Introduction

A mat foundation is a large concrete slab used to interface one column, or more than one
column in several lines, with the base soil. It may encompass the entire foundation area or
only a portion.
Mat foundations are commonly used on erratic or relatively weak sub surfaces where a large
number of spread footings would be required and a well-defined bearing stratum for deep
foundations is not near the foundation base. Often, a mat foundation is used when spread
footings cover more than one-half the foundation area. (Aci)
Need for raft foundations
Whenever buildings loads are so heavy or the allowable pressure on soil so small that
individual footings would cover more than floor area
When soil is sufficiently erratic and it is difficult to define and assess the extent of the each of
the weak pockets or cavities and, thus estimate the overall and differential settlement.
When structures and equipment to be supported are very sensitive to differential settlement.
Building where basements are to be provided or pits located below ground water table
Buildings where individual foundation , if provided will be subjected to large widely varying
bending moments which may result in differential rotation and differential settlement of
individual footings causing distress in the building.
Types of raft foundations
Several criteria may be used to classify raft foundations.
Based on method of support:

Raft supported on soil

Raft supported on piles
Buoyancy raft

Based on structural system adopted:

Plain slab rafts which are flat concrete slabs having uniform thickness throughout.
This can be with pedestals or without pedestals
Beam and slab rafts which can designed with down stand beam or upstand beam
systems.
Cellular raft or framed raft with foundation slabs, walls, columns and one of the floor
slabs acting together to give a very rigid structure.

Figure 1 Types of rafts adapted from gupta

Figure 2 mat configurations adapted from ACI

Further discussion types of rafts

Slab and beam raft is used as a foundation for heavy buildings where stiffness is the principal
requirement
to avoid excessive distortion of the super structure as a-result of variation in the load
distribution over the raft or the compressibility of the supporting soil. These rafts, however,
have many obvious difficulties. If the beams are deep, ribs placed below the basement floor
or raft, the bottom of the excavation becomes badly cut up with trenches, impairing the
bearing valueof the soil because of its disturbance.Water proofingin case of basements
becomes more complicated arid involved. If the beams are projecting up, usefulness of the
basement is destroyed unless the entire foundation is lowered and the gap filled up or an
upper slab is provided supported on these inverted beams to form the ground floor of the
structure. (Gupta)
Buoyancy raft are necessarily to be provided with a basement so that the weight of the soil
removed
balances to a large extent, the imposed load. Cellular raft consisting of foundation slabs,
walls, columns and
ground floor slab can be designed, but it creates considerable amount of uncertainties,
difficulty of construction
and quite often even in such cases, raft is designed as a slab of uniform thickness.

Design approach and considerations

Raft foundations may be further classified based on the approach used for analyzing the
behavior of raft foundation.
Rigid approach
In rigid foundation approach, it is presumed that raft is rigid enough to bridge over nonuniformities of soil
structure. Pressure distribution is considered to be either uniform or varying linearly. Design
of rigid raft
follows conventional methods where again following two approaches have been suggested:
(a) Inverted floor system
(b) Combined footing approach
In rigid rafts, differential settlements are comparatively low but bending moment and shear
forces to which
raft is subjected are considerably high.
Flexible approach
In flexible foundation approach, raft is considered to distribute load in the area immediately
surrounding the
column depending upon the soil characteristics. In this approach differential settlements are
comparatively larger but bending moments and shear forces to which the raft is subjected are
comparatively low. Analysis is suggested basically on two theories:
(a) Flexible plate supported on elastic foundation.
(b) Foundation supported on bed of uniformly distributed elastic springs with a spring
constant
determined using coefficient of sub-grade reaction. Each spring is presumed to behave
independently
According to (aci 336) Mats may be designed and analysed as either rigid bodies or as
flexible plates supported by an elastic foundation (the soil). A combination analysis is
common in current practice. An exact theoretical design of a mat as a plate on an elastic
foundation can be made; however, a number of factors rapidly reduce the exactness to a
combination of approximations. These include:
1. Great difficulty in predicting subgrade responses
and assigning even approximate elastic parameters to
the soil.
2. Finite soil-strata thickness and variations in soil
properties both horizontally and vertically.
3. Mat shape.

4. Variety of superstructure loads and assumptions in

their development.
5. Effect of superstructure stiffness on mat (and vice
versa)

A major problemparticularly for deep excavations in clayis expansion and/or lateral flow
into the excavation base so that the base elevation rises. This phenomenon is termed heave,
and values of 25 to 50 mm are very common. Values up to 200 mm (about 8 in.) are reported
in the literature. In general, where heave is involved, considerable experience and
engineering judgment are necessary in estimating probable soil response, for there are
currently no reliable theories for the problem.
According to (aci), the amount depends on several factors:
a. Depth of excavation (amount of lost overburden
pressure).
b. Type of soil (sand or clay)-soil heave is less for
sand than clay. The principal heave in sand overlying
clay is usually developed in the clay.
c. Previous stress history of the soil.
d. Pore pressures developed in the soil during excavation from construction operations.
The amount of heave can range from very little-1/2 to 2 in. (12 to 50 mm)-to much larger
values. Ulrich and Focht (1982) report values in the Houston, Tex., area of as much as 4 in.
(102 mm).

Parameters for raft design

Both the above approaches to raft analysis entail three basic parameters that are of high
significance in addition to any other information that may be obtained. These are;
Rigidity of the raft
Pressure distribution under the raft
Value of sub-grade modulus