Dr.

Hammida

) ( ( )
Mat foundation- Raft foundationMat- Pile FoundationMat & Piles Foundation-

Do you have access to a computer program that can do a finite elements analysis?
If so, you can model the mat as a concrete plate, subdivided into finite elements, on soil
springs.
Check service load soil bearing pressures qs against the allowable soil bearing
pressure q , and design the mat for factored pressures.

Check service load soil bearing pressures: qs = K*

= Deflection in joint spring

K= sprink stiffness or Module of sup grade
If no soil report for Module of sup grade use K= 100 q
Check: qs <

If you design this by hand? you must assume the mat is

infinitely rigid.

First off all, you calculate the soil bearing pressure at all four corners of the mat
(check these against the allowable soil bearing pressure).

Then, using factored soil bearing pressures qu ,

design the concrete mat as a two way flat slab or- two way solid slabWith to layer of steal top and bottom not less than Minimum reinforcement

Conventional Method
The basic assumptions in conventional method are:
Foundation is rigid relative to supporting soil and compressible soil is relatively shallow.

The bearing pressure is assumed to be uniform such that centroid of the bearing
pressure coincides with the line of action of the resultant of all forces acting on the
foundation. In case of mat foundation it is difficult to coincide the line of action of resultant
force with the line of action of the soil pressure and there always exists some eccentricity.
The procedure for the conventional design of a raft foundation consists of the following
steps.
Determine the line of action of all the loads acting on the raft as shown in Fig. 1. The self
weight of raft is not considered, as it is taken directly by the soil.
Determine pressure distribution.

In general, a mat foundation is subjected to eccentricity on both x and y axis, then a

situation as shown in Fig. 1 occurs and in such case, the pressure, q is given by,

Where, ex is the eccentricity along x-axis, ey is the eccentricity along y-axis, Q is the
resultant of all the column loads, Ixx is the moment of inertia about y-axis and y is the
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distance of the point in y-axis from the neutral axis, Iyy is the moment of inertia about x-axis
and x is the distance of the point in x-axis from the neutral axis.
The maximum soil pressure as obtained from the above equation should be less than the
allowable soil pressure.

Settlement of Raft Foundation

The settlement is not a problem for raft on sands as allowable bearing capacity is
computed on the basis of settlement criteria.
However, settlement is of great concern when a raft rests on a deposit of normally
consolidated clay.
The net foundation pressure for computing settlement is taken as:
qns = (Q/A) Df

(1)

The pressure in the Eq. (1) shall not cause settlement in excess of permissible
value. If settlement exceeds the permissible limits, the foundation pressure should
be reduced either by increasing the area under the structures or by increasing the
depth of raft or by providing one or more basement.
The base area of raft cannot be increased due to space limitation and hence the
only practical method to limit the settlement in order to obtain a required factor of
safety is to lower the elevation of the raft.
If this procedure does not bring the settlement within the permissible limits then a
deep foundation should be provided.
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dvantage of Raft-Mat Foundation in Weak Soil

Raft or Mat foundation cover entire floor area of structure; it is a combined foundation
which support all columns and walls (structural or non-structural). We will discuss
here about advantage of raft foundation in weak soil i.e. soil having very low bearing
capacity.

In such condition raft foundation serves three advantages like-

Ultimate bearing capacity as proposed by different researchers have

relation with
width of foundation such that with increase in width ultimate bearing
capacity is also
increased which brings deeper layers of soil in effective zone.

The settlement of foundation is also decreased with increasing depth.

The erratic behavior of foundation soil, offers always differential settlement.
This type of settlement is very harmful to structure as stresses concentrated
at weak points of framing system which opens cracks and often lead to
failure.
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Raft foundation minimizes differential settlement and offer act as a bridge

over cavities.
Structures have a limiting value of differential settlement not to be
undergone damage.
It is found that differential settlement measured in different parts of
elements supported by raft foundation is significantly lower than identical
structure supported on individual
footings.
It is interesting to notice that maximum settlement or total settlement has
found same.
Again for raft or mat foundation allowable settlement is also considered more
than allowable settlement for structures supported on individual footing; in the other
word, this foundation permits higher bearing capacity in this situation.
Now we have to consider depth of soil layer having poor bearing capacity.
When deeper soil layers have very poor bearing property, increasing width of
foundation (like raft) will not always offer higher bearing capacity.
We know zone of influence of foundation is a function of foundation width.

