Reinforced

Concrete
Design
Chapter Ten
Footings
10-1 Introduction 10-6 Rectangular Reinforced Concrete Footings

10-2 Wall Footings 10-7 Eccentrically Loaded Footings

10-3 Wall Footings Under Light Loads 10-8 Combined Footings

10-4 Individual Reinforced Concrete Footings for Columns 10-9 Cantilever or Strap Footings

10-5 Square Reinforced Concrete Footings

10-1 Introduction
•The purpose of the structural portion of every building
is to transmit applied loads safely from one part of the
structure to another.

•The loads pass from their point of application into the

superstructure, then to the foundation, and then into
the underlying supporting material.

•Our discussion is concerned only with spread footings

depicted in Figure 10-1.

•Footings supported on piles will not be discussed.

The more common types of footings may be categorized
as follows:
10-2 Wall Footings
•Wall footings are commonly required to support direct concentric loads.

•Because it has bending in only one direction, it is generally designed in much the same manner
as a one-way slab, by considering a typical 12-in.-wide strip along the length of wall.

•A wall footing under concentric load behaves similarly to a cantilever beam, where the cantilever
extends out from the wall and is loaded in an upward direction by the soil pressure.

•From the ACI Code, Section 22.5, the nominal flexural design strength of a plain concrete cross
section is calculated from
• In a reinforced concrete wall footing, the behavior is identical to that just
described.

Reinforcing steel is placed in the bottom of the footing in a direction

perpendicular to the wall, similar to a reinforced concrete beam or slab.

• In either case, the cantilever action is based on the maximum bending

moment occurring at the face of the wall if the footing supports a concrete
wall or at a point halfway between the middle of the wall and the face of the
wall if the footing supports a masonry wall.

• For each type of wall, the critical section for shear in the footing may be taken
at a distance from the face of the wall equal to the effective depth of the
footing.
Problems
10-3 Wall Footings Under Light
Loads
•A relatively common situation is one in which a lightly
loaded wall is supported on average soil.
•In such a situation, experience has shown that for footings
carrying plain concrete or block masonry walls, the
minimum recommended dimensions shown in Figure 10-
8 should be used.
•The minimum depth or thickness of footing should be 8
in. but not less than the wall thickness.
•The minimum width of footing should equal twice the wall
thickness.
10-4 Individual Reinforced
Concrete Footings for Columns
•An individual reinforced concrete footing for a column, also termed
an isolated spread footing, is probably the most common, simplest,
and most economical of the various types of footings used for
structures.

•The footing behavior under concentric load is that of two-way

cantilever action extending out from the column or pedestal.
Shear
Because the footing is subject to two-way action, two different types of shear strength must be
considered: two-way shear and one-way shear.
•The introduction of shear reinforcement in footings is impractical and undesirable purely on an
economic basis.

•As in a beam or one-way slab, the shear strength provided by the footing concrete may be taken
as
Moment and Development of
Bars
•The size and spacing of the footing reinforcing steel is primarily a
function of the bending moment induced by the net upward soil
pressure.

•The fixed end, or critical section for the bending moment, is

located as follows (ACI Code, Section 15.4.2):
1. At the face of the column or pedestal, for a footing supporting a
concrete column or pedestal (see Figure 10-9a).
2. Halfway between the face of the column and the edge of a steel
base plate, for a footing supporting a column with a steel base
plate (see Figure 10-9b).
Transfer of Load from Column
into Footing
•All loads applied to a column must be transferred to the top of the footing (through a
pedestal, if there is one) by compression in the concrete, by reinforcement, or by both.

•The bearing strength of the concrete contact area of supporting and supported member
cannot exceed ø(0.85f′cA1) as directed by the ACI Code, Section 10.14.1.

•Therefore, in no case can the design-bearing strength for the loaded area be in excess of

•where ø = 0.65 for bearing on concrete.

•It is common for the footing concrete to be of a lower strength ( f′c) than the supported column
concrete.

•Where a reinforced concrete column cannot transfer the load entirely by bearing, the excess load
must be transferred by reinforcement where the required

As = (excess load)/fy.
•To provide a positive connection between a reinforced concrete column
and footing (whether dowels are required or not), the ACI Code, Section
15.8.2.1, requires a minimum area of reinforcement crossing the
bearing surface of 0.005 of the column cross-sectional area.
•Where a column base detail is inadequate to transfer the total load,
adjustments may be made as follows:
1. Increase column base plate dimensions.
2. Use higher-strength concrete (f′c ) for the pedestal or footing.
3. Increase the supporting area with respect to the base plate area until
the ratio reaches the maximum allowed by the ACI Code.

