SITE INVESTIGATION

1. Topographic features
Description:
2. Existing structures:
a. Type of Structure
b. Foundations used
c. Foundation depth
d. Settlement records
e. Settlement cracks in the surrounding buildings, if any
f. Soil Exploration data
i. No. of bore holes and its depth
ii. Stratification of soil
iii. SBC and Factor of safety for the Net SBC
iv. Ground water table and quality of water
3. Enquiries regarding earlier use of soil on the site:
4. Enquiries regarding earlier use of site:
a. Functionality of building
b. Area of Building
c. Drainage system
d. Underground Working and its depth
5. Location of any underground sewer lines, water mains, and other utilities
a. Type and Depth of utility lines
6. Depth of water in nearby Water Streams or Water Courses, if any
7. Location of springs, if any
8. Immediate Surface Drainage Pattern
9. Location of Slides, slumps, and faults
10. Presence of vegetative cover or water seeping tree roots
11. Native soil type (useful for backfilling)
12. Agricultural land nearby (To know the presence of irrigational water underground)
13. Description of proposed structure:
a. Functionality of Structure
b. Seismic Zone
c. No. of Floors
d. No. of Basement and their depths below ground level-
e. Type of foundation
f. Gravity load of the building
i. Maximum load (< SBC)
ii. Minimum load
g. Building Service Life, years
SOIL EXPLORATION

1. Bore holes
a. Number (More number of blows per foot indicates dense or well-compacted soil
b. Depth (See table 2.1.1)
c. Spacing (See table 2.1.2)
d. Boring Refusal within the excavation limits
2. Ground water table
a. Water level
b. Quality of water
c. Fluctuation of water level
3. Stratification of soil
a. Depth of layers
b. Thickness of layers
c. Type of soil
d. Natural Moisture Content (Indicates the mass of water present in the soil mass)
i. Moisture Content < 5 % Soil is too dry and it needs pre- watering prior to
excavation
ii. Moisture Content > 15 % Soil is too wet and special care should be taken for
Clayey soils.
e. Liquid Limit (Indicates the water content at which the soil behaves practically like a liquid)
f. Plastic Limit (Indicates the water content below which the soil stops behaving as plastic)
g. Shrinkage Limit (Indicated the water content below which the volume of the soil does not
decrease)
h. Bulk Density and Dry Density (High value of Dry Density indicates that the soil is in
compact condition)
i. Void ratio/Porosity (More Compaction of soil is needed for High Void ratio/porosity)
j. Swelling occurrence (See Table 2.3.1) (if yes, then suggest the alternative)
k. Collapsible while excavating (if yes, then suggest the alternative)
i. Soil Active Pressure (See table 2.3.2)
ii. Soil Passive Pressure
l. Corrosive action of soils
m. Possibility of Liquefaction during Seismic forces or vibrations
n. Hazardous wastes presence
4. Soil bearing Capacity
a. SBC/SPB under Footing (See table 2.4.1) (Ref. IS 6403 or IS 1888)
b. Factor of safety for the Net SBC
c. Recommended type of footing
d. Need of specific grade of concrete
h. Recommended Foundation depth from existing GL
i. Recommended Load on Footing
j. Inclined Loading Considered?
k. Dynamic loading considered?
5. Settlement
a. Loading considered for settlement analysis (See table 2.5.1)
b. Allowable foundation settlement (See table 2.5.2)
c. Expected Foundation Settlement and time
d. Expected Differential Settlement
e. Cohesive soils
i. Elastic Settlement of Cohesive soils
ii. Consolidation Settlement for clayey soils
iii. Improvement of cohesive soils
f. Cohesionless soils
i. Immediate Settlement of Cohesion less soils
ii. Settlement from N values
(Refer Fig 9, IS: 8009 (Part 1) 1976)
iii. Improvement of Cohesionless Soils
6. Standard Penetration test
a. Depth
b. No. of blows for 300 mm penetration (See table 2.6.1)
c. Corrected N Value for overburden and dilatancy
d. Angle of Shearing Resistance ( ) (See table 2.6.2)
e. Unconfined Compressive Strength (qu) (See table 2.6.3)
f. Seismic Zone and foundation depth (See Table 2.6.4)
g. Net Ultimate Bearing Capacity from SPT
i. For Strip Footing
1
= [3 2 + 5(100 + 2 ) ]
6.0

ii. For Square and Circular footings,

1
= [ 2 + 3(100 + 2 ) ]
3.0
Wq = 1 0.5 *(a/Df) <= 1, where a = distance between ground water level and base of
footing when water level is above the base of footing

Wg = 0.5 + 0.5 b/Bf <= 1, where b = distance between ground water level and base of
footing when water level is below the base of footing

7. Recommended Ground improvement Techniques

 Table 2.1.1 - Depth of Exploration for different types of footing
Type of Footing Minimum Depth of boring
1.5 x B
Square footing
B = Width of footing
Strip footing 3xB
Raft foundation 1.5 x B
Bearing piles 1.5 x B of pile group (measured below the tip of bearing piles
1.5 x B of pile group (measured from the lower third point of friction
Friction piles
piles)
Bed rock 3 m into the bed rock
Deep excavation 1.5 x depth of excavation
1.5 x B when A >= 4B
Two Adjacent footings of size B x L
1.5 x L when A < 2B
Clearly spaced at distance A
L = Length of footing
4.5 x B when A < 2B
For Adjacent rows of above type
3.5 x B when A > 2B
of footings
1.5 x B when A >= 4B
C (S)0.7
C = 3 for light steel buildings and narrow concrete buildings
Multi-storey buildings
= 6 for heavy steel buildings and wide concrete buildings
S = number of Storey
Road cuts Width of Road cut
2 m below the ground surface or
Road fills
Height of the fill
Gravity Dams 2 x Height of dam

