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Bearing Capacity of Mat Foundation

1. The bearing capacity of mat foundations is governed by settlement in cohesionless soils like sand, with the safe bearing capacity determined based on an allowable settlement of 25mm or 50mm. 2. In cohesive soils, Skempton's theory is used to determine the net ultimate bearing capacity based on the undrained shear strength of the soil and geometry of the foundation. 3. The safe bearing capacity of mat foundations in cohesive soils is calculated by dividing the net ultimate bearing capacity by a factor of safety of 3 for normal loading and 2 for extreme loading conditions.

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2K views6 pages

Bearing Capacity of Mat Foundation

1. The bearing capacity of mat foundations is governed by settlement in cohesionless soils like sand, with the safe bearing capacity determined based on an allowable settlement of 25mm or 50mm. 2. In cohesive soils, Skempton's theory is used to determine the net ultimate bearing capacity based on the undrained shear strength of the soil and geometry of the foundation. 3. The safe bearing capacity of mat foundations in cohesive soils is calculated by dividing the net ultimate bearing capacity by a factor of safety of 3 for normal loading and 2 for extreme loading conditions.

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Mike Matshona
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Bearing Capacity of Mat Foundation

Cohesionless Soil – In cohesionless soil a mat foundation does not fail in shear. For example, the
bearing capacity of a raft foundation having a width of 6 m, and founded to a depth of 3 m in a sand
deposit having relative density corresponding to SPT N-value of 10 is about 700 kN/m 2 which is extremely
high. In such case, the foundation may experience excessive settlement or even fail before attaining a
bearing pressure of the order cited above. This means that the bearing capacity of raft foundation in
sands is governed by settlement except for the case where the sand deposit is very loose i.e. the
corrected SPT value is less than 5.

Most of the structures in sands can tolerate a differential settlement of about 3/4 of the maximum
permissible settlement. This fact has been the basis for the design of shallow footings in sands.
Compared to spread footings the differential settlement in a mat foundation is much more reduced
as the mat bridges over the loose pockets and lenses of a soil deposit. It has been found that, for the
same loading intensity and soil condition, the differential settlement in a mat foundation is about 1/2
than that of a spread foundation. This fact suggests that the maximum settlement or healing
pressure in the case of the mat foundation can be taken as the double of the value assigned to the
spread foundation

As per Teng (1962) the safe bearing capacity can be obtained from the results of SPT test.
From shear failure criteria, the net safe bearing capacity is given by:
qns = 0.02N2BRW1 + 0.06(100 + B2)DfRW2  ———-(1)
From settlement criteria of 25 mm the safe bearing pressure is,
qna = 1.75(N-3)RW1  ———-(2)
Where, B = smaller dimension of the footing
Df = Depth of foundation
N = corrected SPT Value
RW1, RW2 = water table correction factors
Where, qns and qna are in ton/m2

Teng’s method | Meyerhof’s method | Bowles method for net safe bearing pressure
The equation is:

qns = 35(N-3){(B+0.3)/2B}2RWRd  ———- (1

Where, qns = Net safe bearing pressure, kN/m2


N = SPT value corrected for overburden pressure
RW = Water table correction factor
Rd = Depth correction factor = 1 + 0.2Df/B ≤1.2
The above equation can also written in general form as:
qns = 1.4(N-3){(B+0.3)/2B}RwRdS  ———- (2)
Where, S = Permissible settlement in mm.
Meyerhof’s method – Meyerhof (1965) suggested the following procedure to obtain allowable
bearing pressure to give a settlement of 25 mm.
Procedure:
 N value should not be corrected with respect to overburden.
 qa is obtained from the chart shown in fig.4.11.
 qa should not be corrected against ground water table.
 Multiply qa by 150 %.
The equation proposed by Meyerhof (1974) is slightly different from Tongs equation. The equation
proposed is:
qns = 12NRwRd for B ≤1.2m  ———- (3)
qns = 8N{(B+0.3)/B}2RwRd for B>1.3 m  ———- (4)
Where, qns = Net safe bearing pressure, kN/m2
N = SPT value corrected for overburden pressure
Rw = Water table corrected factor
Rd = Depth correction factor = 1 + 0.33Df/B ≤1.33
Bowles method – The equation proposed by Meyerhof and Tong were found to be very
conservative and Bowles (1982) modified these equations. The equations proposed are:
Teng’s modified equation,
qns 53(N-3){(B+0.3)/2B}2RwRd  ———- (5)
Meyerhof’s modified equation,
qns = 20NRWRd for ≤1.2 m and  ———- (6)
qns = 12.5N{(B+0.3)/B}2RWRd for B>1.3 m  ———- (7)
Where, qns = Net safe bearing pressure, kN/m2
N = SPT value corrected for overburden pressure
 RW = Water table correction factor
 Rd = Depth correction factor = 1+ 0.33 Df/B ≤ 1.33.
The value of bearing capacity factors are found out from the graph as shown in Fig.2 above. It is for
mix shear condition. The values of Nγ and Nq are used to bearing capacity of granular soil on the
basis of shear failure criteria.
It has been found that the Teng’s equation for bearing capacity based on allowable settlement is
conservative and hence it is suggested to use the relation suggested by Peck et al (1974). The
relation is:
qna = 22RWN  ———-(3)
The above equation is applicable for 5 ≤ N ≤ 50. If the value of N after proper correction is less than
5 the raft would not be feasible. The sand is either compacted or a deep foundation is provided. For
N values greater than 50, the above equation gives conservative results. The value of q na is for 50
mm allowable settlement, for other values of allowable settlement a linear interpolation is to be done.

