CHAPTER THREE

BEARING CAPACITY
OF SHALLOW
FOUNDATIONS

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Arba Minch University, Engineering Faculty, Department of Civil Engineeri-n0g -

Table of Contents
3.0 Introduction

3.1 Bearing Failure Modes

3.2 Ultimate Bearing Capacity Equations

3.2.1 Terzaghi’s Bearing Capacity equation

3.2.2 Meyerhof’s Bearing Capacity equation

3.2.3 Hansen’s Bearing Capacity Equation

3.2.5 Allowable bearing capacity and factor of safety
3.2.6 Eccentric Loads

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 Department of Civil Engineeri-n1g -

3.0 Introduction
A foundation, often constructed from concrete, steel or wood, is a
structure designed to transfer loads from a superstructure to the
soil underneath the superstructure.
Foundations are shallow and deep foundations. Shallow
foundations are comprised of footings, while deep foundations
include piles that are used when the soil near the ground surface has
no enough strength to stand the applied loading.
The ultimate bearing capacity, qu, (in kPa) is the load that
causes the shear failure of the soil underneath and adjacent to the
footing.
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Super-Structure and Sub- Structure
The part of the structure which is above the GSL and can be
seen with naked eye is known as Super-Structure.
That part of structure below the GSL is substructure.

Foundation Depth (Df) is the depth below the lowest adjacent

ground to the bottom of the foundation.

Purpose of a Foundation is needed to transfer the load to the
underlying soil assuming safety against bearing capacity failure
& excessive settlement.
This can be done by reducing the contact pressure such that it
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is ≤ allowable bearing capacity of soil.i.e σ <q .

FAILURE MODES

A soil underneath any foundation may fail in one or a

combination of the following three modes;

1. General Shear Failure.

2. Punching Shear Failure.

3. Local Shear Failure. (an intermediate mode of failure

between conditions a and c as shown below)

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 3.1 Bearing Failure
Modes

Figure 3.1: Modes of bearing failures (a) General shear (b) Local shear and (c)
Punching shear. -6-
GENERAL SHEAR FAILURE

 Results in sudden catastrophic associated with plastic

flow and lateral expulsion of soil.

 Failure usually accompanied by tilting and failure signs
are imminent/happen around the footing.
 The soil adjacent to the footing bulges
 Failure load is well defined on the load settlement graph.
 Shallow foundations on dense/hard soil

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PUNCHING SHEAR FAILURE

 Failure Mechanism, relatively slow ,no lateral expulsion, failure is

caused by compression of soil underneath the footing.

 Failure is confined underneath the footing and no signs of failure

are visible around the foundation.

 No tilting the footing settle almost uniformly.

 Failure load is difficult to defined from the load settlement graph.

There is continuous increase in load with settlement.

 Foundation in and/or on loose/soft soils placed at relatively shallow

depth undergoes such type of failure. -8-

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LOCAL SHEAR FAILURE
 Failure is between the general shear & punching shear.

 common in sands and clays of medium compaction

.

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 3.2 Ultimate Bearing Capacity Equations
3.2.1Terzaghi’s Bearing Capacity equation

Many of the present day principles regarding bearing capacity

equations appear to have had their origin on a failure

mechanism proposed by Prandtl in the early 1920s. Prandtl

developed a bearing capacity equation assuming a smooth

(frictionless) footing and ignoring the weight of the soil in the

failure zone. These assumptions are not true in practice and

therefore Prandtl’s equation is never used in practical design,

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but it was a beginning.

Terzhagi improved the Prandtl equation by the assumptions of:

1. Footing base is rough.

2. Footing is shallow; i.e Df / B < 1 &

3.Shear along CD is neglected.

4. Footing is a strip footing i.e L/B > 10

5. The load on footing is vertical &stress distribution is uniform

6. The shear strength of the soil is governed by the Mohr-coulomb

equation
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The failure mechanism in a c-Φ soil for Terzhagi’s bearing capacity solution

is shown in fig. below. Terzhagi’s ultimate bearing capacity equations are

given as follows:

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Figure 3.2: Failure mechanism for Terzhagi’s bearing capacity solution. - 14 -
In fig zone I forms wedge under the footing and moves
downward with footing. The soil in zone II and III are in state of
general shear failure and move up and away from the
footing.Terzaghi developed a method for determining bearing
capacity for the general shear failure case in 1943. The
equations, which take into account soil cohesion, soil friction,
embedment, surcharge, and self-weight, are given for.(c-ϕ) soil.

