Foundation Engineering

Dr. Rizgar A. Hummadi

Ph.D Soil Mech. & Foundation Eng.
References:

Das B.M. 2016 “Principles of Foundation Engineering”

CENGAGE Learning 8th edition
Bowles J.E. 1997“Foundation Analysis and Design” Mc Graw
Hill international 6th Edition
Coduto D. P. 2010“Foundation Design” International edition
Prentice Hall
Tomlinson M. J. 1986 “Foundation Design and Construction”.
5th edition Prentice Hall
Peck&Hunsen 1976“Foundation Engineering”. 2nd edition,
John Wiley
Teng W.C.1974 “Foundation Design” 3rd edition Prentice Hall
Specifications
ACI Code 2011

Syllabus
Chap. 1: Introduction
Chap.2: Site Investigation and Soil Exploration
Chap.3: Bearing Capacity of Shallow Foundations
Chap.4: Settlement of Shallow Foundations
Chap.5: Design of Shallow Foundations(Spread, Wall,
Combined, .........)
Chap. 6: Earth Retaining Structures
Chap. 7: Bearing Capacity of Piles

Appendixes:
Design Tables, Charts , Formulas

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 Introduction

Foundation is the substructure which transfers the weight of a

structure to the underlying soil or rock . A foundation is
interfacing element between the superstructure and the
underlying soil or rock. The loads transmitted by the
foundation to the underling soil must not cause soil shear
failure or damaging settlement of the superstructure.
The term "foundation engineering" is used to include the
design of foundations for buildings and other structures and
also for such non-foundation problems as designs of
retaining walls, bulkheads, cofferdams, tunnels as well as
the design of natural slopes, dewatering of soils, and
improvement of soils mechanically and chemically. The
foundation Engineer must possess a working knowledge in
each of the following areas:
Structural engineering: A foundation is a structural member
that must be capable of transmitting the applied loads. So
we must understand the principals and practices of
structural engineering.
Geotechnical engineering: All foundations interact with ground
so the design must reflect the engineering properties and
behavior of adjacent soil and rock. Thus the foundation
engineer must understand geotechnical engineering.
Construction engineering: It deals with planning, construction,
and management of structures, the construction remedies
for any problems that encountered during construction of
foundations and slopes must be taken into consideration.

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Classification of Foundations:

Foundation can be divided into two main groups:

Shallow Foundation: where depth of foot/width of foot  1-

4

Deep Foundation : where depth of foot/width of foot  4

0ne-Shallow Foundation Types

1. Single or column footings (Isolated )
A footing carrying a single column is called a spread footing,
since its function is to “spread” the column load to the soil.
This action will reduce the stress intensity to a value that the
soil can safely carry. Spread footings are sometimes called
single or isolated footings. They are square, rectangular or
circular pads which spread a column load over an area of soil
that is large enough to support the column load.
2. Strip or wall footings used to support bearing walls.
3. Combined footings that support more than one column.
These are useful when columns are located too close to the
property line the load can not be centered so the load is eccentric.
It may be rectangular or trapezoidal shape footings.
4. Strap footing consisting of two or more column footings
connected by a concrete beam. This type of beam is called a strap
beam. It is used to help distribute the weight of either heavily or
eccentrically loaded column footings to adjacent footings.
5. Mat (Raft) footings (Thickened slabs) Is a large concrete slab
used to interface one or more columns in several lines with the
base soil. It may occupy the entire foundation area or only a
portion.

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 Wall footing

property
line

P P
1 2

2 footings
close
to each other

Combined Footings

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6
 Two-Deep Foundations They are used when top layers have poor load-
bearing capacity or the applied load is so high that use of shallow
foundations will cause considerable structural damage or instability.
Deep foundations can be used to transfer the loading to a deeper,
more competent strata at depth.
It derive their support from deeper soils or bedrock by base bearing
and/or skin friction.
Common Types of Deep Foundations are :
1. Pile foundations (Reinforced concrete, steel, timber …) 2. Piers
3. Caissons 4. Compensated foundations
Pile foundations are the part of a structure used to carry and transfer
the load of the structure to the bearing ground located at some depth
below ground surface.
The main components of the foundation are the pile cap and the
piles.
Pile foundations are frequently needed because of the relative
inability of shallow footings to resist inclined, lateral, or uplift loads
·
and overturning moments.
Pile foundations are used in areas of expansive or collapsible soils to
resist undesirable seasonal movements of the foundations.
Pile caps are thick slabs used to tie a group of piles together to
support and transmit column loads to the piles.

