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CHAPTER TWO
BEARING CAPACITY OF SOILS
2.0 Introduction
Every structure consists of two basic Components: the superstructure and the
substructure. The lowest artificially built part of a structure that rests on or in the
ground, which transmits the load of the superstructure to the supporting strata is called
foundation. Foundations can be broadly classified into two categories
x Shallow foundations: - are foundations whose depth below the ground level (Df)
is approximately less than or equal to their least dimension (width) (i.e. Df %).
Isolated footings and mat foundations are common examples of shallow
foundations.
x Deep foundations: - are foundations whose depth below the ground level (Df) is
greater than their least dimension (width) (i.e. Df >> B). piles foundations, piers
and caissons are common examples of deep foundations.
To ensure stability, foundations must provide an adequate factor of safety against shear
or bearing failure of the underlying soil and the structure must be capable of
withstanding the settlements that will result. Thus the criteria for the determination of
the bearing capacity of a foundation are based on the requirements for the stability of
the foundation. The design value of the safe bearing capacity would be the smaller of
the two values, obtained from the two criteria which are;
¾ Shear strength criterion
¾ Settlement criterion
The load per unit area of the foundation at which shear failure in soil occurs is called the
ultimate bearing capacity, qu, of the soil.
The bearing capacity is affected by factors like;
x Nature of the soil and its physical and engineering properties.
x Size, shape, depth, rigidity and roughness of the foundation.
x Water table conditions and initial stresses in the soil.
x The settlement that the structure can withstand without functional failure.
The general shear failure (Fig. 2.1a) is usually associated with soils of low
compressibility such as dense sand and stiff cohesive soils. In this case, if load is
gradually applied to the foundation, settlement will increase. At a certain point – when
the applied load per unit area equals to the ultimate load qu – a sudden failure in the soil
supporting the foundation will take place. The failure surface in the soil will extend to
the ground surface and full shear resistance of the soil is developed along the failure
surface. Bulging of the soil near the footing is usually apparent.
Figure 2.1: Modes of bearing failures (a) General shear failure (b) Local shear failure
(c) Punching shear failure.
For the local shear failure (Fig. 2.1b), which is common in sands and clays of medium
compaction, the failure surface will gradually extend outward from the foundation but
will not reach the ground surface as shown by the solid segment in Fig. 2.1b. The shear
resistance is fully developed over only part of the failure surface (solid segment of the
line). There is a certain degree of bulging of the soil.
In the case of punching shear failure, a condition common in loose and very
compressible soils, considerable vertical settlement may take place with the failure
surfaces restricted to vertical planes immediately adjacent to the sides of the foundation;
the ground surface may be dragged down. After the first yield has occurred the
load-settlement curve will be steep slightly, but remain fairly flat.
The shape, inclination and depth factors are according to the following equations.
Shape Depth Inclination
2
B D § D0 ·
Any I ' sc 1 0.2 K p dc 1 0.2 K p ic iq ¨¨1 0 ¸¸
L B © 90 ¹
For I ' 0 sq = sȖ= 1 dq = dȖ= 1 iȖ = 0
2
B D § D0 ·
For I 't 10 0
sq sJ 1 0.1K p dq dJ 1 0.1 K p iJ ¨¨1 0 ¸¸
L B © I' ¹
§ I' ·
Kp tan 2 ¨ 45 ¸ , D = inclination angle of the load measured from vertical axis.
© 2¹
§ B· '
when triaxial I ' is used for plane strain, adjust I ' to obtain I ' ¨1.1 0.1 ¸I triaxial
© L¹
For the eccentric load, the length and width terms of the shape factor are modified to:
L’ = L – 2eL and B’ = B – 2eB (2.9)
Where eL and eB represent the eccentricity along the appropriate directions.
