Bearing Capacity

Ref.: Foundation Analysis & Design (ch#04)

by
Joseph E. Bowels

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 Bearing capacity
 Bearing capacity is the power of foundation soil to hold the
forces from the superstructure without undergoing shear
failure or excessive settlement.

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  Ultimate Bearing Capacity (qf) : It is the maximum
pressure that a foundation soil can withstand without
undergoing shear failure.

 Allowable Bearing Pressure (qa) : It is the maximum

pressure the foundation soil is subjected to considering both
shear failure and settlement.

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 Factor of Safety (SF)
 The allowable bearing capacity (based on shear control),
qa is obtained by reducing the ultimate bearing capacity,
qf (based on soil strength) by a factor, is known as SF to
avoid a base shear failure.
qa = qf /SF
• Depends on:
1) Types of soil.
2) Reliability of soil parameters.
3) Structural importance.
4) Consultant cautions.
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  Foundation design must satisfy two criteria:

1. Adequate factor of safety against shear failure of

supporting soil.
2. Settlement must be in a tolerable limit.

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 Modes of shear failure
 A. General Shear Failure: seen in dense and stiff soil
1) Continuous, well defined and distinct failure surface
develops between the edge of footing and ground surface.
2) Dense or stiff soil that undergoes low compressibility
experiences this failure.
3) Heaving at the surface occurs.
4) Failure is accompanied by tilting of footing.
5) Ultimate b.c. is well defined.

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 B. Local Shear Failure:
.
This type of failure is seen in relatively loose and soft soil
1) Failure is not sudden and there is no tilting of footing.
2) Failure surface does not reach the ground surface and
slight bulging of soil around the footing is observed.
3) Low heaving.
4) Failure is characterized by considerable settlement.
5) Ultimate b.c. is not well defined.

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 C. Punching Shear Failure:
This type of failure is seen in loose and soft soil and at
deeper elevations
1) This type of failure occurs in a soil of very high compressibility.
2) Failure pattern is not observed.
3) No heaving.
4) Bulging of soil around the footing is absent.
5) Failure is characterized by very large settlement.
6) Ultimate b.c. is not well defined.

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 Comments on Shear Failure
 Usually only necessary to
analyze general shear
failure.

 Local and punching shear

failure can usually be
anticipated by settlement
analysis.

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 Derivation of BC Equations:
For Cohesive Soil (Ø = 0)
1. Lower Bound Theory:
If a state of stress can be found which at no point exceeds
the failure criteria for the soil (collapse can not occur).

2. Upper Bound Solution:

If a state of stress postulates the plastic equilibrium (collapse
must occur).

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 1. Lower Bound Solution:
 qult = q+4c
 qult = 4c
2. Upper Bound Solution:
 qult = q+6.28c
 qult = 6.28c

qult = 5.14c

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 Derivation of BC Equations:
Footing on C-Ø Soil
 Ultimate bearing capacity,
qult = CNc + qNq + γBNγ

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 B.C. Eqns by Several Authors

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 B.C. Eqns by Several Authors

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 Which Equations to Use?

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 General observations about the bearing-capacity equations

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 Example 4-1
 Compute the allowable bearing pressure using the Terzaghi
equation for the footing and soil parameters shown in the Fig.
Use a safety factor of 3 to obtain qa. Compare this with the value
obtained from using General Bearing Capacity Eq.

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 Example 4-2
A footing load test made by H. Muhs in Berlin [reported by Hansen (1970)]
produced the following data:

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 FOOTINGS WITH ECCENTRIC
OR INCLINED LOADINGS

Eccentricity

Inclination
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 FOOTINGS WITH One Way Eccentricity
In most instances, foundations are subjected to moments in addition to the vertical load as shown
below. In such cases the distribution of pressure by the foundation upon the soil is not uniform.

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 Use either Meyerhof or Hansen/Vesic
equations, in either of two ways:
Method 1: Use either the Hansen or Vesic bearing-capacity
equation with the following adjustments:
 a. Use B' in the γBNγ term.
 b. Use B' and L' in computing the shape factors.
 c. Use actual B and L for all depth factors.
The computed ultimate bearing capacity qult is then reduced to an
allowable value qa with an appropriate safety factor SF as:
qa = qult/SF (and Pa = qaB'L')

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 Suggestion by Bowels:
Use Meyerhof equation with B’ & L’ to compute shape and depth
factors and B’ in 0.5 γB’Nγ.
For ecentricity limit qa = 500 kPa (maxm)

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 Groundwater Effects
 Case I: If the water table is at the ground surface
The effective pressure is approximately one-half that with the
water table at or below the footing level, since the effective
unit weight γ' is approximately one-half the saturated unit
weight.

 Case II: When the water table is below the wedge zone
The water table effects can be ignored for computing the
bearing capacity.

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  Case III: When the water table lies within the wedge zone
Some small difficulty may be obtained in computing the
effective unit weight to use in the 0.5γeBNγ term. In many cases
this term can be ignored.
The average effective weight γe of the soil in the wedge zone as:

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 See Example 4-8

Also try to solve…

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4-8. Bearing Capacity for Footing on Layered Soil

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  See Example 4-9

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 BEARING CAPACITY FROM SPT
 For the calculation of bearing capacity of footing, Ndesign is
computed taking the weighted average of different N-value
within the zone, B/2 above the base of footing and 2B below
the base of the footing.
N = (N1d1+N2d2+….+Nndn)/(d1+d2+…+dn)
 Allowable bearing capacity (Meyerhof):

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 •Parry (1977) proposed computing the allowable bearing capacity of
cohesionless soils as qa = 30 N55 (kPa) (D < B)

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 BEARING CAPACITY FROM CPT

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 BEARING CAPACITY FROM FIELD LOAD
TESTS (ASTM D 1194)
 Plate size 12” dia or 12”x12”.
 Test pit is 5’x5’x D (base level of foundation).
 Load intensity not less than estimated bearing capacity.
 Load increment 1/5th of estimated bearing capacity.
 A seating load of about 70 gm/cm2 (.07 tsf) is first applied and
released after short time.

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  Observations on every load increment shall be taken until the
rate of settlement is less than 0.25mm/hr.
 Time interval of loading should not be less than 1 hour and
should be approximately of the same duration for all load
increment.
 The test should continue until total settlement of 25 mm is
obtained or until the capacity of the testing apparatus is
reached or failure occur.
 After the load is released, the elastic rebound of the soil
should be recorded for a period of time at least equal to the
time duration for a load increment.

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  For cohesive soil:
qult, foundation = qult, load test
 For Cohesionless soil:

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  See all related problems from referred book

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