m3m (assumed flexible) placed on the surface of a
saturated clay 10m thick overlying rock. Take Eu = 15MN/m2 and mv = 0.2m2/MN and
that the increase in vertical stress (z) beneath the centre of the footing is as follows:

Depth (m)
z (kN/m2)

0
50

1
40

2
30

3
15

6
3

10
0

Assume 1-Dimensional consolidation and water-table is at ground surface.

You are reminded of the following:
Elastic Settlement
Elastic settlement below the corner of a loaded area resting on a clay layer of finite
thickness is given by:

1 2
I
E

qB

1 2
1

where I F1

F2

F1 and F2 from Steinbrenners Chart.

Consolidation Settlement
H = mv(2 1)H

All symbols have their usual contextual meaning

0.1

Values of F1
0.2

0.3

____

) and F2

0.4

0.5

(----)
0.6

0.7

0.8

L/B = 1
2
F1

L/B = 2
4

L/B = 5

F2

6
L/B = 5
L/B = 10
8

L/B = oo

L/B = 2
L/B = 1

10

L/B = 10
L/B = oo

SOLUTION