Where;
qult = Gross ultimate bearing capacity including the effect of Terzaghi
γ
overburden pressure, q = Df
Ni = Bearing capacity factors, the values of which depends on angle of internal
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friction ϕ.
The1st term is the cohesion term & accounts for
cohesive resistance along failure surface.
The 2nd term is the overburden term &
accounts for the resistance supplied by the mass
of soil above the base of footing.
The 3rd term is the self weight term and accounts
for frictional resistance generated along failure
surface - 16 -
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Later on Terzaghi proposed shape factors Sc and Sγ for the first

and last terms of equation to account for the different shapes of

the footings such as circular, square, rectangular etc.

Terzaghi's bearing capacity Eq. has been modified for other types of
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foundations by introducing the shape factors. The equations are:

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 the bearing capacity failure of soil takes place by general shear failure.
In the case of local shear failure, we may assume that

The modified bearing capacity factors Nc`, Nq`, and Ng` and are calculated
by using the same general equation as that for Nc, Nq, and Ng, but by
substituting ` for Ф'. The values of the bearing capacity factors for a local
shear failure are given in Table below.
For square footing For circular footing
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 EFFECT OF GROUND WATER TABLE

If the ground water table is within the potential shear

zone, then pore water pressure will be present, the
effective stress and shear strength along the failure
surface will be smaller and the ultimate bearing capacity
will be reduced.
When exploring the subsurface conditions, we determine
the current location of the ground water table and worst
case (highest) location that might reasonably be expected
during the life of the proposed structure.
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We have 3 cases that describes the worst case field
conditions.

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Case – III :
When the ground water table is deeper than Df + B
from the GSL or deeper than B from the base
footing, no ground water correction is necessary.

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3.2.2 Meyerhof’s Bearing Capacity equation

Meyerhof (1951) developed a bearing capacity equation by

extending Terzhagi’s failure mechanism and taking into

account the effects of footing shape, load inclination and

footing depth by adding the corresponding factors of s, d, and

i. For a rectangular footing of L by B (L > B) and inclined

load:
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sc, sq, s : shape factors

dc, dq, d : depth factors

ic, iq, i : incline load factors

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For the eccentric load, the length and width of the footing rectangle

are modified to: L’ = L–2eL and B’ = B–2eB

where eL and eB represent the eccentricity along the appropriate

directions.
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Arba Minch University, Engineering Faculty, Department of Civil Engineeri-n4g -

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 Hansen’s Bearing Capacity Equation
Hansen (1961) extended Meyerhof’s
solutions by considering the effects of
sloping ground surface and tilted base(Fig.
2.5)as wellas modification of N and other
factors. For a rectangular footing of L by
B(L> B) and inclined ground surface, base
and load:

In the special case of a horizontal ground surface,

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Figure 2.5: Identification of items in Hansen’s bearing capacity equation.

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Figure 2.6 provides the relationships between Nc, Nq, and Nand the values,
as proposed by Hansen.' 
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The bearing capacity factors Nc and Nq are identical with Meyerhof’s factors.
Nɤis defined by:

Since failure can take place either along the long side or along the short side,
Hansen proposed two sets of shape, inclination and depth factors.
The shape factors are:

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Gross Bearing Pressure (q gross)= Ultimate Bearing Capacity

(qu )
The maximum bearing capacity of soil at which the soil fails by
shear at the base of foundation due to all loads above that level.
Net Ultimate Bearing Pressure (qn)
The difference between q gross and the total overburden pressure at

foundation level. qn = q u – γDf

Usually qn is the increase in pressure on the soil at foundation level.

Net Effective Bearing Pressure (q’ u net)

The di/ce b/n q’ gross and the effective over burden pressure at - 39 -
Gross Allowable bearing Pressure (q all)=

Gross safe bearing Capacity (qus)

qall =
Net Allowable Bearing Pressure (qnall) is used

for the design of foundations

qnall=
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The FS is intended to compensate for

assumptions made in developing the bearing

capacity equations, soil variability, inaccurate soil

data, and uncertainties of loads. The magnitude

of FS applied to the ultimate bearing capacity

may be between 2 and 3.

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 Allowable and Safe Bearing Pressures
When we design a foundation, we must
see that the structure is safe on two
counts. They are,
1. The supporting soil should be safe from
shear failure due to the loads imposed on
it by the superstructure,
2. The settlement of the foundation
should be within permissible limits.
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Hence, we have to deal with two types of bearing
pressures. They are,
1. A pressure that is safe from shear failure
criteria,
2. A pressure that is safe from settlement criteria.
For the sake of convenience, let us call the first
the allowable bearing pressure and the second
the safe bearing pressure. - 43 -
In all our design, we use only the net
bearing pressure and as such we call qna

the net allowable bearing pressure and qs

the net safe bearing pressure. In designing
a foundation, we use the least of the two
bearing pressures.
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HOW TO CALCULATE BEARING CAPACITY OF SOIL FROM PLATE
LOAD TEST?

