SHALLOW FOUNDATIONS:

SOIL BEARING CAPACITY

Melchor M. Famisan, C.E., D. Eng. 1

 TOPIC OUTLINE
1. Introduction
2. Terzaghi’s Bearing Capacity Equation
3. Meyerhof’s Bearing Capacity Equation
4. General Bearing Capacity Equation
5. Effect of Soil Compressibility
6. Eccentrically Loaded Foundations

Melchor M. Famisan, C.E., D. Eng. 2

 INTRODUCTION
DEFINITION OF TERMS
 Foundation is a structure that transmits loads to the
underlying soils.
 Footing is a foundation consisting of a small slab for
transmitting structural load to the underlying soil. Footing
can be strip footing, spread footing, combined footing, or
mat foundation.
 Shallow foundation is one in which the ratio of embedment
depth to the width of foundation is less than or equal to 2.5.
That is, Df /B ≤ 2.5.
 Embedment depth (Df) is the depth below the ground
surface where the base of the foundation rests.

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  Ultimate bearing capacity is the maximum pressure or
stress that the soil can support.
 Ultimate net bearing capacity is the maximum
pressure/stress that the soil can support in excess of the
current overburden stress.
 Allowable bearing capacity is the allowed intensity of the
applied pressure/stress taking into account both the
bearing capacity and settlement.
 Factor of safety is the ratio of the ultimate bearing capacity
to the applied maximum vertical stress. In general, varies
from 1.5 to 5.0. Higher is normally chosen when settlement
is to be controlled at certain minimal magnitude.

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 Types of Shallow Foundation
 Strip/wall footing
 Spread footing
 Rectangular combined footing
 Trapezoidal combined footing
 Cantilever/strap footing
 Mat/raft foundation
Design Criteria
To ensure satisfactory performance , shallow foundation must
be designed satisfying the two criteria as follows:
 Strength criterion – the foundation must be safe against shear
failure of the supporting soil.
 Serviceability criterion – the foundation should not undergo
excessive settlement (i.e. settlement should not exceed the
tolerable limit).
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 COLLAPSE MECHANISM OF BEARING CAPACITY FAILURE
 General Shear Failure – This type of shear failure will normally occur in
dense sand ( for ) or stiff cohesive soil. Failure will normally be initiated
when settlement S is about 5 to 10% of foundation width.

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 Local Shear Failure – This type of shear failure will normally occur in
medium dense sand (for ) or medium stiff cohesive soil. Failure will
normally be initiated when settlement is about 15 to 25% of foundation
width.

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  Punching Shear Failure – Failure mechanism of fairly loose soil ().

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 TERZAGHI’S BEARING CAPACITY EQUATION (1943)

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 For strip or wall footing

Where:
effective cohesion of soil
effective overburden stress at the foundation level based
on the ground surface
effective stress at the bottom of triangular wedge based
on the foundation level
, and are Terzaghi’s bearing capacity factors

Refer to Table 4.1 for Terzaghi’s Bearing Capacity Factors

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 The Terzaghi’s bearing capacity equation is modified to
account the shape of the foundation as follows:

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 MEYERHOF’S BEARING CAPACITY EQUATION (1963)

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 FOR VERTICAL LOADING ON LEVEL GROUND

FOR INCLINED LOADING ON LEVEL GROUND

Where: = undrained shear strength

and are Meyerhof’s bearing capacity factors

are shape factors

s
are depth factors

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 are load inclination factors

width and length of footing

= embedment depth of footing
load inclination wrt the vertical
Ground Inclination Factors for Site with Sloping Ground (Brinch &
Hansen, 1970)
If the foundation is located on sloping ground, the following ground
inclination factors () shall be incorporated to Meyerhof’s formula.
For ,

For ,
Where: ground slope
Restriction:

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 GENERAL BEARING CAPACITY EQUATION
Meyerhof (1963) suggested the following form of the general bearing
capacity equation:

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 Bearing capacity factors

Shape, depth, and inclination factors (refer to Table 4.3)

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 EFFECT OF SOIL COMPRESSIBILITY
To account the compressibility of soil Vesic (1973) proposed the
following modification of the general bearing capacity equation:

Where and are soil compressibility factors. These factors were derived
by Vesic (1973) by analogy to the expansion of cavities. According to
that theory, in order to calculate , and , the following steps should be
taken:

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 For

For

SAMPLE PROBLEM #1:

(a) Determine the gross allowable load P of the of the 3m x 3m square
foundation shown using Terzaghi’s bearing capacity equation and
Meyerhof’s bearing capacity equation. The GWT is 5m below the
ground surface and the properties of the underlying sand are shown
in the figure.

