Foundations For Black Cotton Soil-3

Building Construction II
FOUNDATIONS FOR BLACK COTTON SOILS Faculty : Prof. Priyanka Dey

BLACK COTTON SOILS
 Black cotton soils and other expansive soils have typical characteristics of shrinkage and swelling
due to moisture movement through them.
 During rainy season, moisture penetrates into these soils, due to which they swell.
 Most of the fine grained clays, including black cotton soils have their grains which are more or less in
the form of platelets or sheets (just like leafs of a book), and their grains are not round.
 When moisture enter between the platelets under some hydrostatic pressure, the particles separate
out, resulting in increase in the volume. This increase in volume is commonly known as swelling.
BLACK COTTON SOILS
 If this swelling is checked or restricted (due to the construction of footings over it), high swelling pressure, acting
in the upward direction, will be induced.
 This would result in severe cracks in the walls etc. and may some times damage the structural units, such as
lintels, beams, slabs etc.
 During summer season, moisture moves out of the soil and consequently, the soil shrinks.
 Shrinkage cracks are formed on the ground surface. These shrinkage cracks, some times also known as tension
cracks, may be 10 to 15 cm wide on the ground surface and may be ½ to 2 m deep.
 These cracks result in loss of support beneath the footings, resulting in high settlements.
 Some expansive and shrinkable soils stick to the footing base and pull the footing down when they shrink. This
results in horizontal cracks in the walls and other flexible units of the structure.
BLACK COTTON SOILS
 Black cotton soils and other expansive soils are dangerous due to their shrinkage and swelling
characteristics. In addition to this, these soils have very poor bearing capacity, ranging from 5 t/m2
to 10 t/m2.
In designing footings on these soils, the following points should be kept in mind:
1. The safe bearing capacity should be properly determined, taking into account the effect of
sustained loading. The long term effect of loading results in slow consolidation. In absence of tests,
the bearing capacity of these soils may be limited to 5 to 10 t/m2.
2. The foundation should be taken at least 50 cm lower than the depth of moisture movement. This
depth should also be much more than depth of tension cracks.
BLACK COTTON SOILS
3. Where this soil occurs only in top layers, and where the thickness of this layer does not exceed 1 to 1.5 m,
the entire layer of black cotton soil (or other expansive soil) should be removed, and the foundation
should be laid on non-shrinkable non-expansive soil.
4. Where the depth of clay layer is large, the foundation or footing should be prevented from coming in
contact with the soil. This can be done by excavating wider and deeper foundation trench and interposing
layer of sand/mooram around and beneath the footing.
5. Where the soil is highly expansive, it is very essential to have minimum contact between the soil and the
footing. This can be best achieved by transmitting the loads on capping beams which are kept some
distance (5 to 15 cm) above the ground surface, to permit free expansion of the soil.
6. Where the bearing capacity of soil is poor, or soil is very soft, the bed of the foundation trench should be
made firm or hard by ramming mooram and ballast into it.
7. The foundations should be constructed during dry season. Also suitable plinth protection around the
external wall should be made on the ground surface, with its slope away from the wall, so that moisture does
not penetrate the foundation during rainy season.
FOUNDATIONS FOR BLACK COTTON SOIL
Types that can be used:
1. Strip or pad foundation.
2. Pier foundation
3. Under-reamed pile foundation
STRIP OR PAD FOUNDATION
For medium loads:
• Strip foundation (walls), pad foundation (columns)
• 60 cm cohesionless sand is placed below concrete and
compacted. Accommodates swelling pressure.
• Alternate layers of mooram/ballast and sand used.
• 25-30 cm concrete strip is laid.
• 80mm dia pipes spaced 1.5 -2 m placed through
masonry and concrete bed to reach bottom sand to fill
sand later.
• Fig. (a) is suitable when the soil, though expansive, has
little swelling pressure.
• Fig. (b) and (c) is suitable where the swelling pressures
are relatively high.
• Fig. (d) is suitable where soils have high swelling
pressure, and have high shrinkage properties.
PIER FOUNDATION
WITH ARCHES
Pier foundation:
• Piers are dug at regular intervals and
filled with cement concrete.
• Piers rest on good bearing strata.
• Piers are connected by concrete or
masonry arches.
• A concrete beam may be provided
above the arch.
• Arches are constructed with a gap
above the ground level to allow
vertical swelling or shrinkage of soil.
UNDER-REAMED PILE
FOUNDATION
• It is a pile of shallow depth (1-6 m) having one bulb at its
lowest end.
• Anchors foundation to the ground if the bulb is placed
below critical depth.
• 15 cm to 50 cm in dia and suitably spaced.
• Under-reaming tools are used to bore at the site and then
concreted.
• Some reinforcement given to take tensile stresses.
• Pile spacing – 2 to 4 m
• The piles are connected by a rigid capping beam over which
the wall is constructed.
• Capping beam is 8-10 cm above ground to allow soil
movements.
FOOTINGS AT DIFFERENT LEVELS: STEPPED FOOTINGS
 Economical when the existing ground is sloping and a wall is to be made over
it.
 Foundation trench is excavated in steps.
 Each step should be a multiple of the thickness of brick or stone course.
 The overlap between two layers of foundation concrete should be less than the
vertical thickness of concrete.
 The distance of the sloping surface from the lower edge of the footing should
not be less than 1 m for soils and 60 cm for rock.
 When footings are heavily loaded, a slope stability analysis is essential.
ADJACENT FOOTINGS
 Normally, adjacent footings should be placed at the same level.
 However, when constructed at different levels, the distance between the edges of the footings shall be
such as to prevent undesirable overlapping of stresses in soil and disturbance of the soil under the
higher footing due to the excavation of the lower footing.
 The difficulty can be avoided by keeping the
difference in footing elevations (b) not greater than
one half the clear distance (a) between the footings.
 However, when footing are founded on rock, b should
not exceed a.
 A minimum clear distance of half the width of footing is
recommended by NBC.
ADJACENT FOOTINGS
 It is a good practice to construct the lower footing first, and when
necessary to construct the lower footing at a greater depth than
contemplated, the elevation of the upper footing can be adjusted
accordingly.
 In clayey soils, the line (AB) drawn between the lower adjacent edge
of the upper footing and upper adjacent edge of the lower footing
should not have a steeper slope than n1 (horizontal) : 1 (vertical),
where n1 is equal to 2.
 In granular soils, the line (AB1) drawn between the lower adjacent
edges of adjacent footings should not have steeper slope than n2
(horizontal) : 1 (vertical), where n2 is equal to 2.
MACHINE FOUNDATIONS
 The design of foundations for machine requires careful
study of vibration characteristics of the foundation system.
 Special knowledge of theory of harmonic vibrations is
required.
 Inertial forces of rotating elements of machines contribute,
besides their static loads additional dynamic loads.
 Usually mass concrete is used.
 Excessive vibrations can be eliminated by use of heavy
foundations.
 The ratio of the weight of foundation to the engine weight
may be kept between 2.5 to 3.5 in most of the machines.

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Building Construction II

FOUNDATIONS FOR BLACK COTTON SOILS Faculty : Prof. Priyanka Dey

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