PART A

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

What is meant by pressure bulb? (May 2012)

What is significant depth? (April 2014)
What are the functions of foundations? (May 2012)
Differentiate between the general shear failure and local shear failure? (April 2014)
What are the causes of settlement? (May 2012)
What are the various types of loads that are to be considered in the design of foundations?
(April 2014)
7. What is floating foundation? (May 2012)
8. Explain negative skin friction(May 2012)
9. What is group efficiency of pile groups? (April 2014)
10. Write down the Teng equation for bearing capacity for raft in sand based on SPT results.
(April 2014)
11. What is an isobar? Expalin with a neat sketch.
12. What are the two criteria for determination of beraing capacity of a foundation?
13. What re the different settlements that can occur in a foundation?
14. Differentiate between a driven pile and a bored pile?
15. Write down the IS equation for bearing capacity for raft on sand based on SPT results.
PART B
1. Explain Westergaards theory for the determination of the vertical stress at a point. How
does it differ from Boussinesqs solution. (May 2012)
2. Explain stress distribution in sheeting and bracing of shallow excavations. (May 2012)
3. What is Newmarks chart? Explain how it can be used for determining the vertical
pressure beneath an irregular loaded area? (April 2014)
4. What are the methods adopted for soil exploration? Explain any two. (April 2014)
5. Differentiate between safe bearing capacity and allowable soil pressure. How will you
determine these values for a shallow footing on cohesionless soil if SPT value is given.
(May 2012)
6. What are the corrections to be applied in SPT? How the test results can be used to
evaluate the bearing capcity of soils? (April 2014)
7. Write down the IS code recommendations for bearing capacity in cohesionless and
cohesive soils. (April 2014)
8. What are the causes of differential settlement? Mention the remedial measures also?
(May 2012)
9. How the support for deep and shallow footings is provided? (April 2014)
10. What is a raft foundation? When it is preferred? (May 2012)
11. Explain the different methods to determine the bearing capacity of piles. (May 2012)
12. What is negative skin friction? What are the causes for the development of negative kin
friction? (April 2014)
13. What are the assumptions involved in the Boussinesq and westergaards theory?
14. Write down the expression for bearing capacity of a strip footing according to Terzaghis
theory. Give a sketch of failure zones and various forces acting on them.

15. What is a combined footing? When will you go for a combined footing?
16. Draw the apparent pressure diagrams for braced cuts in clay.
17. With respect to pile load test, differentiate between (i) test pile and working pile (ii)
initial test and routine test.
18. Under what circumstances raft foundation is preffered? What do you mean by a fully
compensated raft?
PART C
1. A concentrated load of 100kN is applied at ground surface. Compute the vertical pressure
(i) at a depth of 4m below the load. (ii) at a distance of 3m at the same depth. Use
Boussinesqs theory.
(May 2012)
2. What are the factors to be considered for deciding on the number and spacing of bore
holes? How will you fix the depth of boring? (May 2012)
3. A rectangular foundation 3m x 3m carries a uniformly distributed load of 4t/m2.
Determine the vertical stress at a point below the centre of the loaded area. Use
equivalent point method. (April 2014)
4. Explain sample disturbance. What are the factors that affect the sample disturbance? How
are these effects minimized? (April 2014)
5. A strip footing of 1.0 m width is founded at a depth of 2.0m below the ground surface.
Determine the net ultimate bearing capacity using (i) Terzaghis theory (ii) Skemptons
method and (iii) IS code method. The soil is clay ( = 0 and c = 16kN/m2 ) (May 2012)
6. A foundation, 2.0 m square is installed 1.2m below the surface of a uniform sandy gravel
having a density of 19.2kN/ , above the water table and submerged m3density of 10kN/m3.
The strength parameters with respect to effective stress are c' = 0 and ' = 30. Find the
gross ultimate bearing capacity for the following conditions.
a. Water table is well below the base of the footing.
b. Water table rises to the ground level.
(for = 30 , Terzaghi given N = 22 and Nq = 20)
(May 2012)
7. Compute the ultimate bearing capacity of a rectangular footing resting on the surface of a
saturated clay whose undrained cohesion is given to be 40kN/m2 . Compute the
percentage increase in its value if the footing is lowered to a depth of 1m below the
surface. Given that the average density of clay layer is 17.6kN/m3 . Use Skemptons
analysis. (April 2014)
8. A footing 3m square carries a gross pressure of 350 kN/m2 at a depth of 1.5m in sand.
The saturated unit wt of sand is 20kN/m3 and unit wt above the water table is 17 kN/m3.
The shear strength parameters are c' = 0 and ' = 30 (for = 30 , Terzaghi given N =
22 and Nq = 20). Determine the factor of safety with respect to shear faliure for the
following two cases:
a. Water table is 5m below GL.
b. Water table is 1.5m below GL.
9. Two load tests were performed at a site one with a 50cm square plate ans the other with
a 75cm square plate. For a settlement of 15mm, the loads were recorded as 50kN and