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Compensated Foundations :are deep
foundations in which the relief of stress due to
excavation is approximately balanced by the
applied stress due to the foundation. The net
stress applied is therefore very small. A
compensated foundation normally comprises
a deep basement.

Compensated
Caission foundations

Other Foundations :Sheet Piles-Retaining Walls –Abutment of Bridges-

Coffer Dams ,Earth Dams

SheetPiles 8
 Earth reinforced
Retaining Walls

Abutments Dam

cofferdam

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 Offshore structure

Failure case
in
a foundation

Heidrun, the first tension leg floater with a

concrete hull
(by courtesy of Aker Maritime)
• completed 1995
• hull draft at field 77 m
• concrete volume 66 000 m3, LC 60, density 1950
kg/m3
• water depth 345 m
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11
Subsurface Exploration
 Subsurface Exploration
The process of identifying the layers of deposits that underlie a
proposed structure and their physical characteristics is generally referred
to as subsurface exploration.
The Purpose
- Selecting the type and depth of foundation suitable for given structure.
- To find the soil and rock profile and their engineering properties.
-Evaluating bearing capacity of the foundation for both shear and
settlement criteria
-Determining potential problems (expansive, collapsible, waste fill,
chemical hazards)
-Determine location of the water table

Subsurface Exploration Program

Subsurface exploration program comprises several steps, including the
1-collection of preliminary information
2- reconnaissance
3-site investigation

1-Collection of preliminary information

The step involves obtaining information regarding the type of structure to
be built and its general use for the construction, the approximate column
loads and their spacing and the local building code and basement
requirements should be known. The construction of bridges requires
determining the lengths of their spans.

2-Reconnaissance
The engineer should make a visual inspection of the site to obtain
information about
1.The general topography of the site, the possible existence of drainage
ditches, abandoned dumps of debris, and other materials present at the
site. Also, evidence of creep of slopes and deep, wide shrinkage cracks at
regularly spaced intervals may be indicative of expansive soils.
2. Soil stratification from deep cuts, such as those made for the
construction of nearby highways and railroads or buildings.

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3. High-water marks on nearby buildings and bridge abutments.
4. Groundwater levels, which can be determined by checking nearby wells. The types
of construction nearby and the existence of any cracks in walls or other problems.
5-The nature of the stratification and physical properties of the soil nearby which can
be obtained from any available soil-exploration reports on existing structures.
3- Site Investigation
The site investigation phase of the exploration program consists of a-
Planning[Depth and spacing of Boreholes], b-Field activities: [drilling boreholes,
performing field tests, collecting (disturbed and undisturbed) soil samples at
desired intervals for subsequent observation], c-laboratory tests, d- analysis, e-
preparing evaluation report.
a- Planning: It involves
1-Depth of Boreholes
The approximate required minimum depth of the borings should be
predetermined. The depth can be changed during the drilling operation,
depending on the subsoil encountered. There are no clear-cut criteria for
determining directly the number and depth of borings.
Borings should extend below the depth where the stress increase from the
foundation load is significant. This value is often taken as 10 percent (or less) of
the contact stress qo. For the square footing the vertical pressure profile shows
this depth to be about 2B.
For a one-story warehouse or department store, boring depths of 6 to 15 m may
be adequate. On the other hand, for important (or high-rise) structures that have
small plan dimensions, it is common to extend one or more of the borings to
bedrock or to competent (hard) soil regardless of depth.
According to Sowers and Sowers (1970), the depths of boring for a building with a
width of 30 m will be approximately the following, :
No. of stories Boring depth
1 3.5 m
2 6m
3 10 m
4 16 m
5 24 m

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For light steel or narrow concrete buildings:
Db=3xS0.7
For heavy steel or wide concrete buildings:
Db=6xS0.7
Where;
Db: Depth of boring, in meters.
S: Number of stories.
Borings must penetrate below any fills or very soft deposits below the
proposed structure. The minimum depth of core boring into the bedrock is
about 3 m. If the bedrock is irregular or weathered, the core borings may
have to be deeper.
2-Borehole spacing
There are no hard-and-fast rules for borehole spacing. The table below gives
some general guidelines. Spacing can be increased or decreased,
depending on the condition of the subsoil.
If various soil strata are more or less uniform and predictable, fewer
boreholes are required
Type of project Spacing (m)
Multistory building 10–30
One-story industrial plants 20–60
Highways 250–500
Residential subdivision 250–500
Dams and dikes 40–80

