Foundation Design for Windmill

Superstructure
FOUNDATIONS
Transfer the weight of the building to the ground. Usually every building has a
number of individual foundations called footings. Since the weight of the building
rests on the soil (or rock), engineers have to study the properties of the soil very
carefully to ensure that it can carry the loads imposed by the building. It is common
for engineers to determine the safe bearing capacity of the soil after such study.
As the name suggests, this is the amount of weight per unit area the soil can bear.
For example, the safe bearing capacity (SBC) at a location could be 20 T/m2, or
tonnes per square metre. Foundations are classified in to shallow and deep
foundations.

SHALLOW FOUNDATIONS
-

Can be made at depths as little as 3ft (1m).

Also referred to as open footings or spread footings. ``Open`` because they
are made by excavating all the earth until the bottom of the footing then
constructing the footing, during the early stages of the work the entire
footing is visible to the eye.
Each footing takes the concentrated load of the column and spreads it out
over a large area, so that the actual weight of the soil does not exceed the
safe bearing capacity of the soil.
Must be protected from freezing they must be built below the frost line
(level in the ground above which freezing occurs) if they cannot be
built below the frost line then they must be protected by insulation.

TYPES
Individual Footings

Simple and common. Used when the load of the building is carried by columns. Each
column has its own footing. The footing is a square or rectangular pad of concrete
on which the column sits. To get a rough idea of the footing size, the engineer will
take the total load on the column and divide it by the safe bearing capacity (SBC) of
the soil. E.g. 10 T divided by 10T/m2 = 1m2. Many other factors are taken into
consideration before the construction design for the footing is completed. Individual
Footings are usually connected by a plinth beam a horizontal beam that is built at
ground level or below ground level.

Strip Footings

Commonly found in load

bearing masonry
construction, basically a
long strip that supports the
weight of an entire wall.
Used where building loads
are carried by entire walls
rather than isolated columns
such as in older buildings
made of masonry.

Raft or Mat Foundation

Often used where basements are
to be constructed. The entire
basement slab acts as a
foundation. The weight of the
building is spread evenly over the
entire footprint of the building.
Used where the soil is weak and
therefore building loads have to
be spread over a large area, or
where columns are closely
spaced, which means that
individual footings, if used, would
touch each other.

Combined Footing

The combined footing is designed to

support two parallel columns. It is
principally used what the two columns are
so close that to one another that their
individual footing would overlap. The
combined footing may also be constructed
when the property line is so close to
column that a spread footing gets
eccentrically loaded if kept within the
property lines. Thus, by combining it with
that of an interior column, the load gets
evenly/uniformly distributed. The combined
footing may be rectangular or trapezoidal.

Strap or Cantilever Footing

The strap (or cantilever) footing comprises of
two isolated/individual footing connected with
a structural strap or a lever. The strap is
featured to connect the two footing in order
that they works and becomes like a single
unit. However, the strap simply works as a
connection beam and does not resist any soil
reaction. Thus, the strap is designed as a rigid
beam.
The individual footings are designed such that
their combined line of action passes through
the resultant of the total load. The strap
footing becomes more economical than a
combine footing when the permissible soil
pressure is comparatively greater and also the
distance between the columns is greater.

DEEP FOUNDATIONS
-

Can be made at depths as deep as 60 to 200ft (20-65m).

At the time when the soil in or near the ground surface is not capable of
supporting a structure then deep foundation are utilized for the transfer of
the loads to the deeper and stronger/tougher strata. Thus the deep
foundation are employed when the surface soil is unfit for the construction of
shallow foundation and the firm stratum is deep such that it cannot be
achieved economically using shallow foundations. The highly used types of
deep foundations are piles, piers and caissons. The mechanism for the
transfer of loads into the soil strata is usually similar in all types of deep
foundations.
The deep foundations are usually very expensive than the shallow
foundations. It has to be employed only when the shallow foundation is unfit
or unfeasible. Sometimes, a fully compensated floating raft comes out to be
better and economical than deep foundation. Sometimes it becomes feasible
to improve the soil strata through various methods in order to make it
suitable for the lay of shallow foundations than to use deep foundations.
TYPES
Pile Foundation
Along cylinder of strong material such as concrete that is pushed into the
ground so that structures can be supported on top of it.
Used when there is a layer of weak soil at the surface. Loads have to bypass
this layer and be transferred to the layer of strong soil or rock that is below
the weak layer, also when the building has very heavy concentrated loads
such as a high rise structure.
Pile foundations are capable of taking higher loads than spread footings. Two
types!

End
Bearing
Piles: the
bottom
rests on
a layer of

especially strong soil or rock. The load of the building is transferred through
the pile to the strong soil or rock. Acts kind of like a column. Load rests on the
surface which is the transition between the weak and string layer therefore
the load bypasses the weak layer and is safely transferred to the strong layer.
Friction Piles: Work on a different principle than end bearing piles! The pile
transfers the load to the soil across the full height of the pile by friction. In
other words the whole surface of the pile which is cylindrical in shape works
to transfer forces to the soil. The amount of load the pile can support is
directly proportional to the length.
In Practice, each pile resists load by a combination of end bearing and
friction.

Pier
It is vertical slender column having relatively bigger cross-section than a pit.
The pier is installed in a dry area by excavating a big cylindrical hole of
required depth and then backfilled with concrete. Generally the cast in-situ
pile having diameter bigger than 0.6m is called as pier.

Caisson

It is a hollow, water tight, air tight, well-built box or chamber that is

embedded into the ground for laying foundation under water. The pier and
caisson only differ in construction. Irrelevant Construction will be on-shore.

Design Alternative Recommendations

The foundation being designed is to support a windmill superstructure that
delivers a higher power output than windmills designed in the past, and
consequently is considerably larger than conventional industrial windmills in
existence. The scope of this foundation design is therefore unprecedented, in
that in order to suggest design alternatives, we must consider the much
larger than conventional loads and forces acting on the foundation, the
magnitude of which have never before been designed for.

Design Considerations
-

Loads and external forces (more than conventional)

Self-Weight
External Loads

Soil Conditions
Safe Bearing Capacity
Slope Stability
Settlement