Bearing Capacity and Stability of Foundations

The ability of a soil to support a load from a structural foundation without

failing in shear is known as its bearing capacity.
The stability of foundation depends on:
1. The bearing capacity of the soil beneath the foundation.
2. The settlement of the soil beneath the foundation.
There are, therefore, two independent stability conditions to be fulfilled since
the shearing resistance of the soil provides the bearing capacity and the
consolidation properties determine the settlement.

Bearing Capacity
The supporting power of soil is referred to as its bearing capacity. It may be
defined as the largest intensity of pressure which may be applied by a
structure to the soil without causing failure of soil in shear or excessive
settlement. Consider a footing placed at depth D below the ground surface,
the overburden pressure at the base of the footing is qo=D . The total
pressure
at the base of the footing due to the self weight of the footing, weight of the
superstructure and due to the weight of earth fill over the footing is known as
the gross pressure intensity. The difference in intensities of gross pressure
after the construction of the structure and of the original overburden
pressure is known as the net pressure .
The ultimate bearing capacity of soil may be determined by analytical
methods (i.e., by bearing capacity theories) and field tests, or approximate
values may be adopted from Building Codes which are based on experience.

Ultimate Bearing Capacity qu

The ultimate bearing capacity qu is defined as the least gross pressure
intensity which would cause shear failure of the supporting soil immediately
below and adjacent to a foundation.

Three distinct modes of failure have been identified and these are illustrated in Fig.1,
they well be described with reference to a strip footing

In the case of general shear failure, continuous failure surfaces developed between the
edges of the footing and the ground surface as shown in Fig.2. As the pressure is
increased towards the value qu the state of plastic equilibrium is reached initially in the
soil around the edges of the footing then gradually spreads downwards and outwards.
Ultimately the state of plastic equilibrium is fully developed throughout the soil above the
failure surfaces. Heaving of the ground surface occurs on both sides of the footing
although the final slip movement would occur only on one side, accompanied by tilting
of the footing. This mode of failure is typical of soils of low compressibility (i.e. dense or
stiff soils) and the pressure settlement curve is of the general form shown in Fig.2, the
ultimate bearing capacity being well defined.

In the mode of local shear failure there is significant compression of the soil
under the footing and only partial development of the state of plastic
equilibrium. The failure surfaces, therefore, do not reach the ground surface
and only slight heaving occurs. Tilting of the foundation would not be
expected. Local shear failure is associated with soils of high compressibility
and, as indicated in Fig.2, is characterized by the occurrence of relatively

large settlements (which would be unacceptable in practice) and the fact that
the ultimate bearing capacity is not clearly defined.
Punching shear failure occurs when there is compression of the soil under the
footing, accompanied by shearing in the vertical direction around the edges of
the footing. There is no heaving of the ground surface away from the edges
and no tilting of the footing. Relatively large settlements are also a
characteristic of this mode and again the ultimate bearing capacity is not well
defined. Punching shear failure will also occur in a soil of low compressibility if
the foundation is located at considerable depth. In general the mode of failure
depends on the compressibility of the soil and the depth of foundation relative
to its breadth.

Net Ultimate Bearing Capacity qnu

The net ultimate bearing capacity is the minimum net pressure intensity
causing shear failure of soil.
qnu=qu - qo
qu=qnu+qo

Net Safe Bearing Capacity qns

The net safe bearing capacity is the net ultimate bearing capacity divided by
the desired factor of safety F.

Safe Bearing Capacity qs

The safe bearing capacity is the maximum pressure which the soil can carry
safely without risk of shear failure.

Allowable Bearing Capacity

The allowable bearing capacity is maximum pressure which is considered
safe both with respect to shear failure and settlement.
When the term bearing capacity is used without any prefix it may be
understood to refer to the ultimate bearing capacity.