The number of boreholes may be decided as below:

- 1.0 borehole for about 200 – 400 m2 of area that is to be loaded.
- For residential house 2.0 boreholes are required, and for a long building
blocks 3.0 to 4.0 boreholes are advisable.
- For a rectangular building covering 1000 – 2000 m2, 1.0 borehole near
each corner and 1.0 borehole in the middle, i.e. 5.0 boreholes are
recommended .
The engineer should also take into account the ultimate cost of the
structure when making decisions regarding the extent of field exploration.
The exploration cost generally should be 0.1 to 0.5% of the cost of the
structure.
In general depth and number of bore holes depend on soil profile, type of
the constructions, applied stress, area of the structure, The familiarity of
the local soil profile. 15
b-Field activities (drilling, sampling, and field testing)
Soil borings (Drilling)
It can be made by several methods, including
A-Hand Tools : the posthole auger and the helical auger
It can be used for small jobs constructed on soft
soils, where the sample disturbance is not critical,
hand or powered augers held by one or two
persons can be used. Commonly, drilling depths
are on the order of 2 to 5 m, as on roadways or
airport runways, or investigations for small
Buildings.
B-Mounted Power Drill
For numerous borings to greater depths in hard soils and to collect samples
that are undisturbed, the practical method is to use power-driven
equipment
1-auger boring,
2-wash boring,
3- rotary drilling
4-percussion drilling
5-core drilling (for rocks)
1- Auger boring . continuous-flight augers are probably the most common
method used for advancing a borehole. The power for drilling is
delivered by truck- or tractor-mounted drilling rigs. Boreholes up to
about 40 to 50m in soft soils can easily be made by this method.
Continuous-flight augers are available in sections of about 1 to 2 m
length with either a solid or hollow stem. In such circumstances, a metal
pipe is used as a casing to prevent the soil from caving in. The tip of the
auger is attached to a cutter head. During the drilling operation, section
after section of auger can be added and the hole extended downward.
The flights of the augers bring the loose soil from the bottom of the hole
to the surface and can used as disturbed samples for classification tests.
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2-Wash boring. In this method, a casing
about 2 to 3 m long is driven into the
ground. The soil inside the casing is then
removed by means of a chopping bit
attached to a drilling rod. Water is forced
through the drilling rod and exits at a very
high velocity through the holes at the
bottom of the chopping bit. The water
and the chopped soil particles rise in the
drill hole and overflow at the top of the
casing through a T connection. The wash
water is collected in a container. The
casing can be extended with additional
pieces as the borehole progresses;
however, that is not required if the
borehole will stay open and not cave in.

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 3-Rotary drilling is a procedure by which rapidly rotating drilling bits
attached to the bottom of drilling rods cut and grind the soil and
advance the borehole. Rotary drilling can be used in sand, clay, and
rocks (unless they are badly fissured). Water or drilling mud may be
used to force down the drilling rods to the bits, and the return flow
forces the cuttings to the surface. Boreholes with diameters of 50 to
203 mm can easily be made by this technique. The drilling mud is a
slurry of water and bentonite. Generally, it is used when the soil that
is encountered is likely to cave in. Casings also can be used to
prevent caving. When soil samples are needed, the drilling rod is
raised and the drilling bit is replaced by a sampler. With the
environmental drilling applications, rotary drilling with air is
becoming more common.

4-Percussion drilling
Usually is a manual drilling technique in which a heavy cutting
or hammering bit attached to a rope or cable then raised up and
down repeatedly to gradually break through the surface and move
deep into the soil or rock. Usually a tripod is used to support the
tools. temporary casing of steel or plastic may be used to prevent
the hole from collapsing.
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 5-Rock Core Drilling
When a rock layer is encountered during a drilling operation, rock
coring may be necessary. To core rocks, a core barrel is attached to a
drilling rod. A coring bit is attached to the bottom of the barrel . The
cutting elements may be diamond, tungsten, carbide, and so on.
The coring is advanced by rotary drilling. Water is circulated through
the drilling rod during coring, and the cutting is washed out.

Sampling
Two types of soil samples can be obtained during subsurface exploration:
1-disturbed 2-undisturbed.
1-Disturbed, but representative, samples can generally be used for the
following types of laboratory tests:
1. Grain-size analysis(sieve, Hydrometer)
2. Determination of liquid and plastic limits
3. Specific gravity of soil solids
4. Determination of chemical content
5. Classification of soil
Disturbed soil samples cannot be used for consolidation, hydraulic
conductivity, or shear strength tests

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2-Undisturbed soil samples must be obtained by thin-walled tubes are
sometimes referred to as Shelby tubes for these types of laboratory
tests.
-consolidation
-shear strength tests(triaxial. Direct shear, UCS,….)
-swelling
-permeability
-unit weight
-water content

Area Ratio Ar
Although sample disturbance depends on factors such as rate of
penetration, whether the cutting force is obtained by pushing or
driving, and presence of gravel, it also depends on the thickness of
the tube, expressed as an area ratio Ar. Well-designed sample tubes
should have an area ratio less than 10%

Recovery Ratio: For estimating the degree of disturbance of rock core

sample the recovery ratio Lr can be used:
Lr= Recovered length of rock / Length of core advanced

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A recovery ratio of 1 (recovered length of the sample = the length sampler
was forced into the stratum) indicates that, theoretically, the sample did
not become compressed from friction on the tube.
Disturbency of undisturbed soil samples
The following represent some of the factors that make an ideal
undisturbed sample hard to obtain:
1. The sample is always unloaded from the in situ confining pressures,
with some unknown resulting expansion.
2. Samples collected will disturbed by volume displacement of the tube or
other collection device. Sample friction on the sides of the collection
device tends to compress the sample during recovery. Most sample tubes
are (or should be) swaged so that the cutting edge is slightly smaller than
the inside tube diameter to reduce the side friction. The presence of
gravel greatly aggravates sample disturbance.
3. There are unknown changes in water content depending on recovery
method and the presence or absence of water in the ground or borehole.
On very hot or cold days, samples may dehydrate or freeze if not
protected on-site.
4. Handling and transporting a sample from the site to the laboratory and
transferring the sample from sampler to testing machine disturb the
sample.
5. The quality or attitude of drilling crew, laboratory technicians, and the
supervising engineer may be poor.

Cohesionless Soil Sampling

It is nearly impossible to obtain undisturbed samples of cohesionless
material for strength testing.
It is possible to use either freezing the soil or injecting asphalt.
Since it is nearly impossible to recover undisturbed samples from
cohesionless deposits, density, strength, and compressibility estimates are
usually obtained from penetration tests or other in situ methods.
Permeability may be estimated from well pumping tests or, approximately,
by bailing the boring and observing the time for the water level to rise
some amount. 21
Field Tests
The standard penetration test SPT
It is currently the most popular and economical means to obtain subsurface
information.
A section of a standard split-spoon sampler is used to perform the test. The
tool consists of a steel driving shoe, a steel tube that is split longitudinally in
half, and a coupling at the top. The coupling connects the sampler to the
drill rod. The standard split tube has an inside diameter of 34.9 mm and an
outside diameter of 50.8 mm. The standard weight of the hammer is 63.5
kg, and for each blow, the hammer drops freely a distance of 76 cm.
The number of blows required for a spoon penetration of three 15cm
intervals are recorded. The number of blows required for the last two
intervals are added to give the standard penetration number, N, at that
depth. This number is generally referred to as the N value ASTM
Designation D-1586

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The boring log shows refusal and the test is stopped if
1. 50 blows are required for any 150-mm increment.
2. 10 successive blows produce no advance.
When the full test depth cannot be obtained, the boring log will
show a ratio as 50/100

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 Cone Penetration Test (CPT)
The CPT is a simple test that is now widely used in lieu of the SPT
particularly for soft clays, soft silts, and in fine to medium sand deposits.
The test is not well adapted to gravel deposits or to stiff/hard cohesive
deposits. A cone penetrating the ground at a rate of 20 mm/s and
recording the resistance. The tip (or cone) usually has a projected cross-
sectional area of 10 cm2, but larger tips are also used. The test is also
called the static penetration test, and no boreholes are necessary to
perform it.

Field Vane Shear Testing

The vane shear test VST is a substantially used method to estimate the in
situ undrained shear strength of very soft, sensitive, fine-grained soil
deposits.