•In building design, it is common practice to use a concrete

pedestal between the footing and the column.
10-5 Square Reinforced Concrete
Footings
In isolated square footings, the reinforcement should be uniformly distributed over the width of
the footing in each direction.

It is also common practice to assume that the minimum tensile reinforcement for beams is
applicable to two-way footings for each of the two directions, unless the reinforcement provided is
one-third greater than required.

As discussed in Section 2-8 (and in the ACI Code, Section 10.5.1), the minimum tensile
reinforcement is determined from
10-6 Rectangular Reinforced
Concrete Footings
Rectangular footings are generally used where space limitations require it.

The design of these footings is very similar to that of the square column footing with the one
major exception that each direction must be investigated independently.

In rectangular footings, the distribution of the reinforcement is different than for square footings
(ACI Code, Section 15.4.4).

The portion of the total required steel that should go into this band is
Problems
Plan View
The footing thickness h was assumed to be
2.5 ft =30 in. Therefore the effective depth,
based on a 3-in. cover for bottom steel and
1-in.-diameter bars in each direction, will be Plan View
Checking the shear strength for two-way action
(with reference to Figure

Load for shear two-way action

B = column width + (d/2) 2

Plan View
The shear strength of the concrete is taken as the smallest of

(a)
Load for shear one-way action

For one-way action, consider shear across the short side

only. The critical section is at a distance equal to the effective
depth of the member from the face of the column (see Figure
10-17b).
The total factored shear acting on the critical section is
Load for shear one-way action

6’-8”
5-2 Development Length:
Tension Bars review
ld

ld

ld
• Of the two steel areas, the larger (14.07 in.^2) controls; therefore use 4
No. 11 bars (As = 14.00 in.^2). These bars will run in the long direction
and will be distributed uniformly across the 13 ft-8 in. width. They will be
placed in the bottom layer where they will have the advantage of slightly
greater effective depth.
• The development length must be checked for these bars. Assume
uncoated bars. This calculation for ld follows the eight-step procedure
presented in Chapter 5, Section 5-2, and is summarized as follows:
1. KD = 82.2
2. ψt = 1.0, ψe = 1.0, ψs = 1.0, λ = 1.0
3. ψt * ψe = 1.0 (O.K.)
4. cb = 3.5 in.
5. Ktr = 0
6. (cb + Ktr)/db = 3.16 Use 2.5
7. KER = 1.00
8. ld = 37.2 in. > 12 in. (O.K.)
LOOK AT 5-2 Development
Length: Tension Bars
Because the supporting surface is wider on all sides, the bearing strength
for the footing may be computed as follows:
 dowels

4 #11 Bars

Design sketch
10-7 Eccentrically Loaded
Footings
•Where footings are subject to eccentric vertical loads or to moments transmitted by the supported
column, the design varies somewhat from that of the preceding sections.

•The soil pressure is no longer uniform across the footing width but may be assumed to vary
linearly.

•The resultant force should be within the middle one-third of the footing base to ensure a positive
contact surface between the footing and the soil.
10-8 Combined Footings
•Combined footings are footings that support more than one column or wall.

•The two-column type of combined footing, which is relatively common,

generally results from necessity.

•The physical dimensions (except thickness) of the combined footing are

generally established by the allowable soil pressure.
•Pertinent design considerations may be summarized as follows:
1) Main reinforcement is placed in a longitudinal direction in the top of the footing, assuming the
footing to be a longitudinal beam.
2) Shear should be checked considering both one-way shear at a distance d from the face of the
column and two-way (punching) shear on a perimeter d/2 from the face of the column.
3) Stirrups or bent bars are frequently required to maintain an economical footing thickness.
4) Transverse reinforcement is generally uniformly placed in the bottom of the footing within a band
having a width not greater than the column width plus twice the effective depth of the footing.
5) Longitudinal steel is also placed in the bottom of the footing to tie together and position the stirrups
and transverse steel.
10-9 Cantilever or Strap Footings
A third type of combined footing is generally termed a
cantilever or strap footing.

This is an economical type of footing when the proximity

of a property line precludes the use of other types.

In Figure 10-23, the exterior footing is placed

eccentrically under the exterior column so that it does
not violate the property-line limitations.
•We define V as the vertical shear force necessary to keep the strap
in equilibrium, as shown in Figure 10-24.

•and from a summation of vertical forces,

•Then, by substitution,
•Note that V acting downward on the strap beam also means that
V is an uplift force on the interior footing. Therefore

•and, by substitution,

•The structural design of the interior footing is simply the design

of an isolated column footing subject to a load Ri.
•The strap beam is assumed to be a flexural member with no
bearing on the soil underneath.