Equation 2.10 is sometimes referred to as the general bearing capacity equation. In the
special case of a horizontal ground surface & base, the equation is the same as
Meyerhof’s equation (eq. 2.7)
For undrained conditions ( Iu 0 ):
qu cN c (1 sc d c ic bc g c ) q (2.11)
Note that the bearing capacity factors Nc and Nq are identical with Meyerhof’s factors.
NȖ is defined by:
NJ 1.5( N q 1) tan I (2.12)
Since failure can take place either along the long side or along the short side, Hansen
proposed two sets of shape, inclination and depth factors.
The inclination factors are:
ic , B iq , B
1 iq , B
iq , B
§
¨¨1
0.5 H B ·
¸¸
D1
iJ , B
§
¨¨1
0.7 (K o / 450o ) H B ·
¸¸ (2.13)
D2
ic , L iq , L
1 iq , L
iq , L
§
¨¨1
0.5 H L ·
¸¸
D1
iJ , L
§
¨¨1
0.7 (K o 450o ) H L ·
¸¸ (2.14)
D2
B L
If I = 0: sc,B 0.2 ic , B , sc,L 0.2 ic , L (2.18)
L B
1 E 1 0.5 tan E 5
0
gc , gq gJ (2.25)
147 0
If I=0: gc E0 (2.26)
147 0
The base factors are;
1 K
0
bc , bq e 2K tan I ' ȘLQUDGLDQ, bJ e 2.7K tan I ' ȘLQUDGLDQ (2.27)
147 0
If I=0: bc K0 (2.28)
147 0
qnet qu J cD f
Case-3:- Water table below the base of the footing but within the wedge zone
Figure 2.7c shows the case where the water table lies within the wedge zone (depth
approximately + %
WDQĭ from the base of the footing. When this condition
is encountered;
In the surcharge term use q JD f
Jc
In the wedge term replace J with J eq 2 H d w d w2 J 2
H d w 2
H H
Case-4:- Water table below the wedge zone
Figure 2.7d shows the case where the water table lies below the wedge zone. In this case
no modification is required.
qu cN c sc ic qN q sq iq 0.5JBN J sJ iJ (2.31)
Where, N c N q = Bowles bearing capacity factors and are given in figure 2.9 below.
Figure 2.9: Bearing capacity factors (Nc & Nq) for footings on or adjacent to slopes.
(a) (b)
Figure 2.11: (a) eccentrically loaded foundation. (b) equivalent centrically loaded
foundation
In this equation:
¾ Use the effective width (B’) in the wedge term %¶Ȗ¶1ȖSȖdȖiȖ).
¾ To evaluate the shape factors (Sc, Sq, and SȖ) use the effective length and effective
width dimensions instead of L and B, respectively. But when you calculate the
depth factors (dc, dq, and dȖ) do not replace B with B’.
The total ultimate load that the foundation can support is given by:
Pu qu * A' qu * ( B' L' ) (2.35)
Q M xx M y y Q § 6eB 6eL ·
q r r or q ¨1 r r ¸ (2.36)
A I yy I xx A© B L ¹
When ex or ey exceed a certain limit, qmin gives a negative value, which indicates tension
between the soil and the bottom of the footing. Since the tensile strength of soils is
approximately zero, qmin should always be greater than zero. On the other hand, the
value of qmax should always be less than qu.
Therefore, equation 2.36 is applicable only when the load is applied within a limited
area which is known as the Kern as is shown shaded in Fig 2.12 so that the load may
fall within the shaded area to avoid tension.
¾ A pit is excavated with a minimum width or diameter of 4Bp (Bp is the diameter of the
test plate) to a depth of Df (the depth of the proposed foundation).
¾ The plate is placed at the center of the hole, and a load that is about one-fourth to
one-fifth of the estimated ultimate load is applied to the plate in steps by means of a
jack. During each step of the application of the load, the settlement of the plate is
observed on dial gauges. At least one hour is allowed to elapse between each
application.
¾ The test should be conducted until failure, or at least until the plate has gone through
25 mm of settlement.
