DESIGN OF FOUNDATION BASES/FOOTINGS

▪ Footings are structural members used to support columns and walls and transmit their loads to
the underlying soils. The compressive stresses and load from superstructure (walls and columns)
are spread over sufficient soil areas to permit the soil to support the loads safely.
▪ Reinforced concrete is a material admirably suited for footings and is used as such for both
reinforced concrete and structural steel buildings, bridges, towers, and other structures.
▪ It is therefore necessary to transmit the supported loads to a soil of sufficient strength and then
to spread them out over an area such that the unit pressure is within a reasonable range. The
safe bearing capacity of the soil must not be exceeded otherwise excessive settlement may
occur, resulting in damage to the building.
▪ Foundation failure can also affect the overall stability of a structure so that it is liable to slide, lift
vertically or overturn. The earth under the foundations is the most variable of all the materials
that are considered in the design and construction of an engineering structure. Under building
the soil may vary from a soft clay to a dense rock. The nature & properties of the soil will change
with seasons & weather.
Typical allowable bearing capacity (From BS 8004)
Allowable
Category Type of rock/soil bearing Remarks
pressure kN/m2
Massive igneous bedrock 10 000
Rock Sandstone 2000 −4000
Shales and mudstone 600 −2000
Dense gravel or dense
>600
gravel and sand
Width of foundation not
Medium gravel or medium
Non-cohesive < 200−600 less than 1 m. Ground
gravel and sand
soils water level assumed to be
Loose gravel or loose
< 200 below base of foundation.
gravel and sand
Compact sand > 300

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 Medium dense sand 100−300
Loose sand <100
Very stiff boulder, clay and
300−600
hard clay
Stiff clay 150−300 Susceptible to long term
Cohesive soils
Firm clay 75−150 consolidation settlement.
Soft clay and silt < 75
Very soft clay and silt Not applicable

Types of Footings
Among the several types of reinforced concrete footings in common use are:
▪ A wall footing - is an enlargement of the bottom of a wall that will sufficiently distribute the load
to the foundation soil. Wall footings are normally used around the perimeter of a building and
perhaps for some of the interior walls.
▪ An isolated or single-column footing - is used to support the load of a single column. Are the
most commonly used footings, particularly where the loads are relatively light and the columns
are not closely spaced.
▪ Combined footings - are used to support two or more column loads. A combined footing might
be economical where two or more heavily loaded columns are so spaced that normally designed
single-column footings would run into each other.
▪ Mat or raft or floating foundation - is a continuous reinforced concrete slab over a large area
used to support many columns and walls. This kind of foundation is used where soil strength is
low or where column loads are large. For such cases, isolated footings would be so large that it
is more economical to use a continuous raft or mat under the entire area.
All the above types of foundations may bear directly on the ground or be supported on piles. The
type of foundation to be used depends on a number of factors such as
✓ Soil properties and conditions
✓ Type of structure and loading
✓ Permissible amount of differential settlement

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 Design considerations of foundation
The design of any foundation consists of two parts;
▪ Geotechnical design to determine the safe bearing strength of the soil; The Eurocode governing
the geotechnical aspects of foundation design is BS EN 1997-1:2004: Eurocode 7: Geotechnical
Design —Part 1: General Rules.
▪ Structural design of the foundation using reinforced concrete; The Eurocode governing the
structural aspects of foundation design is BS EN 1992-1-1:2004: Eurocode 2: Design of Concrete
Structures Part 1: General Rules and Rules for Buildings.
Footing sizing
The required area is found from the characteristic loads including the weight of the base:
Base area As = (Gk + Qk + W)/Pb = L × B m2
Where
Gk = characteristic dead load from the column (kN)
Qk = characteristic imposed load from the column (kN)
W= weight of the base (kN)
L, B= base length and breadth (m)
Pb = safe bearing pressure (kN/m2)
Note that the safe bearing pressure value is a serviceability value as it is used to control settlement
of the foundation.
The design of the base is made for the ultimate load delivered to the base by the column shaft,
i.e., the design load is 1.35 Gk + 1.5 Qk.

