24-03-2025
Analysis & Design of Geotechnical Systems
(Settlement Analysis of Shallow Foundation)
Paramita Bhattacharya
Department of Civil Engineering
IIT Kharagpur
SETTLEMENT OF SHALLOW FOUNDATIONS
• Importance:
It is practically impossible to prevent the settlement of shallow
foundations. At least, elastic settlement will occur. Our responsibility
as a geotechnical engineer is to prevent the foundation system from
reaching a serviceability limit state.
The design of most shallow footing is controlled by the serviceability
limit state rather than by the ultimate limit state.
However, both limit states must be satisfied.
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TYPES OF SETTLEMENT
• Immediate (or elastic) settlement
• PRIMARY Consolidation settlement
• SECONDARY Compression (Creep)
IMMEDIATE SETTLEMENT
• Theory of Elasticity can be used to determine the immediate or elastic settlement
of shallow foundations
• Elastic Equation
• Do not account for the shape of footing (not just L/B ratio).
• Depth of embedment significantly influences settlement.
• Soil stiffness generally increases with depth, so the footing loads will be transmitted to
stiffer soil than the surface soil. -> smaller settlement.
• Normal stresses from the soil above the footing base reduce the settlement by providing
increased confinement on the deforming half space. This is called the trench effect or
embedment effect.
• Part of the load on the footing is transmitted to the side walls depending on the amount
of shear resistance mobilized at the soil-wall interface -> reduces settlement. This is
called the side-wall contact effect.
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IMMEDIATE SETTLEMENT
1 1 2
𝜌 𝑞 𝐵 𝐼 𝐼 𝐼
𝐸 1
where, q0 = intensity of contact pressure in units of Es
B = least lateral dimension of contributing base area in units of e
1 1 𝑀 1 𝑀 𝑁 𝑀 𝑀 1 1 𝑁
𝐼 𝑀 ln ln
𝜋 𝑀 1 𝑀 𝑁 1 𝑀 𝑀 𝑁 1
𝑁 𝑀
𝐼 tan
𝜋 𝑁 𝑀 𝑁 1
tan-1 (in radian) and 𝑀 ,𝑁 , H is the total thickness of the soil
layer from the foundation base.
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IMMEDIATE SETTLEMENT
𝜌 𝑞 𝐵 𝑚𝐼 𝐼
here,𝐼 𝐼 𝐼
𝑚 = is the number of corners contributing to the footing
settlement
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IMMEDIATE SETTLEMENT
.
where, 𝐸
𝐸 . is triaxial value
𝑞 ∆𝑞 .
TILTING
1
𝑀
tan 𝜃 𝐼.
𝐸 𝐵 𝐿
where, M = overturning moment resisted by base dimension B.
I = influence factor provided by Taylor (1967) for rigid foundation base
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INFLUENCE FACTOR
PRIMARY CONSOLIDATION SETTLEMENT
• Estimated from parameters deduced from the one-
dimensional consolidation test.
• Assumption:
• vertical uniform strain only (lateral strain is zero)
• no settlement occurs from shear strains
• saturated soil
• initial excess pore water pressure is equal to the change in applied stress at the instant the load is
applied
• excess pore water pressures are only dissipated vertically
• In practice, lateral strains are significant except for very thin layers of clays or for situations
when the ratio of the layer thickness to lateral dimension of the loaded area is small
(approaches zero). Shear strains also cause settlement and excess pore water pressures can
dissipate in any direction.
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ESTIMATION OF PRIMARY CONSOLIDATION SETTLEMENT
• NORMALLY CONSOLIDATED CLAYS i.e. OCR = 1
Δ𝑒 𝐻 𝜎
𝜌 𝐻 𝐶 log
1 𝑒 1 𝑒 𝜎
Or, 𝜌 𝐻𝑚 Δ𝜎
H is the thickness of the layer, fin is the effective overburden pressure zo plus the increment of
vertical stress z due to the surface loads at the center of the layer.
ESTIMATION OF PRIMARY CONSOLIDATION SETTLEMENT
• OVERCONSOLIDATED CLAYS i.e. OCR > 1
𝐻 𝜎 𝐻 𝜎 𝜎
𝜌 𝐶 log ; 𝜎 𝜎 or𝜌 𝐶 log 𝐶 log ; 𝜎 𝜎
1 𝑒 𝜎 1 𝑒 𝜎 𝜎
pc Hm vr z
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ESTIMATION OF SECONDARY COMPRESSION
𝐻 𝑡
𝜌 𝐶 log
1 𝑒 𝑡
• where (tp, ep) is the coordinate at the intersection of the tangents to the primary
consolidation and secondary compression parts of the void ratio vs time (log scale)
curve, C is the secondary compression index and it is time after primary consolidation.