Skempton’s Theory for Cohesive Soil


Skempton 1951 suggested a bearing capacity theory for saturated clay for which ɸ = 0. Skempton gives
Nc, the bearing capacity factor on the basis of theory, laboratory tests and field observations. It was found
that the value of Nc increased with the increase in Df/B ratio. The expression for Nc proposed by
Skempton is given below.

For Strip footings,

Nc = 5(1+0.2Df/B), with a maximum limiting value of 7.5  ———- (1)

For square and circular footings,


Nc = 6(1+0.2Df/B), with a maximum limiting value of 9.0  ———- (2)

For rectangular footings,


Nc = 5(1+0.2Df/B) (1+0.2B/L) for Df/B ≤ 2.5  ———- (3)
7.5(1+0.2Df/B) (1+0.2B/L) for Df/B > 2.5  ———- (4) 
For ɸ = 0 condition, the net ultimate bearing capacity is given by:
Qnet = cuNç  ———- (5)

Alternatively, the graph given in Fig.1 above can be used to find the bearing capacity factor N c.
Where, Nc (rect) = Nc(sq)[0.84 + 0.16B/L] . As per Skemption, if the shear strength of the soil does
not vary more than ± 50 % of the average value for a depth 2/3B below the footing, the average
value of cu can be used in the above equation.

Cohesive Soil – In cohesive soil the net ultimate beating capacity on the basis of shear failure
criteria is determined by Skempton’s equation, which is:

   ———- (4)
Where, Nc is the bearing capacity factor for a strip footing at surface and is taken as 5. Cu is the
undrained shear strength, Df, B and L are depth, width and length of footing respectively. The safe
bearing capacity is given by:
qns = qnu/F  ———-(5)
Where, F is the factor of safety. The factor of safety should neither be less than 3 for normal loading
condition and 2 for extreme loading condition.
The quantity in the above equation is the pressure at the elevation of the base of the foundation in
excess of that exerted by surrounding surcharge. If Q be the total load imposed at the base of the
raft due to dead load and live load, the gross pressure at the base is Q/A , Where A is the area of
the raft.
In terms of net bearing capacity the gross pressure is,
Q/A = qns + γ×Df  ———-(6)
Where γ is the unit weight of the soil and Df is the depth of foundation. Thus we can write the net
allowable bearing pressure as:
qns = (Q/A) – γ×Df  ———- (7)
Hence the factor of safety can be written as:

   ———- (8)
 
If a raft is placed at depth Df such that the weight of excavated soil becomes equal to the gross
applied load, the factor of safety becomes infinite i.e. (Q/A) – γ×Df = 0. In such a case the raft
foundation is called a “Floating Foundation”, where the total load at the base of the raft is fully
compensated by the weight of the soil excavated. However, in practice it is not possible to obtain a
fully compensated raft possibly due to the uncertainties involved in the estimation of the loads or in
the action of surcharge.
The factor of safety does not decrease proportionately with the increase in load. Compared to rate of
increase in load, the decrease in factor of safety is very rapid. Furthermore, an error in estimating
the loads (LL + DL) has a greater influence in the factor of safety for a weak soil than for a strong
one.
The depth of foundation for a raft to obtain a desired factor of safety is a trial and error procedure.
However, the convergence is very rapid if a reasonable value of D and B is assumed.

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