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Structural strength of the foundations
The calculations to determine structural strength of the foundations, that is the thickness of the
bases and the areas of reinforcement, should be based on the loadings and the resultant ground
pressures corresponding to the ultimate limit state.
1) Reinforcement cover
As the concrete is subjected to more severe exposure conditions a larger nominal cover to the
reinforcement is required. It is recommended that the minimum cover should be not less than
75mm when the concrete is cast against the ground, or not less than 50mm when cast against a
layer of blinding concrete.
2) Bending
The critical section for bending is at the face of the column on a pad footing or the wall in a strip
footing. The moment is taken on a section passing completely across a pad footing and is due to
the ultimate loads on one side of the section. No redistribution of moments should be made. The
critical sections are XX and YY as shown in the figure below.

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Critical section for bending design.
3) Shear check for column bases
Shear failure in column bases/ footing usually arise from the following points as discussed below:
a) at a distance d from the face of the column
b) at the face of the column
c) punching failure of the slab
The engineer must also check that the base will not fail due to face, transverse or punching shear.

Shear on vertical section across full width of base

The vertical shear force is the sum of the loads acting outside the section considered. Shear stress
is checked at a distance d from the face of the column as shown in the figure below. The shear
stress is;
v = V/ (ℓ d) ≤ vRd, c
where ℓ is the length L or width B of the base as appropriate.

Critical section for checking beam shear at d from the face of the column.
It is normal practice to make the base sufficiently deep so that shear reinforcement will not be
required. The depth of the base is often controlled by the design for shear.

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Rules for members not requiring shear reinforcement are covered in clause 6.2.2 of the
Eurocode. From equations (6.2a), (6.2b) and (6.3N) of the Eurocode 2,
vRd, c = CRd, c × k × (100 × ρ1 × fck)1/3 ≥ (vmin = 0.035 × k3/2 × √fck)
CRd, c = 0.18/ (γc = 1.5) = 0.12,
k = 1 + √ (200/d) ≤ 2.0,
ρ1 = Asl/ (bw d) ≤ 0.02
Punching shear around the loaded area
Rules for checking for punching shear resistance are given in section 6.4 specifically on cl.6.4.3 of
the code. The design procedure for punching shear is based on checks at the face of the column
and at the basic control perimeter u1. The following checks should be carried out:
(a) First at the perimeter of the column, (cl. 6.4.5, EC 2)
The maximum punching shear stress should not be exceeded in accordance to Cl. 6.4.5. Where this
condition is not met, then the thickness of the base slab has to be increased till the requirement
is satisfied:
vEd ≤ vRd, max
where
vEd = Column load/ (u0 d)
vRd, max = 0.3 × (1 − fck/250) × fcd
u0 = perimeter of the column = 2 (c1 + c2), c1 and c2 are side dimensions of the column
VRd,max = is the design value of the maximum punching shear resistance along the control
section considered.

(b) Basic perimeters at 2d from the face of the column

This is checked using equation 6.50 of EC2.

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 vEd =VEd. red/ (u × d) ≤ vRd, c
where
VEd = Total load outside the perimeter
VEd = Column load – p × [4(c1 + c2)d + 4πd2 + c1 × c2]
Basic control perimeter, u = 4πd+ 2(c1 + c2)
vRd, c = CRd, c × k × (100 × ρ1 × fck)1/3 ≥ (vmin = 0.035 × k3/2 × fck)
CRd, c = 0.18/ (γc = 1.5) = 0.12, k = 1 + √ (200/d) ≤ 2.0, ρ1 = Asl/ (bw d) ≤ 0.02
p = base pressure at ULS = column load / (area of base).
Example: Pad footing
A solid footing has to transfer a permanent load, Gk = 560 kN and variable load, Qk = 453 kN from
a square column 300 x 250 mm (with 16 mm bars). Assuming fyk = 500, and fck = 20 N/mm2, and
allowable safe bearing pressure of non-aggressive soil is 150 kN/m2, design the footing.