KNS 3243 Foundation Engineering

CHAPTER 1: Shallow Foundations

Design for Settlement Criteria

Prepared by Fauzan Sahdi

Shallow Foundations - Settlement

Introduction

You are now an expert in designing shallow foundations, with the goal of
avoiding shear failure of the underlying soil. This design is termed the
ULTIMATE LIMITE STATE design, because the bearing capacity
equations are derived from the conditions of PLASTIC EQUILIBRIUM (soil
on the verge of failure).

But, ask yourself, is this enough? Do we have to worry about

displacements of the structure supported on the footings? Indeed, we
should!!!!

Like any structural design, we should be concerned about the

displacement of the structure above the footing caused by settlement of
the soil

Under vertical load, soils will settle (compress), eventhough the vertical
load is much less than that required to cause shear failure at the ULS.
This is why we sometimes use the elastic parameters of the soil

This design method is called the SERVICEABILITY LIMIT STATE (SLS)

Shallow Foundations - Settlement

Footing
Settlem
ent

Immediate
settlement (elastic
settlement)

Primary
consolidation
settlement (for
clays!)

Secondary
consolidation
settlement (a.k.a
creep)

Shallow Foundations - Settlement

Determination of stress induced by footing

Before calculating elastic and consolidation settlement, we need to

learn to determine the vertical stress below a footing and how it
changes with both depth and horizontal distance

Since we normally encounter rectangular/square footings, we will limit

our scope of calculating the vertical stress in soil induced by such a
footing shape
Recall that from your previous Geotechnical Engineering course:
qs

Shallow Foundations - Settlement

Determination of stress induced by footing
At the footing corner (point A in the previous figure), the vertical stress at
any depth within the soil, z may be calculated as:

Where the influence factor Iz is:

Shallow Foundations - Settlement

Determination of stress induced by footing

Vertical stress contour below a

square
foundation.

Shallow Foundations - Settlement

Determination of stress induced by footing

Influence factor for calculating

the vertical stress increase
under
the
corner
of
a
rectangle.

Shallow Foundations - Settlement

Determination of stress induced by footing

So far, we know how to calculate the vertical stress under a footing at the corners.
What if we want to calculate the vertical stress at any point, O under the footing.
We can do this by dividing the rectangle into 4 rectangles of any width and length
as in the figure below. The vertical stress at any depth below O is then:

zO q s I z1 I z 2 I z3 I z4

You can see that the maximum stress is at the middle of the rectangular area. Max
stress = max settlement. This is why we are usually only interested in the stress
state on the middle of the footing

Shallow Foundations - Settlement

Determination of stress induced by footing
Example 7

Shallow Foundations - Settlement

Immediate Settlement (Elastic Settlement)

Gazetas et al. (1985) considered an arbitrarily shaped rigid footing

embedded in a deep homogeneous soil and proposed that the elastic
settlement, e can be calculated as:
V
e n (1 v 2 ) s emb wall
Vn is the vertical load

ELc

A
s 0.45
2
4L c
emb 1 0.04
wall

Df
Bc

0.38

E is the Youngs Modulus of

the soil use Eu for TSA and
E for ESA

v : Poissons ratio of the soil

use vu for TSA and v for ESA

Bc = one half of the width of a

circumscribed rectangle

Lc = One half the length of a

circumscribed rectangle

s, emb, wall shape,

embedment and wall
correction factors
respectively

2Lc

4 A
1

3 4Lc 2

A
1 0.16 w
A

2Bc

0.54

Shallow Foundations - Settlement

Immediate Settlement (Elastic Settlement)
Example 8
Determine the immediate settlement of a rectangular footing 4 m x 6 m
embedded in a deep deposit of homogeneous clay as shown in the fig
below:

Shallow Foundations - Settlement

Consolidation Settlement

Calculation of consolidation settlement in clays really depends on the stress

history i.e. whether it is a Normally Consolidated Clay (NCL) or an
Overconsolidated Clay (OC).

Consolidation settlement can be determined by considering the one

dimensional consolidation graph, normally obtained from oedometer tests (You
have seen this already in Soil Mechanics).

The final effective vertical stress, fin at any depth under the centre of a footing
can
be
taken
as:

Where zo is the existing effective overburden pressure and z is the vertical

stress induced by the footing, which can be obtained using the elastic approach
weve seen in the last few slides.

Shallow Foundations - Settlement

Consolidation Settlement

If the soil is NC clay, then the consolidation settlement, pc is:

Shallow Foundations - Settlement

Consolidation Settlement Calculation of settlement
If the soil is OC clay, we need to consider 2 cases refer the previous figure

Shallow Foundations - Settlement

Assignment (Due 1 week)

Calculate the consolidation settlement of the soft clay due to the

footing, which supports a dead load = 300 kN and a live load =
200 kN. Assume a square footing with B = L = 3 m and D f = 1.5 m.