Plate load test is a field test which is

commonly adopted to determine the bearing
capacity and settlement of soil under a given
condition of loading.
In this test a square or circular rigid plate of
standard dimension (generally 300 mm2 for
square or 300 mm dia for circular) is placed at
foundation level and load is applied in
increments.
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Then settlement of the plate corresponding
to each load increment is recorded for
calculating bearing capacity of soil.

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 CALCULATION OF BEARING
CAPACITY OF SOIL

The whole process of calculating bc of soil using

plate load test data consists of the following 4
primary steps.
Step-1 (Plotting a Load-Settlement Curve)
Step-2 (Finding Ultimate Bearing Capacity)
Step-3 (Calculating Safe Bearing Capacity)
Step-4 (Calculating Settlement of Proposed
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Footing)
1. STEP-1 (PLOTTING A LOAD SETTLEMENT
CURVE)
After performing the plate load test, plot a load
settlement curve (see fig-1) on arithmetic scale,
with applied pressure in kN/m in x-axis and
corresponding settlement (in mm) in y-axis.
Depending on the type of soil below the test
plate, the load settlement curve can be of 4
different types as shown below. - 49 -
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Curve A: This type curve is obtained in case of
loose to medium cohesion less soil.

This type of curve shows no clear point of failure.

Curve B: This type curve is obtained in case of
cohesive soil. As the load increases the curve
leans toward settlement curve.
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Curve C: This type curve is obtained in case of
partially cohesive soil (i.e. C-phi soil). This type
of curve also does not show a clear point of
failure.
Curve D: This type curve is obtained in case of
dense cohesionless Soil. This type of curve is
common in case of dense sand or gravel deposits

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 2. STEP-2 (FINDING ULTIMATE
BEARING CAPACITY)
In case of curve B & D, the point of failure can be
easily identified by the sudden drop down of the
curve. Or draw 2 tangent lines from the beginning
straight portion of the curve and end straight portion
of the curve. The point where these 2 tangents cross
each other is called the point of failure. The pressure
corresponding to this point is called ultimate bearing
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capacity of the soil.

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in case of curve A & C, it is difficult to find out a clear
point of failure on the load settlement curve. A scientist
Abbet introduced another method of drawing load
settlement curve. a log-log chart is plotted with
settlement are plotted as abscissa against corresponding
pressure intensities as ordinate. Such a plotting will give
two straight lines, the intersection of which will be
considered as the failure point. The corresponding value
of pressure to the failure point is considered as the
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ultimate bearing capacity of soil.

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3. STEP-3 (CALCULATING SAFE BEARING CAPACITY)
In order to calculate safe bearing capacity of the soil, divide the
ultimate bearing capacity of soil by a suitable factor of safety.
Safe bearing capacity of soil = Ultimate bearing capacity /
Factor of safety
4. STEP-4 (CALCULATING SETTLEMENT OF PROPOSED
FOOTING)
The following formula as suggested by Terzaghi and Peck is used
to calculate the settlement of footing for granular soil.
S = Sp {[B*(Bp +0.3)] / [Bp *(B+0.3)]}2
For clayey soil the following equation can be used.
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S = S *(B/B )
Where,
Sp = Settlement of plate, mm
S = Settlement of footing, mm
Bp = Width or dia of plate, m
B = Width of footing, m

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 3.2.6 Eccentric Loads
Meyerhof (1963) proposed an approximate
method for loads that are located off-centered
(or eccentric loads).

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He proposed that for a rectangular footing of width B and
length L, the base area should be modified with the
following dimensions:
B’ = B – 2eB and L’ =L - 2eL (1)
Where B’ and L’ are the modified width and length, eB and
eL are the eccentricities in the directions of the width and
length, respectively. From your course in mechanics you
should recall that
M Mx
eB 
y eL 
P
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P and
where P is the vertical load, and My and Mx are the moments about
the y and x axes, respectively, as shown in Fig. A1.
The maximum and minimum vertical stresses along the x axis are:
P  6e B 
 max  1   and  min  P 1  6e B 
BL  B  BL  B 
and along the y axis are:
P  6e L 
P  6e L 
 max   1  
 min   1  
and BL  B 
BL  B 
Since the tensile strength of soils is approximately zero,
should always be greater than zero. Therefore, eB & eL should
always be less than B/6 & L/6, respectively. The bearing
capacity equations are modified for eccentric loads by
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replacing B with B’.

effective footing dimensions obtained as
L' = L-2ex, B' = B-2ey
should be used in bearing capacity analysis to obtain an effective
footing area defined as
A' = B'L'
The ultimate load bearing capacity of a footing subjected to
eccentric loads may be expressed as
Q'ult= qu*A'
where qu = ultimate bearing capacity of the footing with the load
acting at the center of the footing.

