CHAPTER 16

SOIL-BEARING CAPACITY FOR

SHALLOW FOUNDATIONS
GROUP 3
ARANAS, BANOT, BILLONES, DOLOR, GAINSAN, GEOPANO, LU, NILABO, MORADOS, PATAGOC, & YURONG
 16.1
ULTIMATE SOIL-BEARING CAPACITY
FOR SHALLOW FOUNDATIONS
Ultimate Soil-Bearing Capacity for Shallow Foundations is
the maximum pressure that a shallow foundation can exert
on the underlying soil without causing shear failure. For
shallow foundations, Terzaghi’s bearing capacity theory is
often used to estimate the ultimate bearing capacity.
According to Terzaghi, the formula for the ultimate bearing
capacity for a strip footing is:
 16.2
TERZAGHI’S ULTIMATE BEARING
CAPACITY EQUATION
 16.3
EFFECT OF GROUNDWATER
TABLE
 In developing the bearing capacity equations given in the
preceding section we assumed that the groundwater table is
located at a depth much greater than the width, B of the
footing. However, if the groundwater table is close to the
footing, some changes are required. Three different
conditions can arise regarding the location of the
groundwater table with respect to the bottom of the
foundation. They are shown in Figure 16.6. Each of these
conditions is briefly described next.
 Case I (Figure 16.6a) If the
groundwater table is located at a
distance D above the bottom of the
foundation, the magnitude of q in
the second term of the bearing
capacity equation should be
calculated as
 16.4
FACTOR OF SAFETY
The Factor of Safety, Fs, of about 3 or more is applied to the ultimate soil-
bearing capacity to arrive at the value of the allowable bearing capacity.

An Fs value of 3 or more is not considered too conservative.

In nature, soils are neither homogeneous nor isotropic. Therefore uncertainty

is involved in evaluating the basic shear strength parameters of soil.

There are two basic definitions of the allowable bearing capacity of shallow
foundations:

They are the Gross allowable bearing capacity and Net allowable bearing
capacity.
GROSS ALLOWABLE BEARING CAPACITY
,gross allowable bearing capacity, is the allowable load per unit area to which the
soil under the foundation should be subjected to avoid any chance of bearing capacity
failure.

= ultimate soil bearing capacity

= factor of safety
= dead and live loads above the ground surface
= self-weight of the foundation
= weight of soil located above the foundation
= area of foundation
 NET ALLOWABLE BEARING CAPACITY
, net allowable bearing capacity is the allowable load per unit area of the
foundation in excess of the existing vertical effective stress at the level of the foundation

= net ultimate load

= factor of safety
= ultimate soil bearing capacity
= vertical effective stress at the foundation level
= unit weight of soil
= distance from the NGL to the bottom of the foundation
 NET ALLOWABLE BEARING CAPACITY
If we assume that the weight of the soil and the weight of the concrete from which the
foundation is made are approximately the same, then

= area of foundation = self-weight of the foundation

= factor of safety = weight of soil located above the foundation
= unit weight of soil = dead and live loads above the ground surface
= vertical effective stress at the foundation level
= ultimate soil bearing capacity
= distance from the NGL to the bottom of the foundation
 16.5
GENERAL BEARING CAPACITY
EQUATION
 After the development of Terzaghi’s bearing capacity
equation, several investigators worked in this area and
refined the solution. Different solutions show that the bearing
capacity factors and do not change much. However,
for a given value of , the values of obtained by
different investigators vary widely. This difference is because
of the variation of the assumption of the wedge shape of soil
located directly below the footing, as explained in the
following paragraph.
While deriving the bearing capacity equation for a strip footing, Terzaghi used the case of a
rough footing and assumed that the sides AJ and BJ of the soil wedge ABJ make an angle
with the horizontal. Later model tests showed that Terzaghi’s assumption of the general
nature of the rupture surface in soil for bearing capacity failure is correct. However, tests
have shown that the sides AJ and BJ of the soil wedge ABJ make angles of about degrees
(instead of ) with the horizontal. This type of failure mechanism is shown in Figure 16.10. It
consists of a Rankine active zone ABJ (Zone I), two radial shear zones (Zones II), and two
Rankine passive zones (Zones III). The curves JD and JE are arcs of a logarithmic spiral.
 On the basis of this type of failure mechanism, the ultimate bearing
capacity of a strip footing may be evaluated by the approximate method of
superimposition described as

= contributions of cohesion
= surcharge
= unit weight of soil
Reissner (1924) expressed as:

where:

Reissner (1924) expressed as:

where:

Reissner (1924) expressed as:

where:
 Combining these equations we obtain the soil-bearing capacity
eqaution for a strip footing:

This equation is in the same general form as that given by Terzaghi;

however, the values of the bearing capacity factors are not the same. The
values of Nq, Nc, and Ng, are given in Table 16.3. But for all practical
purposes, Terzaghi’s bearing capacity factors will yield good results.
Differences in bearing capacity factors are usually minor compared with
the unknown soil parameters.
The soil-bearing capacity equation for a strip footing given can be modified for
general use by incorporating the following factors:
Depth factor: To account for the shearing resistance developed along the failure
surface in soil above the base of the footing.
Shape factor: To determine the bearing capacity of rectangular and circular
footings.
Inclination factor: To determine the bearing capacity of a footing on which the
direction of load application is inclined at a certain angle to the vertical.
Thus, the modified general ultimate bearing capacity equation can be written as:
where:
Shape factors = , , and
Depth factors = , , and
Inclination factors = , , and

The approximate values of these shape, depth, and inclination factors

recommended by Meyerhof are given in Table 16.4
 For undrained condition, if the footing is subjected to vertical
loading (that is, ), then:

So the modified general ultimate bearing capacity equation transforms

to: