MAT/RAFT FOUNDATION- DEFINITION

AND TYPES
- Mat Foundation is basically a concrete slab that may be spread over a large area.
- Several columns transfer the load from the super structure to the soil through the
mat foundation.
- They are normally user where either the soil has low bearing capacity or the
column loads are so high that foundation area requirements are clashing with each
other.
- They may also be supported on piles , also called pile raft foundation.
- Piles help in reducing the settlement of the mat foundation and may also be very
helpful in controlling buoyancy where the water table is very high.

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 WHEN TO CHOOSE RAFT FOUNDATIONS !
1. The structural loads are so high or the soil conditions so poor that spread footings would be
exceptionally large.
2. As a general rule of thumb, if spread footings would cover more than about one-third of the building
footprint area, a mat or some type of deep foundation will probably be more economical.
3. The soil is very erratic and prone to excessive differential settlements. The same is true of mats on
highly expansive soils prone to differential heaves.
4. The structural loads are erratic, and thus increase the likelihood of excessive differential settlements.
5. Lateral loads are not uniformly distributed through the structure and thus may cause differential
horizontal movements in spread footings or pile caps. The continuity of a mat will resist such
movements.
6. The uplift loads are larger than spread footings can accommodate. The greater weight and
continuity of a mat may provide sufficient resistance .
7. The bottom of the structure is located below the groundwater table, so waterproofing is an
important concern. Because mats are monolithic, they are much easier to waterproof. The weight of
the mat also helps resist hydrostatic uplift forces from the groundwater.

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The seventy five story Texas Commerce Tower in
Houston is one of the largest mat supported
structures in the world.
Its mat is 3 m (9ft 9 in) thick and is bottomed 19.2 m
(63ft) below the street level.

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TWO TYPES OF ANALYSIS FOR DESIGN OF MAT FOUNDATION

 RIGID ASSUMPTION  NON RIGID ASSUMPTION

 This method assumes the mat is much  This method assumes the deformations in the
more rigid than the underlying soils, mat and their influence on the bearing
which means any distortions in the pressure distribution.
mat are too small to significantly
impact the distribution of bearing  They produce more accurate values of mat
pressure. deformations and stresses.
 For analysis purposes, the mat  Non rigid analyses are more difficult to
becomes an inverted and simply implement because they require
loaded two-way slab, which means consideration of soil-structure interaction and
the shears, moments, and deflections
may be easily computed using the complex bearing pressure distribution
principles of structural mechanics.
 The engineer can then select the
appropriate mat thickness and
reinforcement.

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DISTRIBUTION OF BEARING PRESSURE
UNDER DIFFERENT TYPES OF SOIL FOR
RAFT FOUNDATION

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 First understand about coefficient of subgrade reaction

 This term defines the relationship between settlement and bearing pressure.
 This is usually done using the coefficient of subgrade reaction,

𝑝𝑝
𝑘𝑘 =
𝛥𝛥
 k, = coefficient of subgrade reaction
 p = bearing pressure
 𝛥𝛥 = settlement

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 DESIGN OF MAT FOUNDATION IN SOFTWARES

- SOFTWARES can be used to design and analyze mat foundation.

- Engineer should have sound knowledge of mat-soil interaction.
- Mats are relatively thick concrete slabs with typical span to depth ratios
varying from as low as 2 to as high as 8.
- Shear deformation would play an important role in the mat-soil interaction.
- Therefore, Designers are advised to model a mat foundation using a thick
plate formulation rather than a thin plate.
- Softwares gives the user the option of modeling a mat foundation using
thin or thick plates.
- The consideration of shear deformation in flexural behavior of plates make
the plates more flexible, which increases differential settlement and reduces
bending moments, thus the overall mat design is impacted significantly.

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 HOW THEY USED TO DESIGN MAT/RAFT FOUNDATION BEFORE SOFTWARES

 Manually, mat/raft foundations are designed using two assumptions

1. Infinitely Rigidity
2. Bending along only one-way.
 For Fairly stiff mats i.e. high bearing capacity soils and thick rafts, these assumptions may be
valid , but for thin raft on compressible soils, these assumptions may lead designer to grave
errors.
 Infinite Rigid Mat foundation assumption allows determination of bearing pressure by simple
static as we do in isolated foundations. With this process, high pressure concentrations areas
near the columns are ignored and low pressure areas at distance from these columns are
considered on conservative side.
 Second assumption of mat behavior consider one-way analysis as compared to two-way
bending analysis.
 These methods addresses the mat flexibility to a certain degree and are extremely ted
 These approximation methods address the mat flexibility to a limited degree but do not
include analyses for two-way bending; these are extremely tedious and cumbersome to use

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 HOW FEM ANALYSIS IN SOFTWARES HELP TO OVERCOME THE MANUAL
CALCULATION ASSUMPTIONS

 FEM Analysis addresses the rigidity of

the mat foundation and two way
bending by implementing it in the
computer codes.
 FEM uses the modulus of sub-grade
reaction to designate the soil stiffness.
 Designers can model the four node
square/rectangular/quadrilateral plates
to stimulate the actual mat foundation.
 Designers model the mat in 2-D with
plates having thickness equal to the
thickness of the raft foundation.

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WHAT IS BASICALLY A SHELL WHICH IS USED TO MODEL THE RAFT IN SOFTWARES

 A shell is a three or four-node area object used to model membrane and plate-bending
behavior.
 Shell objects are useful for simulating floor, wall, and bridge deck systems; 3D curved
surfaces; and components within structural members, such the web and flanges of a W-
Section.
 Shells may be homogeneous or layered throughout their thickness.
 Full shell behavior and the Mindlin-Reissner thick-plate formulation are recommended for
analysis

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 Softwares offers two options i.e. Thin Shell and Thick Shell .
 The inclusion of transverse shear deformation in plate-bending behavior is the main
difference between thin and thick shell formulation.
 Thin-plate formulation follows a Kirchhoff application, which neglects transverse shear
deformation,
 whereas thick-plate formulation follows Mindlin/Reissner, which does account for shear
behavior.
 Thick-plate formulation has no effect upon membrane (in-plane) behavior, only plate-
bending (out-of-plane) behavior.

 Softwares recognizes the fact that if the shells are thick, shear deformation must be
included

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 CONCLUSION
 Comparing thin versus thick plate modeling, the
thick plate deforms more yielding a smaller
design moment.
 We recommend the use of thick plate modeling
for the analysis and design of mat foundations.
 Transverse shear is one of the critical design
parameters in mat foundation design which
dictates a design strip.

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