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 example1
A1350kN column load is to be supported on a square
spread footing founded in a clay with Su = 150kPa.
The depth of embedment, D will be 500mm, and the
soil has a unit weight of 18.5kN/m3.The ground water
table is at a considerable depth below the bottom of
the footing. Using Fs of 3, determine the required
footing width. (use Terzaghi`s method)
solution
Case # III applies. As ground water table is at
considerable depth below the bottom of footing.
γ’ = γ
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From the table ;

Nc = 5.7, Nq = 1.0, Nγ = 0.0 when ϕ’ = 0o
Terzaghi’s equation for square footing;
qu = 1.3×150×5.7 + 18.5×0.5×1.0 +
0.4×18.5×B×0
qu = 1121 kPa
Factor of safety = FOS = F = qult / qa
qall = qult / F = 1121 / 3 = 374 kPa
qall = P/A + γcD - u

374 = 1350/(B2) + (23.6×0.5) – 0

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B = 1.93 m Round up = 2m
 Example 2
A square footing is shown below,
Determine the safe gross load (Fs=3) that
the footing can carry. (use meyerhof`s eqn)

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 solution

qu  c' N c s c ic d c  DN q s q iq d q  0.5BN  s i d 

For vertical load, ic = iq = i = 1

q u  c ' N c s c d c  DN q s q d q  0.5 BN  s d 

Because c`=0,

fromtablefor ,  '  320 ; N q  32.18; and , N   22.02;

B 2  `

s  sq  1  0.1 tan  45  
L 2 
 

1.2  32 
s  sq  1  0.1 tan 2  45    1.325
1.2  2 
D
d q  d  1 0.1 K p
B
 32  1
d q  d   1  0.1 tan  45    1.15 - 68 -

 2  1.2
The ground water table is located above the bottom
of foundation so,
q = 0.5*16+ 0.5(19.5-9.8) = 12.845 kN/m2
qu  (12.8 *1.325 *1.15 * 23.18)  0.5(19.5  9.81) *1.325 *1.15 *1.2 * 22.02
 648.8kN / m 2
qu 648.8
qall    216.3kN / m 2
3 3
The allowable load is
Qall  qall ( B 2 )  216.3 * 1.2 2  311 .5kN
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 workout
Question 1
Given the data in Fig. E2.1, determine the ultimate bearing
capacity qu using: a)Terzaghi’s, b) Meyerhof’s bearing capacity
equations.

Figure E2.1: An
isolated footing.

Question 2
Determine the qu of a square footing 1.5 m, at a depth of 1 m in a soil
c’ = 10 kPa,  ' =280, c = 105 kPa,u u =0 and  = 19 kN/m3 . Use
Terzaghi’s, Meyerhof’s and Hansen’s bearing capacity equations. - 70 -
Question 3
A square footing 1.5 m is to be constructed in sand
with c’ = 0,  ' =400. The thickness of the footing is
0.45 m and its top surface is level with the horizontal
ground surface. The footing is subjected to a central
vertical force of 700 kN and a central horizontal
force (parallel to the sides) of 210 kN. Find the
ultimate bearing capacity by Meyerhof’s (Note that
Terzaghi’s equations are not applicable for inclined
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3
loads). The unit weight of the sand is 18 kN/m .
Question 4
A footing 2 m square is located at a depth of 1 m
below the ground surface in a deep deposit of
compacted sand,  ' =300, c’=0, and  sat =18
kN/m . The footing is subjected to a vertical load of
500 kN and a moment about the Y-axis of 125
kN/m3. The ground water table is 5 m below the
ground surface. Use Meyerhof’s bearing capacity
equation and calculate the factor of safety. Assume
the soil above the ground water is also saturated.
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Question 5
A footing 2 m square is located at a depth of 1 m

below the ground surface in a deep deposit of

compacted sand,  ' = 300, c’=0, &  sat = 18 kN/m .

The footing is subjected to a vertical load of 500 kN

and a moment about the Y-axis of 125 kN-m3. The
ground water table is 5 m below the ground
surface. Use Meyerhof’s bearing capacity equation
and calculate the factor of safety. Assume the soil
above the ground water is also saturated.
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