8.

4 OVERTURNING AND ECCENTRICITY Spread footings for buildings are designed to maintain a minimum factor of safety against overturning of at least 1.5. Eccentricity may also be checked using the procedures in Chapter 6, although this is generally not part of the code requirements for design of buildings. 8.5 SLIDING AND PASSIVE RESISTANCE The procedures for calculating sliding and passive resistance for building spread footings are described in Chapter 5. A minimum factor of safety of 1.5 should be provided for sliding stability. Due to the generally small width of spread footings used for buildings, inclusion of the passive resistance may be necessary. Because of the differences in strains required to develop sliding and passive resistance, as described in Section 5.4, a practical approach is to include only one-half of the computed passive resistance when combining both sliding and passive components. For narrow footing widths, simply deepening the footing to increase passive resistance may be more practical than attempting construction of a key. 8.6 DESIGN OF MAT FOUNDATIONS AND FLOOR SLABS The design of mat foundations should account for bearing capacity, as well as immediate and long-term settlements. The bearing capacity and settlement of a mat foundation may be determined using the methods presented in Chapter 5. Due to the large size of mat foundations, bearing capacity will generally not govern design. Controlling deflections will usually be the most critical aspect of design. Mat settlements can be controlled to some degree with the lower applied soil pressures as compared to isolated or strip spread footings. Also, the volume of soil displaced by the foundation will result in a lower net applied stress that will limit settlement. Mat foundations on cohesive soils (clays) may be controlled by deep-seated bearing capacity. The subsurface explorations must be carried to sufficient depth to assess both deep-seated bearing capacity and the zone of stress influence (Section 5.3) for settlement computation. Due to the large dimensions of a mat, the zone of influence will be deeper than for isolated or strip spread footings. A common design approach for mat foundations uses beam on elastic foundation theory to compute the soil-structure interaction and deflections. The reinforcement of the mat can then be designed based on the deflections computed within the mat. The beam on elastic foundation approach models the support of foundation soils as a bed of discrete elastic springs (Winkler foundation). The soil reaction at any particular point beneath a mat is: qapplied = Kvy where: qapplied = Applied stress Kv = Modulus of subgrade reaction (force/length3) y = Vertical displacement (8-1)

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The modulus of subgrade reaction can be obtained from Figure 8-3. Note that the notation for the modulus is KV1 in Figure 8-3. The modulus of subgrade reaction can also be obtained from plate load tests but should be corrected for size and shape effects according to Figure 8-4. The validity of the beam on elastic foundation approach has been called into question due to the fundamental assumption regarding the relative rigidity of the mat as compared to the soil. Also, the modulus of subgrade reaction is not an intrinsic soil property, and is a function not only of the stiffness of the soil, but the stiffness, shape and depth of the mat. Despite these limitations, the method is still a practical and commonly used way of computing displacements to design the structural reinforcement of the mat.

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Figure 8-3: Modulus of Subgrade Reaction (NAVFAC, 1986a) 130

Figure 8-4: Analysis of Plate Load Test Results (NAVFAC, 1986a) 131