So where soil at shallow layer have comparatively fair bearing capacity than underlain
deeper soil layers (having much weaker soils), it is recommended to use individual
footings as zone of influence of foundation is kept within relatively stronger layer at
the top.
So, mat foundation is discouraged in this situation

How are Raft Foundations Used to Reduce Settlement?

rafts are nothing but a flat slab reinforced with steel.
In the design purpose equivalent frame method of flat plate/slab is used as
recommendation of some codes. When C.G. (center of gravity) of loads
arrived
from individual columns or share walls coincide with rafts centroid, the
upward reaction from soil becomes uniform.
The uniform upward reaction is equals to the sum of all loads from the
columns and other members divided by area occupied by raft.
It is important to note that in structural design self weight of raft is not
considered as self weight is supposed to rest directly on the subsoil.
Here no consideration for differential settlement (moment and shear form
differential settlement) is accounted and the effects of differential
settlement are compensated by using heavier reinforced section than that
required from above analysis.
In case of compressible soils, sometimes the total raft foundation is made
compensated foundation.
Now question is what is compensated foundation?
The answer is the raft slab is provided at such a depth that the weight of soil
excavated is equal to the weight of raft slab plus that of structure
to be supported.
Theoretically there should be no settlement as no pressure is increased
at that level.
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Practically the settlement is also insignificant.

But total compensation is often impossible or impractical as weight
of structure often becomes too large.
In this situation partial compensation is used so that the settlement is in
Tolerable limit.
so far we considered differential properties of soils.
But if loads from different columns are not distributed uniformly the raft
Should be stiffened by T-beams connecting the raft with the stems.
In case of subsoil that is susceptible to large differential settlement this stiffening
Method is also applicable.

What is Raft Foundation?

Difference between Raft Foundations and Mat Foundation
Don't confuse about raft and mat foundation. Raft foundation is
mat foundation. Now what is raft foundation?

Raft foundation is a thick concrete slab reinforced with steel which covers the
entire contact area of the structure like a thick floor. Sometimes area covered by
raft may be greater than the contact area depending on the bearing capacity of
the soil underneath. The reinforcing bars runs normal to each other in both top
and bottom layers of steel reinforcement.
Sometimes inverted main beams and secondary beams are used to carry column
loads that require thicker foundation slab considering economy of the structure.
Both beams cast monolithically with raft slab.
Now I shall discuss where raft foundations are required.
Raft foundation is required where soils have low bearing capacity and have to support
heavy structural loads.
Normally structures on marshy land, soft clay and land that are made up of sanitary
land fill or other materials (like debris, unconsolidated soil and solid waste etc.
where differential settlement is suspected)-require raft foundation.
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Raft foundations are preferred in the soil that are suspected to subsidence.
Subsidence may occur from different sources like change in ground water level due to
climatic change specially in case expansive soil or foundation in mining area.
In one words, where deep foundation like pile foundation are not economical and
feasible and isolated column footing is impracticable due to large footing size or overlapping of neighbor footing , raft foundation is the economical solution.

Raft Foundation

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The types of mat foundation commonly employed are

Flat plate mat
Plate thickened under columns
Two-way beam and slab
Plate with pedestal
Rigid frame mat
Piled raft

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%01

> up lift
v
- h

v*h

= v =M
= P
- : F

(F= P/n +_ M*di / sum )di2

=n
=d
=sum d2
F


=
= * v1

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 - 01% / 2



***

( )
) (k stiffness spring spring
translation + assign joint spring

K = 0 = K
=0 ( .10)
= 01 k=70/.01 =7000 = q k= 100 qK=100*70 = 7000 tlm

Spring
D=PL/EA
D= displacement or settlement
P - K = EA/L - K=P/D
= %0
D=0.01*d
d .
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 1.0*1.0
springk spring

( )

uplift

( )

-1



-2
uplift

-3

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- 4

**- 2-0

uplift
uplift uplift
uplift .

Dewatering

- Dewatering

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Design of piled - Raft Foundations

( ) %30

( )

smart spring
.


:

spring

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-In situations where a raft foundation alone does not satisfy the design
requirements, it may be possible to enhance the
performance of the raft by the addition of piles.

- The use of a limited number of piles, strategically located, may improve

both the ultimate load capacity and the settlement and differential
settlement performance of the raft.

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design of piled raft foundations.

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Of the most important paragraphs of design should study the effect of

the Joint Working Group of the falling pile and fall of the soil and find a
grade reaction formula and factor common reaction one between sub
smart spring worker and worker response pile reaction called spring
factor smart In the case of soil subsidence greater than the drop pile will
move full load
piles and breaks down to piles or mat and vice versa
In the event of high rises and soil carried acceptable but not enough for
-the transplant can mat- piles
Regular spacing and share the soil with piles represent the programs
work as usual spring network
And the introduction of sub grade reaction as factor in mat alone as well
as the added factor reaction pile at each pile
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But the application of this method takes the soil report by the impact of
joint work between the soil decline and fall of the stake and the
coefficient of reaction and give him carrying a load of soil and allowed
the pile needs
Also must make sure that the applicable tag allows participation in this
way the soil and pile in the joint
Assume springs for soil and piles
getting modulus of sub grade

For soil mat

pile = soil

for piles
K= 100 P
OR : = p*L/EA
FOR ALLOW

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= 1cm

p= pile Load
K=EA/L =P/
k=P/0.01 = 100 P

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Dr. Hammida

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