Allowable Bearing Capacity of Shallow Foundations
Allowable Bearing Capacity of Shallow Foundations
DOI 10.1007/s10706-004-1748-4
Technical Note
Abstract. Firstly, the historical background is presented for the determination of ultimate
bearing capacity of shallow foundations. The principles of plastic equilibrium used in the
classical formulation of the ultimate bearing capacity are reviewed, followed by a discussion
about the sources of approximations inherent in the classical theory. Secondly, based on a
variety of case histories of site investigations, including extensive bore hole data, laboratory
testing and geophysical prospecting, an empirical formulation is proposed for the determi-
nation of allowable bearing capacity of shallow foundations. The proposed expression cor-
roborates consistently with the results of the classical theory and is proven to be reliable and
safe, also from the view point of maximum allowable settlements. It consists of only two soil
parameters, namely, the in-situ measured shear wave velocity, and the unit weight. The unit
weight may be also determined with sufficient accuracy, by means of another empirical
expression, using the P-wave velocity. It is indicated that once the shear and P-wave velocities
are measured in-situ by an appropriate geophysical survey, the allowable bearing capacity is
determined reliably through a single step operation. Such an approach, is considerably cost
and time-saving, in practice.
Key words. allowable bearing pressure, bearing capacity, foundation design, shallow footings,
shear wave.
1. Introduction
The ultimate bearing capacity of a particular soil, under a shallow footing, was
investigated theoretically by Prandtl (1921) and Reissner (1924) using the concept of
plastic equilibrium as early as in 1921. The formulation however is slightly modified,
generalized, and updated later by Terzaghi (1925), Meyerhof (1956), Hansen (1968),
De Beer (1970), and Sieffert and Bay-Gress (2000).
The historical bearing capacity formulation, as will be discussed briefly in the next
section, is still widely used in geotechnical engineering practice. However, there are
various uncertainities in representing the real in-situ soil conditions by means of a
few laboratory tested shear strength parameters. The basic soil parameters are
cu ¼ cohesion, undrained shear strength and / ¼ angle of internal friction, which
can only be determined by laboratory testing of undisturbed soil samples. It is
204 SEMIH S. TEZCAN ET AL.
2. Classical Formulation
Using the principles of plastic equilibrium, the ultimate bearing capacity, qf, of a
shallow strip footing, with a depth of D, from the surface and with a width of B and
length L, (Figure 1), is given by Terzaghi and Peck (1967) as
qf ¼ cNc sc þ cDNq þ 0:5 cBNc sc ; ð1Þ
where
a) Bearing capacity factors;
Nq ¼ expðp tan /Þ tan2 ð45 þ /=2Þ
Nc ¼ ðNq 1Þ cot /
Nc ¼ 1:8ðNq 1Þ tan / by Hansen ð1968Þ or
Nc ¼ ðNq 1Þ tanð1:4/Þ by Meyerhof ð1956Þ
b) Shape factors:
sc ¼ 1 þ 0:20 B=L . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ð/ 6¼ 0 conditionsÞ
sc ¼ ½1 þ 0:20 B=L½1 þ 0:3ðD=BÞ0:25 . . . ð/ ¼ 0 conditions, saturated claysÞ
sc ¼ 1 0:2 ðB=LÞ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ðB=L ¼ footing width to length ratioÞ
sc ¼ 0:6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : :ðcircular footingÞ
It is customary to take B/L ¼ 0 for a strip footing, and B/L ¼ 1 for a square
footing. The formulation is applicable to ‘shallow’ foundations in which the depth
D, is not greater than the breadth B. The foundation shape factor expression of sc
given above for saturated clays under undrained conditions, where / ¼ 0, is gen-
erated using the Nc curves supplied by Skempton (1951). If the soil is ‘weak’, or in
other words is not fairly dense or stiff, i.e. Dr < 0.35, N60 < 8, cu < 100 kPa, or
vs < 200 m/s, the reduced shear strength parameters cr and /r are used in
Equation (1) instead of the laboratory determined c and /, as follows (Terzaghi
and Peck, 1967):
cr ¼ 0:67 c ð2aÞ
tan /r ¼ 0:67 tan / ð2bÞ
compression under the footing. In the punching shear mode, however, direct
planar shear failures occur only along the vertical directions around the edges
of the footing. Therefore, Equation (1) is no longer applicable for soils of high
compressibility, such as loose sand and soft clay, which may undergo, either (ii)
the local shear or (iii) the punching shear failures. Consequently, the results of
Equation (1) will only be approximate for such soils. In reality, the excessive
settlement and not the shear failure is normally the limiting criterion in high
compressibility soils.
