RCD 2: FOOTINGS

ULTIMATE STRENGTH DESIGN (USD)

COMBINED FOOTING foundation consists of a solid reinforced concrete slab
under the entire building. In structural action, such a
Spread footings that support more than one column or
mat is very similar to a flat slab or a flat plate, upside
wall are known as combined footings. They can be
down, that is, loaded upward by the bearing pressure
divided into two categories: those that support two
and downward by the concentrated column reactions.
columns and those that support more than two
The mat foundation evidently develops the maximum
(generally large numbers of) columns.
available bearing area under the building. If the soil’s
Examples of the first type, that is, two-column footings, capacity is so low that even this large bearing area is
are shown in figure 1. In buildings where the allowable insufficient, some form of deep foundation, such as
soil pressure is large enough for single footings to be piles or caissons, must be used.
adequate for most columns, two-column footings are
seen to become necessary in two situations: (1) if
columns are so close to the property line that single-
column footings cannot be made without projecting
beyond that line and (2) if some adjacent columns are
so close to each other that their footings would merge.

Figure 3: Mat Foundation

TWO COLUMN COMBINED FOOTING

Figure 1: Two Column Footing
When the bearing capacity of the subsoil is low so that
large bearing areas become necessary, individual
footings are replaced by continuous strip footings that
support more than two columns and usually all columns
in a row. Sometimes such strips are arranged in both
directions, in which case a grid foundation is obtained,
as shown in Fig. 2. Strip footings can be made to
develop a much larger bearing area much more
economically than can be done by single footings
because the individual strips represent continuous
beams whose moments are much smaller than the
cantilever moments in large single footings that project
far out from the column in all four directions.
It is desirable to design combined footings so that the
centroid of the footing area coincides with the resultant
of the two column loads. This produces uniform bearing
pressure over the entire area and forestalls a tendency
for the footings to tilt. In plan, such footings are
rectangular, trapezoidal, or T-shaped, the details of the
shape being arranged to produce coincidence of
centroid and resultant.
The simple relationships shown in Fig. 4 facilitate the
determination of the shape of the bearing area. In
general, the distances m and n are given, the former
being the distance from the center of the exterior
column to the property line and the latter the distance
from that column to the resultant of both column loads.

Figure 2: Grid Footing

In many cases, the strips are made to merge, resulting

in a mat foundation, as shown in Fig. 3. That is, the

ENGR. AUGOSTO D. FRACE, ME-CE 1

RCD 2: FOOTINGS
ULTIMATE STRENGTH DESIGN (USD)
PROBLEM 2:

Consider the footing shown. Use 75 mm clear cover of

footing. Allowable soil pressure is 200 KPa. Use
'
f c=21 MPa, fy=276 MPa

Details of footing:

Loadings:

C1(500𝑚𝑚∅) C2(400mmX400mm)
Dead Load 650 KN 350 KN
Live Load 750 KN 500 KN

kN
Weight of soil : 17 m3

kN
Weight of concrete : 23.6 m3

1. Determine the dimension of the footing.

2. Is the beam adequate for wide beam shear
and punching shear?
3. Design the reinforcement of the footing using 28
mm diameter bars and draw the details.

EXERCISE PROBLEMS
Problem 1:
An exterior column 600x450 mm with DL=750 KN, LL=600
KN, and an exterior 600x600 mm column with DL=1100
KN, LL=900 KN are to be supported on a combined
rectangular footing whose outer end cannot protrude
beyond the outer face of the exterior column. The
width of the footing is 1.85 m and the center distance
between the column is 5.5m. The allowable pressure of
the soil is 300 KPa. The bottom of the footing is 1.8 m
below grade and a surcharge of 5 KPa is applied on the
surface. The average unit weight of soil is 20 kN/m^3.
Design the footing using f’c=21 MPa and fy=420 MPa.
Neglect the weight of the footing.
Problem 3:
A trapezoidal combined footing supports two columns
500mmx500mm placed at 5.5 m apart center to center.
Length of the footing is 6m. Column 1 carries a dead
load of 1200 kN and a live load of 800 kN while column
2 carries a dead load of 900 kN and a live load of 660
kN. Effective soil pressure is 190 kPa. Use f’c=21 MPa and
fy=414 MPa. Use 25 mm main bars.
1. Compute the minimum and maximum width of
the footing.
2. Compute the load at the minimum section of
the footing.
3. Compute the load at the maximum section of
the footing.

ENGR. AUGOSTO D. FRACE, ME-CE 2