Table 2.1.2 Spacing of bore holes

Description Minimum Spacing
Small and less important buildings One bore hole at the center
Compact buildings covering an area One at the center and four near
about 0.4 hectares the corners
Multi-storey buildings 10 m to 30 m
Highways 150 m to 300 m
For Erratic soil mass 30 m
Gravity Dams 40 m to 80 m

Table 2.3.1 Differential Free Swell (DFS)

Differential Free Swell Degree of Expansion
< 20 % Low
20 35% Moderate
35 50% High
> 50% Very High
Note:
A. If DFS > 35%, The conventional Shallow Foundation cannot be used for
such soils
 Table 2.3.2 Soil Active Pressures for temporary shoring
Soil Active Pressures Recommended Shoring
Soil is firm enough to allow steel
25 pcf
slopes
25 pcf to 35 pcf Flatter slopes
> 35 pcf Impractically flattened slopes
Ground water present and oozing clay
80 pcf
is present (not recommended)
Note:
A. 1 pcf = 16.02 kg/m3 = 157 kN/m3
B. The recommendations are for information only and further scrutiny of
report is needed.

Table 2.4.1 Permissible percentage increase in Allowable bearing pressure

Sr. Type of Soil
Foundation
No. Type - 1 Type 2 Type - 3
Piles passing through any soil
1. 50 50 50
but resting on soil type 1
2. Piles not covered in item 1 -- 25 25
3. Raft Foundations 50 50 50
Combined Isolated R.C.C Footing
4. 50 25 25
with tie beams
Isolated R.C.C footing w/o tie
5. beams, or unreinforced Strip 50 25 --
foundation
6. Well Foundations 50 25 25
Type 1: Well graded gravel and sand gravel mixtures with or without clay binders & clayey sands
poorly graded or sand slay mixtures having N > 30
Type 2: All soils with 10 < N < 30 & poorly graded sands (SP) or gravelly sands with N >15
Type 3: All soils other than poorly graded sand (SP) with N < 10

Table 2.5.1 Loading for Settlement Analysis

Type of Soil Loading
DL + LL + (WL or EQ)*
Coarse Grained Soils
Settlement occurs in short time
Fine Grained Soils DL + % of LL as Permanent loads
*WL or EQ > 25 % of (DL+LL) then the foundation is designed such that the
pressure due to (DL+LL+WL or EQ) < 1.25*Allowable bearing Capacity
 Table 2.5.2 Maximum and Differential Settlements
Sand and hard Clay Plastic Clay
Description Max- Diff- Angular Max- Diff- Angular
Settlement Settlement Distortion Settlement Settlement Distortion
Utilities such as water
pipe lines, Sewers, < 150 mm -- -- -- -- --
Telephone lines
Isolated Foundations
i. Steel Structures 50 mm 0.0033 L 1/300 50 mm 0.0033 L 1/300
ii. R.C.C structures 50 mm 0.0015 L 1/666 75 mm 0.0015 L 1/666
Raft Foundations
i. Steel Structures 75 mm 0.0033 L 1/300 100 mm 0.0033 L 1/300
ii. R.C.C Structures 75 mm 0.002 L 1/500 100 mm 0.002 L 1/500
L = clear spacing between columns

Table 2.6.1 Correlation between blow counts and Excavation Type

Blow counts Excavation
< 10 Loose or soft soil
10 50 Soil can be easily excavated
50 100 Ripping of soil is required
> 100 Difficult to excavate

Table 2.6.1 Correlation between N and

N Denseness
04 Very Loose 25 - 32
4 10 Loose 27 - 35
10 30 Medium 30 - 40
30 50 Dense 35 - 45
> 50 Very Dense > 45
Table 2.6.2 Correlation between N and qu
N Consistency qu (kN/m2)
02 Very Soft < 25
24 Soft 25 50
48 Medium 50 100
8 15 Stiff 100 200
15 30 Very Stiff 200 400
> 30 Hard > 400
NOTE: Loose or dense are applied to sands and gravels, soft and stiff are usually applied to Clays and Silts,
Hard can mean Rock or Cemented Soils.
 Table 2.6.3 Desirable minimum values of N for Seismic Zones
Depth below
Seismic Zone N Values Remark
ground (m)
5 15
III, IV and V
10 25 For values of depths between 5m and 10 m,
II (for important 5 15 linear interpolation is recommended
structures only) 10 20
NOTE:
A. If soils of smaller N-values are met, compacting may be adopted to achieve these values or
deep pile foundations going to stronger strata should be used.
B. Isolated R.C.C footing without tie beams, or unreinforced strip foundation shall not be
permitted in soft soils with N < 10.

References:

1. http://www.pdhonline.com/courses/g106/g106.htm

2. Dr. K. R. Arora, Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Seventh Edition

3. Bhumi Research Center, Civil Engineering Testing and Consultancy Services, Sub-Soil Investigation
Report