90kN, respectively in the two tests. Determine the allowable bearing pressure of the sand
and the load which a square footing, 1.5m size can carry with the settlement not
exceeding 25mm. (May 2012)
10. Design a combined footing for two columns (both 300mm x 300mm) carrying loads of
1200kN and 900kN, if the centre to centre spacing between coloumns is 4m. Take
allowable soil pressure as 200kPa. The distance to the edges of footing from the outer
face of both the columns should be kept as 0.3m (May 2012)
11. Design the plan dimensions of a footing to support two adjacent coloumns at a distance
of 6m carrying loads of 3,000 kN and 4,500kN. The smaller column is 50cm x 50cm and
it is at a distance of 30 cm clear from the property line. The bigger column is of size
60cm x 60cm. the permissible soil pressure is 350 kN/m2 . (April 2014)
12. A plate- load test was conducted on a uniform deposit of sand and the following data
were obtained:
Pressure kN/m2
50
100
200
300
400
500
600
Settlement (mm)
1.5
2.0
4.0
7.5
12.5 20
40
A square footing 2m x 2m is to be founded at 1.5m depth in this soil. Assuming the FOS
against shear failure as 3.0 and the maximum permissible settlement were 40mm,
determine the allowable bearing pressure.(April 2014)
13. Explain the procedure of design of raft foundation by conventional method. (May 2012)
14. A square pile group of nine, 12m long piles of 300mm diameter is placed in a uniform
clay deposit with average undrained shear strength of 68kPa. Considering the system as a
combined end bearing and friction pile group, find out the centre to centre spacing for a
group efficiency of untiy (1.0). Adhesion factor may be assumed as 0.9. (May 2012)
15. Determine the depth below the ground surface of a raft foundation 30m x 30m to carry a
gross load of 150MN. The soil is clay (c = 20 kN/m2 , = 20 kN/m3 ) Assume a FOS of
3.0m. also determine the depth for a fully compensated foundation.
16. A friction pile 300mm diameter is prposed to be driven in a layer of uniform clay. The
pile tip is assumed to carry 20% of the load. The skin friction between the oile surface
and the soil may be taken as 50 kN/m2 . Determine the length of the pile to carry a safe
load of 200kN, with a FOS of 3. Also determine the cohesion of clay. (April 2014)
17. Using Boussinesq theory, determine the stress 10 m below the centre of a square 4m X
4m which carries 4 column loads 1000 kN each at its centre.
18. Discuss standard penetration test. What are the various corrections? What is the
importance of this test in Geotechnical engineering field?
19. A square footing located at a depth of 1.5 m below ground surface has to carry a safe load
of 800 kN. Find the size of the footing if the desired F.O.S. = 3.using Terzaghis theory.
The properties of soil are: e = 0.5, Sr = 50%, G = 2.6, C = 10 kN/m3 for = 3000 , Nc =37.2
Nq = 22.5 and N = 19.7.
20. A 10 m wide strip footing is placed at 1m below ground surface of a clay soil having the
following properties Cu = 80 kN/m2 u = 0 , = 30 .
Unit weight above water table = 16 kN/m3 , sat = 20 kN/m3
If the water table is at the foundation level calculate the safe bearing capacity of the
footing using a FOS = 2 for short term and long term conditions.

Nc

Nq

6.0

1.0

30

37.2

22.5

N
0
19.7

21. A plate- load test was conducted on a uniform deposit of sand and the following data
were obtained:
Pressure kN/m2
5
10
20
30
40
50
60
Settlement (mm)
4.5
8.5
16
31
50
74
104
Test size of plate was 30cm X 30cm. plot the load settlement curve and determine the
load on a footing 1.5m X 1.5m can safely carry when the settlement is not to exceed 50
mm.
22. Design a trapezoidal combined footing for two columns of size 300mm X 300mm
carrying a load of 1200 kN and 900 kN with a spacing of 4m between them. Take the
allowable soil pressure as 200 kN/m2 and the length of footing is 5m.
23. A raft of size 6m X 9m resting on a silty clay with an unconfined compressive strength
of 120 kN/m2 and a density of 18 kN/m3 . what would be the depth of foundation if the
load form the raft is 150kN/m2 and FOS = 3.