¾ Once completion of the test, the plate is unloaded in the same incremental steps (to
draw the expansion curve).
Where qu(F) & qu(P) are ultimate bearing capacity of foundation and plate, respectively.
Eqn. (2.38) implies that the bearing capacity in clays is independent of plate size.
For tests in sandy soil,
BF
qu ( F ) qu ( p ) (2.39)
Bp
Where BF and BP stand for width of foundation and plate, respectively.
There are several problems associated with the plate load test. The test is reliable if the
soil layer is thick and homogeneous, local conditions such as a pocket of weak soil near
the surface of plate can affect the test results but these may have no significant effect on
the real footing, the correlation between plate load results and real footing is
problematic, and performance of the test is generally difficult.
The N-values should be corrected for different factors before using them using:
N'cor C N N n1 n2 n3 n4 (2.40)
In the field, the magnitude of Erb can vary from 30 to 90%. The standard practice is to
express (standardize) the N-value to one of the following average energy ratio.
N = The statistical average value of the corrected SPT N-value (N’55, N’60 or N’70) in
the footing influence zone, which is taken to be the zone between 0.5B above the base
of the footing up to 2B below the base of the footing.
qu RQD
2
qu(modified)
EXAMPLE-1
For the data given in the figure shown below, determine the ultimate bearing capacity
using: a) Terzaghi’s, b) Meyerhof’s and c) Hansen’s bearing capacity equations.
EXAMPLE-2
Determine the ultimate bearing capacity of a square footing 2mx2m, located at a depth
of 1.5m below the ground. The soil has c’ = 70KPa, I ' =300 and J = 17KN/m3. Use
Terzaghi’s, Meyerhof’s and Hansen’s bearing capacity equations. Also determine the
maximum ultimate load the footing can support in each case.
EXAMPLE-3
A rectangular footing 2m x 3m, supports an inclined load as shown below. Determine
the ultimate bearing capacity using (a) Meyerhof’s and (b) Hansen’s bearing capacity
equations.
EXAMPLE-4
Determine the ultimate bearing capacity of a square footing 1.5 m, at a depth of 1 m in a
soil c’ = 10 KPa, I ' =280, cu = 105 KPa, Iu =0 and J = 19 KN/m3. Using;
(a) Terzaghi’s, (b) Meyerhof’s and (c) Hansen’s bearing capacity equations.
EXAMPLE-5
A rectangular foundation 2m x 3m in plan is constructed at a depth of 2m from the
ground surface. The soil has I ' =10o, c’ = 40 KPaȖ .1P3 DQGȖsat = 19.5KN/m3.
Using FS=3, determine the gross allowable load the foundation can carry if;
(a) The water table is at great depth.
(b) The water table is at 2.5m from the ground surface.
(c) The water table is at 2m from the ground surface.
(d) The water table is at 0.5m from the ground surface.
(e) The water table is at the ground surface.
EXAMPLE-6
The figure below shows a shallow strip footing on the top of a clay slope, Determine the
allowable bearing capacity of the foundation with a factor of safety of 4.
EXAMPLE-7
A 2.5mX2.5m square footing is to be placed at a depth of 2m below ground level in a
clay layer. The water table is at a depth of 1.5m below ground level. Properties of the
clay are; cu = 90KN/m2, Iu = 0, c’ = 10 KN/m2,I’ = 20°, Jsat = 20KN/m3, J = 18KN/m3.
The footing supports a vertical column load which has an eccentricity of 0.04m along
the x-axis. Determine the maximum load that can be applied to the column.
EXAMPLE-8
A footing 2m square is located at a depth of 1m below the ground surface in a deep
deposit of compacted sand, I ' =300, c’=0, and J =18 KN/m3. The footing is subjected
to a vertical load of 500KN and moments about the x-axis of 100KNm and about the
y-axis of 125KNm. The ground water table is 5m below the ground surface. Use
Meyerhof’s bearing capacity equation and calculate the factor of safety.