FOUNDATION ENGINEERING

1. Introduction
The classification of soil determines its
strength, durability to be expressed in designing
of structures foundations such as buildings,
bridges, towers, dams, oil related tanks generally
requires the knowledge of the behavior and
stress-related deformability of the soil that will
support the foundation system and the geological
conditions of the soil under consideration.
Structural designers must have thorough
knowledge of the geology of the area where the
structure must be constructed especially the origin
and the nature of the soil stratification and
groundwater conditions.
Soils maybe classified as follows:
1. Cohesionless soils – the soil particles do nit tend
to stick together.
Examples: gravel, sand and silt.
2. Cohesive soil – the particles do stick together,
the result of water particle interaction and
attractive forces between particles. They are
both sticky and plastic. Common of this type of
soil is clay.
3. Organic soil – they are typically spongy, crumbly
and compressible. This type of soil is
undesirable for use in supporting structures.
1. Gravel – it has particles size greater than 2mm
2. Sand – it has particle sizes that ranges from 0.1
mm to 2mm
3. Silt – it has particles size that ranges from
.005mm to 0.1mm

Common type of cohesive soil:

1. Clay – it has a particle size less than 0.005mm.
This type of soil cannot be separated by sieve
analysis into size categories because no
practical sieve can be made with openings so
small, instead particle sizes maybe determined
by observing settling velocities of the particles
in a water mixture.
1. Coarse-grained (also referred to as granular soils) – gravel and
sand coarser than 0.075mm or a No. 200 sieve size.
2. Fine-grained – silt and clay with soil grains finer than 0.075mm

Granular soil:
Engineering properties of granular soils (except for loose sand)
generally possess excellent engineering properties. They make
outstanding foundation materials for supporting roads and
structures because they exhibit large bearing capacities and
experience relatively small settlements. Granular soils also makes
excellent backfill materials for retaining walls because they are
easily drained and they exert small lateral earth pressures.
Granular soils make superior embankment material due to high
shear strengths and ease of compaction. Due to high permeability’s
of granular soil, they are poor and unacceptable for use as core
materials for either dikes or dams.
This type of soil exhibit generally undesirable
engineering properties. They tend to have lower
shear strengths and loose shear strength
further upon wetting. They developed large
lateral pressures and have low permeability’s,
for theses reasons they are poor materials for
retaining wall backfills. Being impervious, they
make better core materials for earthen dams
and dikes.
The grain size distribution of coarsed soil is
generally determined buy means size of sieve
analysis. For a finer grained soil, the grain
size distribution can be obtained by means of
hydrometer analysis. A sieve analysis is
conducted by taking a measured amount of
dry, well-pulverized soil and passing it
through a stack of progressively finer sieve
with a pan at the bottom, as shown on the
figure.
U.S. Sieve Size Size Opening (mm) Mass Retained (g)
¾ in. 19 0
3/8 in 19.5 156
No. 4 4.75 306
No. 10 2 610
No. 40 0.425 650
No. 100 0.150 220
No. 200 0.075 48
Pan 10
2000
 Cumulative percentage retained on sieve No. 4 = 23.10%
3. Percentage passing in sieve No. 200 = 0.50%