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 P
Sand: Above GWT:
’ = 30o
𝐷 𝑓 =2 m = 10%
= 16 kN/m3
3m 3m = 2.66
Below GWT:
’ = 30o
Use = 2.5

(b) Using Meyerhof’s formula, redo part (a) assuming that the GWT rises
to a depth of 3m below the ground surface.
(c) If the GWT rises to ground surface,

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 SAMPLE PROBLEM #2:
A square foundation () has to be constructed as shown in the figure.
Assume that lb/ft3, =118 lb/ft3, 34o, 4 ft, and 2 ft. The gross allowable
load, with is 150,000 lb. Determine the size of the foundation using
general bearing capacity equation.

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 SAMPLE PROBLEM #3:
For a shallow foundation, m, m, and . The known soil characteristics
are as follows:
= 25o
= 48 kN/m2
= 18 kN/m3
Modulus of elasticity, = 620 kN/m2
Poisson’s ratio, = 0.3
Using = 2.5, calculate the allowable soil bearing capacity.

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 ECCENTRICALLY LOADED FOUNDATIONS
ONE-WAY ECCENTRICITY

𝐵
𝑒 𝑥
𝑄
𝐿

Melchor M. Famisan, C.E., D. Eng.

𝐵’ 27
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 𝑥=𝐵/2 – 𝑒

𝑒
𝑄
𝐿

𝐵 𝑒=𝐵 –2𝑒
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 TWO-WAY ECCENTRICITY

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 Requirement: 𝑞’𝑢≥𝑄𝑢/𝐴’
Where: Effective Area
′ 1 ′
𝑞’𝑢 =𝑐 𝑁 𝑐 𝐹 𝑐𝑠 𝐹 𝑐𝑑 𝐹 𝑐𝑖 +𝑞 𝑁 𝑞 𝐹 𝑞𝑠 𝐹 𝑞𝑑 𝐹 𝑞𝑖 + 𝛾 𝐵 𝑁 𝛾 𝐹 𝛾𝑠 𝐹 𝛾𝑑 𝐹 𝛾 𝑖
2
Note: The shape factors will be calculated based on the effective dimensions
while the depth factors will be calculated based on the original dimensions.
Case 1: When and

The larger of & is the effective length

The effective width shall be
calculated as follows:

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 Case 2: Whenand

Note: The magnitudes of and can be determined from Figure (b). The effective
length shall be taken as the larger between and . The effective width shall be
calculated as follows:

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 Case 3: When and

Note: The magnitudes of and can be determined from Figure (b). The effective
length shall be taken as the larger between and . The effective width shall be
calculated as follows:

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 Case 4: When and
Note: Figure (a) shows the effective area for this case. The ratio , and thus , can be
determined by using curves that slope upward. Similarly, the ratio , and thus ,
can be determined by using curves that slope downward. The effective area and
effective width can be solved as follows:

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 SAMPLE PROBLEM #4:
A continuous foundation is shown in the figure. If the load eccentricity
is 0.2 m, determine the ultimate load, , per unit length of the foundation.
Use combined stress formula and Meyerhof’s effective area method.

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 REFERENCES
1. Budhu, M. (2011). Soil Mechanics and Foundations, 3rd ed. John, Wiley
and Sons
2. Cernica, John (1994). Geotechnical Eng’g and Foundation Design.
John, Wiley and Sons
3. Coduto, D. (2014). Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, 4th ed.
Prentice Hall
4. Das, B. and Sivakugan, N. (2019). Principles of Foundation
Engineering, 9th ed. Cengage Learning
5. Liu, C. and Evett, J. (2008). Soils and Foundations, 7th ed. Prentice
Hall.

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