Importance of Bearing Capacity in Soil Mechanics Shbaz

Importance of bearing capacity in soil Mechanics:
Bearing capacity:
It is the load carrying capacity of the soil.
Ultimate bearing capacity or Gross bearing capacity:

It is the least gross
pressure which will cause shear failure of the supporting soil immediately below the
footing.
Net ultimate bearing capacity:

It is the net pressure that can be applied to the
footing by external loads that will just initiate failure in the underlying soil. It is equal to
ultimate bearing capacity minus the stress due to the weight of the footing and any soil
or surcharge directly above it.
Safe bearing capacity:

It is the bearing capacity after applying the factor of safety
(FS). These are of two types:
Safe net bearing capacity:

It is the net soil pressure which can be safety applied to
the soil considering only shear failure.
Safe gross bearing capacity:

It is the maximum gross pressure which the soil can
carry safely without shear failure.
Allowable Bearing Pressure:

It is the maximum soil pressure without any shear
failure or settlement failure.
Bearing capacity of footing
Presumptive bearing capacity:

Building codes of various organizations in different countries gives the allowable
bearing capacity that can be used for proportioning footings. These are “Presumptive
bearing capacity values based on experience with other structures already built. As
presumptive values are based only on visual classification of surface soils, they are not
reliable. These values don't consider important factors affecting the bearing capacity
such as the shape, width, depth of footing, location of water table, strength and
compressibility of the soil. Generally these values are conservative and can be used for
preliminary design or even for final design of small unimportant structure. IS1904-1978
recommends that the safe bearing capacity should be calculated on the basis of the soil
test data. But, in absence of such data, the values of safe bearing capacity can be taken
equal to the presumptive bearing capacity values given in table, for different types of
soils and rocks. It is further recommended that for non-cohesive soils, the values should
be reduced by 50% if the water table is above or near base of footing. Presumptive
bearing capacity values as per IS1904-1978.
Types of Bearing Capacity Failures:
1. General shear failure
2. Local shear failure
3. Punching failure
1. General shear failure:
This type of failure is seen in dense and stiff soil. The following are some
characteristics of general shear failure.
1. Continuous, well defined and distinct failure surface develops between the
edge of footing and ground surface.
2. Dense or stiff soil that undergoes low compressibility experiences this failure.
3. Continuous bulging of shear mass adjacent to footing is visible.
4. Failure is accompanied by tilting of footing.
5. Failure is sudden and catastrophic with pronounced peak in curve.
6. The length of disturbance beyond the edge of footing is large.
7. State of plastic equilibrium is reached initially at the footing edge and spreads
gradually downwards and outwards.
8. General shear failure is accompanied by low strain (<5%) in a soil with
considerable ( >36o) and large N (N > 30) having high relative density (I D>
70%).
Local Shear Failure
This type of failure is seen in relatively loose and soft soil. The following are some
characteristics of general shear failure.
1. A significant compression of soil below the footing and partial development of

plastic equilibrium is observed.
2. Failure is not sudden and there is no tilting of footing.
3. Failure surface does not reach the ground surface and slight bulging of soil
around the footing is observed.
4. Failure surface is not well defined.
5. Failure is characterized by considerable settlement.\
6. Well defined peak is absent in curve.
7. Local shear failure is accompanied by large strain (> 10 to 20%) in a soil with
considerably low ( <28o) and low N (N < 5) having low relative density (ID>
20%).
Punching Shear Failure of foundation soils
This type of failure is seen in loose and soft soil and at deeper elevations. The following
are some characteristics of general shear failure.
1. This type of failure occurs in a soil of very high compressibility.

2. Failure pattern is not observed.
3. Bulging of soil around the footing is absent.
4. Failure is characterized by very large settlement.
5. Continuous settlement with no increase in P is observed in curve.
Presents the conditions for different failure modes in sandy soil carrying circular footing
based on the contributions from Vesic (1963 & 1973)
Examples:
Classic examples of such failures are as follows (Figure 3): (a) major
damage to thousands of buildings in Niigata, Japan during the 1964 earthquake, (b)
Failure of Lower San Fernando dam which suffered an underwater slide during the San
Fernando earthquake, 1971. Fortunately, the dam barely avoided collapse, thereby
preventing a potential disaster of flooding of the heavily populated areas below the dam,
(c) Liquefied soil also exerts higher pressure on retaining walls, which can cause them
to tilt or slide. This movement can cause settlement of the retained soil and destruction
of structures on the ground surface, and (d) Collapse of the super- structure of the
Showa Bridge by falling off its piers; 1964 Niigata Earthquake. Figure 3. (a) Building
Failure during 1964 Niigata, Japan Earthquake, (ii) Failure of lower San Fernando dam
in 1971 (c) Retaining wall failure (d) Failure of Showa bridge during 1964 Niigata
earthquake in Japan. As such there is no remedial measure reported in literature to
overcome failures of such magnitudes but definitely preventive measures can be taken
through, (i) proper planning of Subsurface Investigation, (ii) Analysis and Design and (iii)
Construction Control and Supervision. For small scale damages underpinning of
structures are suggested.

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Importance of bearing capacity in soil Mechanics:

Ultimate bearing capacity or Gross bearing capacity:

Net ultimate bearing capacity:

Safe bearing capacity:

Safe net bearing capacity:

Safe gross bearing capacity:

Allowable Bearing Pressure:

Presumptive bearing capacity:

1. General shear failure:

1. A significant compression of soil below the footing and partial development of

1. This type of failure occurs in a soil of very high compressibility.

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