Chapter 4 Introduction to Foundation Engineering

1.1. Introduction Footings are structural members used to support columns or walls and transmit their load to the underlying soils. Reinforced concrete is the most suited material for footing for reinforced concrete and structural steel buildings, walls, towers, bridges, and other structures. Since the bearing capacity of soils is normally low (usually less than 400 kPa), and the load from a column or wall is large (usually greater than 1000 kPa), the footing spreads the column or wall pressure to the soil by providing bigger bearing area, thus reducing the bearing pressure within permissible values. Foundation engineering applies the knowledge of soil mechanics, rock mechanics, geology, and structural engineering to the design and construction of foundations for buildings and other structures. The most basic aspect of foundation engineering deals with the selection of the type of foundation, such as using a shallow or deep foundation system. Another important aspect of foundation engineering involves the development of design parameters, such as the bearing capacity of the foundation. 1.2. Types of Footings The common types of footing are the wall footing, isolated or single-column footing, combined footing, raft or mat, and pile caps. 1. A wall footing is a continuous strip of concrete that supports a bearing wall. 2. An isolated or single-column footing is a square, rectangular, or circular slab of concrete that supports an individual column. These are widely used for columns with light load and are not closely spaced. 3. A combined footing is a longer rectangular slab strip that supports two or more individual columns. This type might be economical where two heavily loaded columns are so spaced that when designed for isolated footing would run into each other. Isolated footings are usually square or rectangular and, when used for columns located right at the property line, would extend beyond those lines. The footing for such a column can be combined with an interior column to (it within the property line. 4. A floating, raft, or mat foundation is a single thick mat or slab that supports the entire structure. This kind of foundation is used where soil strength is low or where column loads are large but where piles or caissons are not used. For these types of footings, the excavations are deep. The goal is to remove an amount of earth approximately equal to the building weight. 5. Pile caps are slabs of reinforced concrete used to distribute column loads to group of piles.

1.3. Permissible Soil Pressures, qa The allowable soil bearing capacity qa to be used in the design of footing can be obtained by the principles of soil mechanics through the services of a soils engineer. This can be derived on the basis of test borings, load tests, and other experimental investigation. In the absence of soil investigation, the building code of the Philippines provide certain approximate allowable bearing pressures that can be used for the type of soil and soil conditions. 1.4. Loads and Reactions in Footing According to the NSCP Code Section 415, the base area of footing and the number of piles may be determined from unfactored forces and moments transmitted by footing to soil or piles and permissible soil pressure or permissible pile capacity.

Area of Footing =

Unfactored Load (DL + LL) Effective Soil Pressure, qe Unfactored Load (DL + LL) Number of Piles = Load Capacity per Pile

qe the effective soil bearing capacity.

Where: c = unit weight of concrete (usually taken as 23.54 kN/m2)

qa - c hc - s hs

s = unit weight of soil above the footing hs = height of soil above the footing

hc = total depth of footing