BEARING CAPACITY THEORIES

Broadly, there are two approaches for the analysis of stability of foundations. The first of
these is known as the conventional approach which generates from the work of
Coulomb (1977). This is based on the assumption of a certain shape for the rapture
surface. The other approach which stems from the work of Rankine (1857) and Kotter
(1903) is based on the assumption of simultaneous failure at every point in certain zone
of the soil mass. This is referred here as plasticity theory approach. However, there is
found to be reasonably good agreement between the two approaches

Terzaghi's Bearing Capacity Theory

Assumptions: Based on Prandtl's theory (1920) for plastic failure of metal under rigid
punches Terzaghi derived a general bearing capacity equation. All soils are covered in
this method by two cases which are designated as general shear and local shear
failures. General shear is the case wherein the loading test curve for the soil under
consideration comes to a perfectly vertical ultimate condition at relatively small
settlement as shown by curve 1 in Fig.3. Local shear is the case wherein settlements
are relatively large and there is not a definite vertical ultimate to the curve as in curve 2
in Fig.3. (Soil is loose

relative to a general shear failure). The following assumptions were made in

the analysis.
1. The footing is continuous.
2. The weight of soil above the base level of footing is replaced by
equivalent surcharge (Fig.4), where is the unit weight of soil.
3. The shear resistance of the soil above the base level of the
footing is neglected.
4. The base of the footing is rough.
5. The failure surface is composed of a straight line ac and the
logarithmic spiral dc or cg.
6. The soil wedge abc beneath the base of footing is in elastic state
and moves with the footing.
7. the base angle of the wedge abc is equal to .
8. The principle pf superposition is valid.

The application of the load (Fig.4) tends to push the wedge of soil abc into
the ground with a lateral displacement of zones II (radial shear zones) and
zones III (plane shear zones). The downward movement of this soil wedge is
resisted by the resultant of the passive pressure of the soil and the
cohesion , acting along the surface of the wedges ac, bc as it moves.
Considering the equilibrium of the wedge abc, Terzaghi presented the
following bearing capacity expression for general shear failure:

where

= relates the passive pressure of the soil in zones II and III to the
size of the footing, and angle of failure zone I (Fig.4). The values
are determined by means of the -circle or logarithmic
spiral.
It is proposed that ultimate bearing capacity for local shear failure condition
may be computed based on the following soil parameters

Table 1 Bearing Capacity Factors for General Shear Conditions

and Local Shear Conditions

Nc

Nq

N'c

N'q

N'

5.7

1.0

0.0

5.7

1.0

0.0

7.3

1.6

0.5

6.7

1.4

0.2

10

9.6

2.7

1.2

8.0

1.9

0.5

15

12.9

4.4

2.5

9.7

2.7

0.9

20

17.7

7.4

5.0

11.8

3.9

1.7

25

25.1

12.7

9.7

14.8

5.6

3.2

30

37.2

22.5

19.7

19.0

8.3

5.7

34

52.6

36.5

35.0

23.7

11.7

9.0

35

57.8

41.4

42.4

25.2

12.6

10.1

40

95.7

81.3

100.4

34.9

20.5

18.8

45

172.3

173.3

297.5

51.2

35.1

37.7

48

258.3

287.9

780.1

66.8

50.5

60.4

50

347.6

415.1

1153.2

81.3

65.6

87.1

Shape Factors
Equation 1 is the bearing capacity equation for a long strip footing. It can also
be used for rectangular footing of length L equal to or greater than 5 times the
width B i.e. . Terzaghi has recommended that Eq 1 could be used for circular
and square footings with the following modifications.

For circular footing

For saturated clay may be assumed to be equal to zero, and hence:

For cohesion-less soils (c = 0.0)

Limitations:
(i)
The shear strength of soil above the base level of footing is
neglected.
(ii)
This theory gives conservative values for footings whose depths are
greater than zero.
(iii)
Subdivision of the bearing capacity problems in two types of shear is
an arbitrary one, since two cases cannot cover the wide range of
conditions.