Foundation of Bridge

Foundation: The design of foundation is an important part of the overall design for bridge and effects to a considerable extent the safety and economics of the bridge. The design demands a detailed knowledge of hydraulics, soil mechanics and structural analysis. In order to design the foundation for a bridge, the designer must determine the following reasonably and accurately: 1. the maximum likely scour depth, 2. the minimum grip length required, 3. the soil pressure at the base, and 4. the stresses in the structure constituting the foundation. The foundation should be taken to a depth, which is safe from scour, and is adequate from considerations of bearing capacity, settlement stability, and suitability of soil strata at the founding level. The pattern of the scour occurring at a bridge across a river depends on many factors including discharge, bed slope, bed material, direction of flow and alignment of piers. It has been observed that maximum scour in case of abutments occurs at the upstream corner, while in the case of a pier, it occurs at the downstream end. The scour will be further aggravated, if the pier is not aligned in the direction of flow. Unless the foundations are rested on rock, adequate grip length (embedment) below the maximum scour level should be provided. The minimum required grip length is specified as one third of the maximum scour depth for road bridge and one half of the maximum scour depth for railway bridges. The purpose of the grip length is to ensure stability under heavy flood conditions. Functions of Foundation: 1. To keep the intensity of pressure within safe limits of the bearing capacity of the soil, as the foundations distribute the load of the structure over a larger area of the subsoil. 2. To provide a leveled base for the construction of piers and abutments. 3. To prevent the tilt and over turning of the piers and abutments. 4. To prevent the lateral escape of the supporting material of the river bed. This will prevent piers from sinking. 5. To avoid unequal settlement of the sub soil and super structure etc. Type of Foundations: The foundations used in bridge structure may be broadly classified as: 1) Shallow foundations, a) Spread foundation, and b) Raft foundation or floating foundation. 2) Deep foundation. a) Pile foundations, and b) Caissons foundations i) Open caissons or well foundation, and ii) Pneumatic caissons. A shallow foundation is sometimes defined as one, whose depth is smaller than its width. A Shallow foundation can be prepared by open excavation. Spread footings and raft foundations are examples of Shallow foundations. Shallow foundations transfer the

load to the ground by bearing at the bottom of foundation and partly by skin friction with the soil around the foundation along its embedment in the soil. Two types of shallow foundations are normally adopted for bridge structures. These are spread foundation and Raft foundation Spread foundation: This type of foundation is similar in shape as provided for walls. It is best suited in such situations whos the scouring of the river bed is minimum and good and hard soil is available within 2-3 meters below river bed level. This type of foundation can also be provided even if the bed contains erode able material, such as sand, but the scouring is prevented by driving sheet piles on up stream and down stream side and floor pitching. The minimum depth of the foundation is determined by the following formula: p 1 sin D= d 1 + sin Where D = Depth of foundation, P = Bearing capacity of sub soil in kg/m2 d = density of sub soil in kg/m3 = angle of repose of soil. Raft foundation or floating foundation: This type of foundation is best suited for situations where the bearing capacity of the soil is very poor and the bed contains soft clay and good soil is not available with in a reasonable depth. This foundation is also known as floating or mat foundation. In this case, a thick slab of reinforced cement concrete is laid over a layer of well compacted lime concrete. Over this reinforced cement concrete piers may be constructed at specified intervals. From economical considerations, the provision of an inverted tee (T) beam raft foundation has been found useful. A pile is defined as a column support type of foundation which may be pre cast or cast in situ at site. The pile foundation can be categorized in to different types based on 1) How the load is transferred i) Bearing piles ii) Friction piles iii) Friction cum bearing piles 2) Type of construction method of the piles i) Precast driven piles ii) Driven cast in situ piles iii) Bored cast in situ piles The bearing piles are designed as those which transmit the load to the foundation strata directly without taking into account the friction resistance offered by enclosing soil. The passive earth pressure resistance in the embedded portion of the pile is taken into consideration only for the purpose of determining its resistance against the horizontal forces. Such bearing piles are generally taken up to or into the hard strata, such as moorum, rock, hard consolidated sandy soil or gravelly soil. The friction piles are those in which the load is transmitted by the pile through friction offered by the surrounding soil. Such piles can be provided in cohesive soils, not subjected to heavy scour.

The friction cum bearing piles are designed in such a way that the load is transmitted both by the friction of the surrounding soil and the bearing resistance of the founding soil at the tip of the pile. These are used in mixed type of soils. The Precast driven piles are usually of RCC or prestressed concrete and generally small in size for facility of handling. (Usually < 24 m) The driven cast in situ piles is a steel casing pile with a shoe at the bottom is driven first to the required depth. The reinforcement cage for the pile is then lowered inside the casing and the pile is concreted. Transfer load mainly by friction. The bored cast in situ piles serve as bearing cum friction piles used very extensively for deep bridge foundations. The diameter is generally more than 1.20 m, can go up to 36.0 m or more. Apart from above, driven steel piles and driven piles have also been used in bridge foundation in the past. But now there use getting limited A caisson is a member with a hollow portion, which after being installed in place is filled with concrete or any other material. A open caisson is one that has no top or bottom cover during its sinking. It is more popularly known as well foundation. A pneumatic caisson is a caisson with permanent or a temporary roof near the bottom so arranged that men can work in the compressed air trapped under it. Pneumatic caisson can be used for a depth of about 30 meter below water level, beyond which pile foundation would have to be resorted to. The selection of the foundation system for a particular site depends on many considerations, including the nature of sub soil and the presence of boulders in the sub soil. Generally, piles would be suitable when a thick stratum of soft soil overlays a hard soil stratum. Caissons are generally preferred in sandy soils. Shallow/Open foundations: Open foundation refer to those foundations constructed by carrying out excavation up to foundation level in the open conditions. When suitable founding strata such as rock exposed in bed or hard strata are available at shallow depths, the excavation may be done entirely in the dry condition, especially if the work is done in dry season in seasonal flowing stream. In most other cases, some part of excavation will need to be carried out in wet conditions, i.e. below the surface water or the subsoil water level. In such cases, pumping out water seeping into the pit for the purpose of laying concrete or building up masonry. Special arrangements for preventing the surrounding soil caving in will also be necessary. A Shallow foundation usually consists of spread footings in concrete or coursed rubble masonry. The bottom most footing over the leveling course is of mass concrete 1:3:6 min or of reinforced concrete of suitable thickness. The depth of the foundation should be such that the foundation rests on soil with adequate bearing capacity. The maximum pressure on the foundation should be checked to ensure adequate factors of safety for different combinations of load as specified in the IRC bridge code (IRC: 78-1983 Standard Specifications and Code of Practice for road bridges, section VII Foundation and Substructures) Well foundation: