RAFT FOUNDATION

The procedure for raft design is as

follow
For design of raft foundation use inverted floor/flat slab approch. Calculate
the loads coming on the raft for Gravity load and buoyant load exerted by
water separately.
Consider maximum load for design out of both loads.Then calculate the
moments from Moment distribution method. Calculate thickness of raft
required.
Check that thickness for Punching shear criteria. Check raft settlement also.
You can use FEM also.The result by FEM will be compactible only when
the assumption made for soil stiffness are correct one.
If it doesn't find suitable go for Piled raft foundation.
This is most efficient and economical type of foundation
for your case.

Whether we have to add base pressure (from gravity loads) with uplift
pressure

Check for buoyancy in case of uplift...pl compare the

total upward pressure versus total dead wt of raft
and ensure a factor of safety of at least 1.25,
preferably 1.5...sothat the raft is not washed away
during construction itself, or else u may have to carry
out continuous dewatering until basement roof has
been cast too and the counterwt is adequate to
achieve this factor of safety.
The uplift pr is to be considered while performing the
overall check forbuoyancy alone, while designing the
RCC of the raft we do not add it to thebase pressure
generated due to dead and live loads.

I want to model the founding soil

Effect of Soil Structure Interaction on High
Rise Building founded on Soft Soil subject
to Seismic Forces".
We have SAP 2000 and STAAD 2004
available in our college. Is any one of you
have idea @ How to model the founding
soil & how to define its Dynamic.
You can either user soil springs to model
Winkler type foundation or else you can
also use 3DSOLID elements to model soil.

Option2
The actual problem is too complicated. However, in practice the soil is
sometimes replaced by a set of springs - springs in all 6 DOF if you are
modelling the superstructure by beam elements.
The expressions used are based on studies on Machine Foundations.
If you are in Mumbai, the BARC and IIT-Bombay libraries have excellent
publications on Soil Structure Interaction.
Not only soil springs but soil damping is also to be considered and
modal damping must be derived.
It is not an easy problem even with gross assumptions of soil as spring-dashpot
system. There is a controversy associated with how much soil mass to be
lumped or not. Just blindly using packaged software, will lead you nowhere.
You must read literature and note the assumptions.
This is not to discourage you but to inform you that if you are doing
research, you must readw what has been attempted so far.

On the contray, if you are designing, anything goes. There is a draft

Code [may be already finalised] on industrial structures which you may
use for design but not for research.

Raft Footing
Treating a raft foundation as rigid is not only
wrong but is also dangerous.
The correct way to design rafts is to treat
them as beams on an elastic foundation, by
means of the following methods:
(i) Miklos Hetyeni's closed solution
(ii) Finite grid method (J.E. Bowles)
(iii) Finite element method.

 Raft footing on soft, low BC soil is normally designed

as beams on elastic foundation. But for hard, high BC
soil, soil deformations are normally minimal and do
not impact on the behavior of raft footing under load.
In such a case, raft footing can be considered as
"rigid". I've heard, but neither practised, nor read in
the literature, of a raft footing on a hard rock strata
being treated as an elastic plate.Is a raft necessary
on Hard Soil ?
I thought Raft / Piles are used when soil is iffy to
support footings of columns in that case, raft may
have to be designed as a plate resting on flexible soil

 RIGIDITYOFRAFTMEANSRIGIDTYOFCONCRETEELEMENTand not the Hardnessor Softness of supporting

Soil.
For same Vertical Loads (Dl + LL ) and OVERTURNING MOMENT (M) aVery Thick
Concrete (say 11 Ft.) will have no flexure stresses (Bending Moment) in Concrete
anda nominal thickness ( 3 ft.) will bentlike a beam bending and will have flexure stresses in concrete.
Thick Concrete ( 11 ft.) will rotate like a Rigid Plate on Soil Springs with no flexure
Stresses.
For Vertical Loads only Shear Stresses in Concrete no Flexure Stresses.

It is the Rigidity or Thickness of Concrete Element and not thestiffness ofthe Soil,

Soft Soil or Hard Soil is the issue in such analysis.

If you have a Concrete footing sitting on Rock Surface you will have onlyDirect Bearing
Stresses and no flexure stresses. agree that in several cases, even on hard soil, a raft type
footing may result as default. in case of elevated circular water towers, we use annular circular
raft.also, wherever the columns are closely spaced, the individual footings may overlap
resulting in strip footings
for design purposes, on hard soil, mostly such footings are deemed to be fixed at base

 If one does not model the foundation & soil but considers only the
superstructure over the foundation, then forces on foundation & soil,
could be worked out based on static check.

The external forces applied on the superstructure are ONLY vertical -

distributed over space for dead and live loads. This will result in
vertical reactive loads on the foundation & soil. The CG of applied
vertical loads will coincide with the CG of reactive loads.
A similar argument holds good for horizontal loads. The horizontal
loads applied at a height will result in horizontal reaction and as
upward & downward reactive forces due to moment caused by the
lever arm of horizontal force.

 Please note the unit for fixed but is KN/m or Ton/m etc ...wherein u have to multiply subgrade reaction with
inflence area and if u go for elastic/plate mat than u have to give only the subgrade reaction value which
may be Kn/sqm/m etc...Ton/sqm/m...so u can go for either of this three which suits u..
This is from STAAD help menu..whenever u have any doubt go to STAAD help menu...u have a search
option wherein u can get ur doubts clarified...I have just written small abstact from STAAD help menu...for
detail refer STAAD help...
TheELASTICFOOTING option:If you want to specify the influence area of a joint yourself and have
STAAD simply multiply the area you specified by the sub-grade modulus, use the FOOTING option.
Situations where this may be appropriate are such as when a spread footing is located beneath a joint
where you want to specify a spring support.
TheELASTIC MAToption:If you want to have STAAD calculate the influence area for the joint (instead of
you specifying an area yourself) and use that area along with the sub-grade modulus to determine the
spring stiffness value, use theMAToption. Situations where this may be appropriate are such as when a
slab is on soil and carries the weight of the structure above. You may have modeled the entire slab as finite
elements and wish to generate spring supports at the nodes of the elements.
The PLATEMAToption :Similar to theElastic Matexcept for the method used to compute the influence
area for the joints. If yourmatconsists of plate elements and all of the influence areas are incorporated in
the plate areas, then this option is preferable


Generally in the industry we use to use Plate mats
with spring supports defined by giving modulus of
subgrade reactions.

I am still not clear about the requirements of elastic

mat and plate mat. In which particular case we have
use elastic mat and in which case we have to use plate
mat.

I for one has done the following for RAFT/MAT foundation design:
A) Use the STAAD/PRO Mat design for Mx and My only ignoring Mxy (Twisting
Moment.But make sure :
1) Thickness Check is based on largestvalue of Factored Load Combinations SQX
and SQY of all elements. I add3 inch extra in thickness for bottom cover.
2) Reinforcement Top Layer and Bottom layer of Mat is based on Mx and My but
is not less than ACI 318-11 section 15.10.4 (Minimum Reinforcing Steel). This
section requires that we provide at top as well as bottom layer in both
directionAs (Minimum Reinforcing) = 0.0018XBH (ACI 318-11 section
7.12.2.1)/Ft. of Mat.WhereB = 12" and H = thickness (Gross Section) of Mat.
This ACI 318-11 section 15.10.4 is so conservative that 90% of thePlate
Elements design in STAAD/PRO for actual Mx and My will give you less calculated
reinforcement area/ft. If you provideminimum area of reinforcement/ft. =
0.0018bhat top and bottom in both direction, you have plenty of reinforcement
in Mat to ignore WOOD ARMER equation for Twisting Moment Mxy.

 In continuation, the efficacy and feasibility of the following

methods may also be explored:
1. Lime stabilisation for the full depth of 5m
2. Provision ofstone columns, which may be cost effective
compared to RCC piles
The load to be transferred by your structure is meagre.
Even then, I feel it is not advisable to place the foundation
(even floating type) over the BC soil as it will considerably
swell when wet and shrink when dry, thereby causing a lot
of possible movement & tilt for it. Can you replace the BC
soil for a 3mx3m area , 5m deep ? Otherwise, is some 5m
deep socketed piling possible ?
Hard Soil is at 5m below the Ground Level .Please suggest
alternate solution

 In continuation, the efficacy and feasibility of the following

methods may also be explored:
1. Lime stabilisation for the full depth of 5m
2. Provision ofstone columns, which may be cost effective
compared to RCC piles
The load to be transferred by your structure is meagre.
Even then, I feel it is not advisable to place the foundation
(even floating type) over the BC soil as it will considerably
swell when wet and shrink when dry, thereby causing a lot
of possible movement & tilt for it. Can you replace the BC
soil for a 3mx3m area , 5m deep ? Otherwise, is some 5m
deep socketed piling possible ?
Hard Soil is at 5m below the Ground Level .Please suggest
alternate solution

 Usually, differential settlement is not

a problem in raft foundation. Hence
this type of foundation is adopted
when two or more types of soils are
encountered within the area of
building. Of course, rafts are also
used when the SBC is poor and the
footings of columns merge.