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Dynamic cone penetration test
The dynamic cone penetration test (DCPT) is used to evaluate the in situ
resistance of soils to penetration.
DCPT is performed by dropping a hammer from a certain height.
The penetration is continuously recorded to measure the shearing
resistance up to 5 ft below the ground surface.
The results from the test are further correlated with the California
Bearing Ratio (CBR) values, in situ density, resilient modulus, and soil-
bearing capacity.

The Pressure meter Test

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Permeability test

Water pressure test (Packer test)

Generally, the test is termed the Lugeon test or packer test, it is
used to calculate the permeability of rocks.
The permeability measurements using the packer test can be
conducted either by using a single- or double-packer system.

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For Rock: the Field Test (RQD)
Rock quality designation (RQD) is an index or measure of the quality of a rock
mass used by many engineers. RQD is computed from recovered core samples as

For example, a core advance of 2000 mm produced a sample length of 1600

mm consisting of dust, gravel, and intact pieces of rock.
The recovery ratio
Lr = 1600/2000 =0.8
The sum of lengths of pieces 100 mm or larger 6 pieces vary from gravel to
330 mm in length is 1460 mm.
RQD = 1460/2000 = 0.73

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Test pit
is an excavation of ground to get an indication of the soil classification and
obtain undisturbed and disturbed samples. Test pits allow visual inspection of
any change of strata and facilitate in-situ testing.
Trial pits are usually between 1 and 4m deep, and are dug either by hand or
using a mechanical digger. Building and construction regulations clearly state
that any trial pits deeper than 2m should be secured against structural
collapse.

Bore hole log

The detailed information collected from each borehole is presented in a
graphical form called the boring hole log. As a borehole is advanced
downward, the driller (supervisor) generally should record the following
information in a standard log:
1. Name of the drilling company.
2. Job description.
3. Number, type, and location of boring.
4. Date of boring. 28
5. Subsurface stratification, which can be obtained by visual observation of
the soil brought out by auger, split-spoon sampler, and thin-walled Shelby
tube sampler.
6. Elevation of water table and date observed, use of casing and mud losses,
and so on.
7. Standard penetration resistance and the depth of SPT.
8. Any other field tests.
9. Number, type, and depth of soil sample collected.
10. In case of rock coring, type of core barrel used and, for each run, the
actual length of coring, length of core recovery, and RQD.
This information should never be left to memory, because doing so often
results in erroneous boring logs.
Preparing evaluation report
At the end of all soil exploration programs, the soil and rock specimens
collected in the field are subject to visual observation and appropriate
laboratory testing. After all the required information has been compiled,
the available data will be analyzed and a soil exploration report is
prepared for use by the design office and for reference during future
construction work. Each report should include the following items:
1. A description of the scope of the investigation
2. A description of the proposed structure for which the subsoil
exploration has been conducted
3. A description of the location of the site, including any structures nearby,
drainage conditions …..etc. A description of the geological setting of the
site
4. Details of the field exploration—that is, number of borings, depths of
borings, types of borings involved, and so on

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 5.A general description of the subsoil conditions, as determined
from soil specimens and from related laboratory tests, standard
penetration resistance and cone penetration resistance, and so on
6. A description of the water-table conditions
7.Effect of chemicals on foundation concrete and its
reinforcement.
8. Recommendations and conclusions regarding the foundation,
including depth and type of foundation recommended, the
allowable bearing pressure, and any special construction procedure
that may be needed; alternative foundation design procedures
should also be discussed in this portion of the report. Earthquake
zoning of the site.
Report Attachments
The following graphical presentations should be attached to the
report:
1. A site location map.
2. A plan view of the location of the borings with respect to the
proposed structures and those nearby
3. Boring logs
4. Laboratory test results tables
5. Other special graphical presentations
6. Earthquake map

The exploration reports should be well planned and documented,

as they will help in answering questions and solving foundation
problems that may arise later during design and construction.

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Geophysical Exploration:
Geophysical investigation refers to the study of the
subsurface physical properties using different sensing
equipment placed above or below the earth’s surface. The
geophysical tests are quick and cheaper to cover a very
large area compared with the geotechnical field tests.
However, soil/rock properties cannot be obtained
conclusively using this method and subjective interpretation
is required.
A wide variety of geophysical methods (e.g. electrical
resistivity, seismic refraction, electromagnetic, ground
penetrating radar, microgravity survey, etc.) are available.

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