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Engineering Foundation 2020-2021

The document outlines the final examination details for the Bachelor of Civil Engineering course BCE 3103: Foundation Engineering at Kabale University, scheduled for August 6, 2021. It includes instructions for the online exam, a series of questions covering various topics in foundation engineering, and useful formulas related to bearing capacity, settlement, and lateral pressure. The exam consists of multiple questions that assess students' understanding of soil mechanics, foundation design, and related calculations.

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oleja ben
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30 views5 pages

Engineering Foundation 2020-2021

The document outlines the final examination details for the Bachelor of Civil Engineering course BCE 3103: Foundation Engineering at Kabale University, scheduled for August 6, 2021. It includes instructions for the online exam, a series of questions covering various topics in foundation engineering, and useful formulas related to bearing capacity, settlement, and lateral pressure. The exam consists of multiple questions that assess students' understanding of soil mechanics, foundation design, and related calculations.

Uploaded by

oleja ben
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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FACULTY OF ENGINEERING, TECHNOLOGY, APPLIED DESIGN

AND FINE ART


DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

FINAL EXAMINATIONS 2020/2021

BACHELOR OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

YEAR III SEMESTER I

BCE 3103: FOUNDATION ENGINEERING

Date & Time: August 6, 2021 (12:00Hrs – 17:00Hrs) Duration: 5 Hours

INSTRUCTIONS
1. The examination will be done ONLINE via the Kabale University eLearning portal.
2. Attempt ALL questions for maximum score.
3. Begin answering each question on a fresh page.
4. Submit answers in one file named BCE 3103 Exam 2021_Reg.No

Question One (20 marks)


a) Distinguish between the following terms: (3 marks each)
(i) Net ultimate bearing capacity and safe bearing pressure
(ii) Passive earth pressure and active earth pressure
b) Explain the meaning of “critical depth” of pile foundation and how it is influenced by properties
of the soil in which the pile is installed. (4 marks)
c) What is the effect of using excessive compaction force like from heavy rollers to compact soil
behind or adjacent to earth retaining walls? (5 marks)
d) For foundation soils, consolidation settlement is most important in fine grained soils like clay
while elastic settlement is most important in granular materials like sand. Explain why. (5 marks)
Question Two (40 marks)
a) Discuss the significance of knowledge of subsurface soil conditions in choosing between shallow
foundation and deep foundation for a construction project. (4 marks)
b) A square pad foundation for a Faculty Library building is to be constructed in cohesionless gravel
of unit weight 17kN/m3 and angle of internal friction 350. What’s the magnitude of ultimate load
on each footing if for economy and practical reasons the width of foundation shouldn’t exceed
1500mm? The water table is at great depth. (6 marks)
c) For the block of lecture rooms, a strip footing is to be founded at a depth of not more than 1.5m
below the ground surface to carry net pressure of 400kN/m2. The water table is close to ground
level and the soil is cohesionless gravel. If the unit weight of the gravel is 18kN/m3 and angle of
internal friction is 350, find the required width of the footing using Terzaghi general shear failure
criterion. Consider the factor of safety for bearing capacity FS = 2.0. (9 marks)
d) For the site considered in (c) above, the report of a geotechnical study conducted all year round
shows that the gravel layer extends to a depth of 6m from the ground surface and overlies a 4m
layer of normally consolidated clay while permanent ground water table is 3.5m below ground
level. Properties of gravel and clay are in the table below:
Saturated unit weight Elasticity modulus Poisson’s ratio Initial void ratio
Gravel 18kN/m3 30000kN/m2 0.3 0.6
Clay 19kN/m3 15000kN/m2 0.35 0.8
The unit weight of sand above water table is 17kN/m3 while coefficient of consolidation of NC
clay is 0.3. If effective stress at the center of the clay layer after footing construction is estimated
to be 110kN/m2, check for foundation settlement with tolerable limit of 36mm and determine the
safe bearing pressure. (15 marks)
e) Compare the safe bearing pressure calculated in (d) above with the net pressure initially designed
for and redesign as necessary. (6 marks)

Question Three (15 marks)


a) Why are bored piles preferred to driven piles in cohesive soils? (3 marks)
b) A group of concrete piles are required to be installed in a 20m thick saturated clay stratum with
saturated unit weight γsat 18.5kN/m3, angle of friction ø = 00 and undrained shear strength
cu=700kN/m2. The water table lies at a depth 30m from the surface. If the allowable load for a
single square pile is 5400kN, determine its cross-sectional size. (8 marks)
c) Under what circumstances in clay do piles fail individually or as a block? (4 marks)

Question Four (25 marks)


a) A wall of 6 m height retains a cohesionless backfill soil of dry unit weight 18kN/m 3 and angle of
internal friction of 300. Use Rankine’s theory and find the total active force per meter length of
the wall. (12 marks)
b) For the wall above, determine change in total pressure under each of the following circumstances:
(i) The top of the backfill carrying a uniform surcharge of 6kN/m2 (5 marks)
(ii) Part of backfill is under submerged condition with water table level 2m below the top of the
wall. The specific gravity Gs is 2.65 and the soil above the water table is saturated. (8 marks)

END

1
USEFUL FORMULAE AND TABLES

Bearing capacity equations


Qult 1
Strip foundation qu   cN c  D f N q  BN 
B 2
Circular footing qu  1.3cNc  D f N q  0.3BN

Square footing qu  1.3cN c  D f N q  0.4BN 


Where Qult = ultimate load per unit length of footing; c = unit cohesion;  = the effective unit
weight of soil; B = width of footing; Df = depth of foundation; and Nc, Nq and Ny are the
bearing capacity factors

Elastic settlement
( )

Where qn = net pressure; B = width of foundation; µ = Poisson's ratio; Es = modulus of


elasticity of soil; I0= influence factor.
Influence factor I0
USEFUL FORMULAE AND TABLES

Consolidation settlement

Normally consolidated clays

Where H = thickness of consolidated clay; Cc = compression index obtained from


consolidation test in lab; = effective stress in the middle of clay; = increase in effective
stress due to loading from the surface at middle of consolidated clay; e0 = initial void ratio

End bearing load for piles in cohesive soils

Where = undrained shear strength at the pile tip; is a bearing capacity factor, here
taken as 9; and Ab = base cross-sectional area

End bearing load for piles in cohesionless soils

Where q is effective stress at the tip of the pile; Ab = base cross-sectional area; and is
bearing capacity factor
USEFUL FORMULAE AND TABLES

Ultimate skin resistance in cohesive soils

Where is embedded surface area; is undrained cohesion at the depth of interest; and
is adhesion factor which depends on the value of

Ultimate skin resistance in cohesive soils


( )
Where = average effective stress at depth of interest, is pile and soil interface friction
angle; = coefficient of lateral earth pressure.
Allowable load for a single pile

or

Where Qb is base resistance; and Qf is skin resistance

Unit weight relationships


Dry and saturated unit weights are given in terms of void ratio e and specific gravity Gs by
( )
and

Lateral pressure
 h  K 0H
Where  = soil unit weight; and K0 = coefficient of earth pressure at rest
K 0  1  sin 
Coefficient of earth pressure for the active state
1  sin 
KA =
1  sin 
Coefficient of earth pressure for the passive state
1  sin 
KP =
1  sin 

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