6. The ultimate bearing capacity calculations are very sensitive to the values of
shear strength parameters c, and /, which are determined in the laboratory
using ‘undisturbed’ soil samples, which may not necessarily represent the true
conditions prevailing at the site. Unrealistically, high bearing capacity is cal-
culated especially, if the shear strength parameter, /, is inappropriately
determined to be on the high side in the laboratory. All soil parameters
including the real values of internal angle of friction, water content, void ratio,
confining pressure, presence of boulders or cavities, etc are not necessarily the
same in the soil samples.
7. Customarily, after a due geotechnical survey, a single value of allowable bearing
capacity qa, is assigned in practice, to a particular construction site. However,
minor variations in sizes, shapes and depths of different foundations at a par-
ticular site are overlooked, and the same qa value is used in foundation design,
through out the construction site.
8. A factor of safety of 3 is used normally, in order to obtain the allowable bearing
capacity, qa, which contains a significant amount of reserve strength in it,
accounting for all the inaccuracies and approximations cited herein. This sig-
nificantly large factor of safety represents the degree of uncertainties and our
‘ignorance’ in determining the real soil conditions.
9. Last, but not the least, although some quantitative guidance is available as
contained in Section 2, there is quite a bit of intuition in determining whether the
soil is on the ‘strong’ or the ‘weak’ side, for the purpose of using reduced (two-
thirds) shear strength parameters, in accordance with Equation (2).
4. Practical Recommendations
Based on the practical experiences of the writers, the ranges of allowable bearing
capacities for different categories of cohesive and granular soils are summarized in
Table 1. For comparisons as well as for quick reference purposes, the values of SPT
counts N60, shear strength parameters cu, and /, relative density Dr, and also the
shear wave velocity vs, for each soil category are also given in Table 1. The ranges of
allowable bearing pressures qa, are tested to be in conformity with the empirical
recommendations of the Uniform Building-Code (1997), the Turkish Earthquake
Code TEC- (1998), and the British Standard 8004 (1986).
Table 1. Recommended ranges of allowable bearing capacities (kPa)
ALLOWABLE BEARING CAPACITY OF SHALLOW FOUNDATIONS
c0u = undrained effective shear strength (kPa), Dr = relative density (percent), 0a = average effective internal angle
of friction (degrees), vs = shear wave velocity (m/s), qa = allowable soil bearing pressure (kPa).
a
Normally conslidated clays,
b
If the foundation base is below the GWT, use the lower values of qa within the range.
207
208 SEMIH S. TEZCAN ET AL.
where, c ¼ unit weight (kN/m3), q ¼ mass density (kg/m3), and vs ¼ shear wave
velocity (m/sec). Since, a proper foundation design must satisfy not only an assured
degree of safety against possible shear failures of the supporting soil, but also the
settlements, and in particular the differential settlements, should not exceed the
tolerable limits as given by Skempton and MacDonald (1956). Hence, the coefficient
of the empirical formula in Equation (3) is so selected to be on the low side, that no
settlement problem will necessarily be encountered in relatively soft soil conditions.
This point has been rigorously tested and verified for all soft ‘weak’ soil conditions
existing in the case histories given in Table 2.
Although, the empirical expressions of Equation (3) are proposed by the writers,
on the basis of extensive geotechnical and geophysical soil investigations at 14 dif-
ferent sites, they should be used with caution. For relatively important buildings, and
especially until a stage when the validity of these simple empirical expressions are
amply tested and calibrated over a sufficient period of time, the allowable bearing
pressure should be determined also by means of conventional methods using
Terzaghi’s soil parameters.
The proposed empirical expressions are for estimating the allowable bearing
pressure only. The settlement calculations however, should be conducted, especially
for soft soil conditions and for important structures, using either the elastic theory
(Skempton and MacDonald, 1956), or the Skempton–Bjerrum method (1957).
Because, settlements sometime may be the dominating factor.
Table 2. Locations and the scope of investigations for each case study
Number of Allowable
bore holes and Footing Number bearing capacity,
average depth depth D of Surveys qa in kPa
cp ¼ c0 þ 0:002 vp ð6Þ
210 SEMIH S. TEZCAN ET AL.
where, cp ¼ the unit weight in kN/m3 based on P-wave velocity, vp ¼ P-wave velocity
in m/s, and co ¼ the reference unit weight values given as follows:
c0 ¼ 16 for loose sandy, silty and clayey soils
c0 ¼ 17 for dense sand and gravel
c0 ¼ 18 for mudstone, limestone, claystone, conglomerate, etc:
c0 ¼ 20 for sandstone, tuff, graywacke, schist, etc:
As seen in Figure 3, the unit weights calculated by the empirical expression given in
Equation (6) are in excellent agreement with those determined in the laboratory. In
the absence of any bore hole sampling and laboratory testing of soil samples, the
above empirical expression provides a reliable first approximation for the unit
weights of various soils, once the in-situ measured P-wave velocities are available. In
fact, the speedy evaluation of unit weights, prior to any soil sampling, enables the
practicing engineer to calculate the allowable bearing capacity qa, readily from
Equation (3).
ALLOWABLE BEARING CAPACITY OF SHALLOW FOUNDATIONS 211
6. Case Histories
6.1. FIELD INVESTIGATIONS
In order to establish a sound and reliable relationship between the allowable bearing
capacity qa, and the shear wave velocity vs, a series of case histories have been studied
as summarized in Table 2. For each case, in-depth geotechnical and geophysical site
investigations have been conducted and a comprehensive set of in-situ and laboratory
tested soil parameters have been determined. Most of the basic soil parameters, for
each typical soil layer, are shown in Figures 4–6. If however, for any particular soil
parameter in any typical soil layer, multiple values were available, from various bore
hole and seismic survey measurements, only the average of these multiple values have
been indicated.
Figure 4. Allowable bearing capacities for case histories No.1 through No.4 (Units are; c ¼ kN/m3,
c ¼ kN/m2, qa ¼ kN/m2, vs,vp ¼ m/s).
ALLOWABLE BEARING CAPACITY OF SHALLOW FOUNDATIONS 213
Figure 5. Allowable bearing capacities for case histories No.5, 6, 7, and 9 (Units are; c ¼ kN/m3,
c ¼ kN/m2, qa ¼ kN/m2, vs,vp ¼ m/s).
214 SEMIH S. TEZCAN ET AL.
Figure 6. Allowable bearing capacities for case histories No.10 through No.14 (Units are; c ¼ kN/m3,
c ¼ kN/m2, qa ¼ kN/m2, vs, vp ¼ m/s).
ALLOWABLE BEARING CAPACITY OF SHALLOW FOUNDATIONS 215
7. Conclusions
1. The determination of adequately safe allowable bearing capacity of a soil layer
under a shallow foundation is a problem of vital importance in geotechnical
engineering. The classical approach is not only costly and time consuming due to
extensive in-situ and laboratory testing required, but also involves significant
approximations and intuitive judgements. Despite the ‘exact’ nature of the clas-
sical theory, a huge factor of safety, on the order of 300 percent, is utilised in
order to account for the unexpected inaccuracies and our ‘ignorance’ of the real
soil conditions.
2. The proposed empirical shear wave velocity approach however, is surprisingly cost
effective, and time saving. The in-situ measured shear wave velocity, vs, as an indis-
pensable single field index, is capable of representing the real soil conditions at the
216 SEMIH S. TEZCAN ET AL.
Figure 7. Comparisons of allowable bearing capacities (Numerals beside the data points are the case study
numbers).
site, including the true influence of a family of soil parameters like water content,
confining pressure, relative density, void ratio, nonuniformity, discontinuity, non-
homogeneity, shear and compressive strength, etc. The complications and misrep-
resentations associated with soil sampling, sample disturbance, accurate simulations
in the laboratory testing, etc. are all avoided. Shear wave velocity measurement at a
site however, calls for additional cost and expert geophysical personnel.
3. The depth, width and length of a foundation plays a significant role especially in
granular soils, in the derivation of mathematical formulation when following the
classical approach. In cohesive soils, the geometry of foundation does not play a
significant role anyhow. Nevertheless in classical theory, the soil is idealized into
an isotropic, homogeneous and uniform elasto-plastic planar geometrical med-
ium. In the shear wave velocity approach however, there is absolutely no need to
consider the foundation size and depth, even in granular soils, since the influence
of all these parameters are inherently incorporated in the in-situ measured
vs-values. The classical approach is further handicapped by the layered conditions.
In shear wave velocity approach however, the bearing capacity of a single layer,
immediately under the foundation, is directly determined, as a one step operation.
4. The empirical formulations proposed for calculating both the allowable bearing
capacity qa, and the unit weight c, are proven to be safe and reliable as verified
consistently by 14 different laboratory tested case histories. The validity and
reliability of the proposed scheme will be better established however, as the
ALLOWABLE BEARING CAPACITY OF SHALLOW FOUNDATIONS 217
Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge the assistance and cooperation extended by
Mr. Tufan Durgunoglu, and Mr. Abdullah Calisir of the Geotechnics Co., Istanbul,
who conducted the geotechnical and geophysical soil investigations of all the case
studies discussed herein. Sincere thanks are also due to both Professor Osman
Uyanik, of Suleyman Demirel University, Isparta, for his invaluable criticisms and
corrections of the manuscript, and Mr. Mustafa Cevher, Chief Geophysical En-
gineer, Municipality of the Greater City of Izmit, Turkey, for his constant supply of
field data and encouragement.
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