• Over-consolidated soils do not creep significantly but creep settlements in normally
consolidated and sensitive soils can be very significant.
MODIFICATIONS OF 1D EXPRESSION FOR LATERAL STRESSES
• Skempton and Bjerrum (1957) proposed a method to modify the one-
dimensional consolidation equation to account for lateral stresses but
not lateral strains.
𝜌 𝑚 Δ𝑢 𝑑𝑧
Δ𝜎
𝜌 𝑚 Δ𝜎 𝐴 1 𝐴 𝑑𝑧 𝑚 Δ𝜎 𝐻 𝜇 𝜌 𝜇
Δ𝜎
SB
dz
3
dz
1
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CORRECTION TO PRIMARY CONSOLIDATION
MB 3/24/2025
PROCEDURE TO ESTIMATE SETTLMENT
• If the soil layer is thick, H > 1 m, divide the soil layer into convenient sub-layers of say 1 m thick
or less.
• Calculate the initial effective stress (zo) and the initial void ratio (eo) at the center of the soil
layer or each sub-layer.
• Calculate the applied stress increase (z) at the center of the soil layer or each sub-layer using
the appropriate method.
• Calculate the final vertical effective stress fin = zo + z.
• Calculate the elastic settlement.
• Calculate the primary consolidation settlement using the corrected Cc value or use mv.
• Correct the primary consolidation settlement for lateral stresses.
• Calculate secondary compression if the soil is normally consolidated and sensitive.
• Add the elastic settlement, corrected primary consolidation settlement and the secondary
compression together.
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Differential Settlement
• ST = total settlement of a given point
• ST = difference in total settlement
between any two points
• = gradient between two successive
points
• = angular distortion = ST (ij)/lij
• = tilt
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Numerical Problem-1
The soil profile at a site for a proposed office building consists of a layer of fine
sand 11 m thick above a layer of soft normally consolidated clay of 2 m thick.
Below the soft clay there is a deposit of coarse sand. The groundwater table was
observed at 3 m below ground level. The void ratio of the sand is 0.76 and the
water content of the clay is 43%. One of the individual square footings, 4 m (of
the foundation will apply a vertical stress of 50 kPa at the middle of the clay layer.
Assume the soil above the water table to be saturated, Cc = 0.3, Cv = 0.05 m2/year
and Gs = 2.7. Considering the clay as a single layer, (a) estimate the primary
consolidation settlement of the clay without the Skempton and Bjerrum (1957)
correction. (b) Estimate the time for 50% primary consolidation settlement.
Ans. (a) 0.035 m, (b) 3.92 years
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Numerical Problem-2
Determine the immediate settlement of a rectangular footing 4 m wide
6 m long embedded at a depth 3 m in a deep deposit of a
homogeneous clay.
𝐴 24 m , 0.67
.
𝜇 0.45 0.52; 𝜇 1 0.04 1 0.89
𝜌 1 𝜈 𝜇 𝜇 𝜇 0.033 mm
20
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Example
Determine the primary consolidation settlement under the square
footing shown using the Skempton-Bjerrum method.
DETERMINATION OF BEARING CAPACITY AND SETTLEMENT
USING DATA FROM FIELD TESTS
• Importance
• It is difficult to obtain undisturbed samples of coarse-grained soils for testing in
the laboratory
• The allowable bearing capacity and settlement of footings on coarse-grained
soils are often based on empirical methods using test data from field tests
• Various empirical equations have been proposed. Their use requires significant
experience with foundation design on soils similar to those from which the
empirical equations were obtained.
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SPT
𝐷
𝑞 32𝑁 𝐵 𝐶 𝐶
𝐵
where N1 is the SPT value corrected for overburden pressure only, B is
the footing width (m) and Cw1 and Cw2 are groundwater factors.
• In practice, the average N1 for a depth up to B or up to 1.5B below
the footing base is used in the above expression.
• The total settlement is expected to be less than 25 mm.
CPT
• Divide the soil below the footing into a number of sub-
layers. For square footings, the total depth of the sub-layers
is 2B and a reasonable number of sub-layers is 4. For strip
footing, the total depth is 4B and a reasonable number of
sub-layers is 8. The number of sub-layers can be dictated by
the layering based on the distribution of qc.
• Estimate the average value of qc for each sub-layer from the
field data of qc versus depth.
• Find Ico at the center of each sub-layer.
• Estimate using
𝑐 𝑐 𝐼
𝜌 𝑞 Δ𝑧
𝛽 𝑞
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