Shallow Foundations For Seismic Loads: Design Considerations Shallow Foundations For Seismic Loads: Design Considerations
Shallow Foundations For Seismic Loads: Design Considerations Shallow Foundations For Seismic Loads: Design Considerations
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                     Shamsher Prakash
                     Missouri University of Science and Technology, prakash@mst.edu
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                     Puri, Vijay K. and Prakash, Shamsher, "Shallow Foundations for Seismic Loads: Design Considerations"
                     (2013). International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 6.
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 SHALLOW FOUNDATIONS FOR SEISMIC LOADS: DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
        Vijay K. Puri                                                   Shamsher Prakash
        Professor, Civil Engineering                                    Professor Emeritus
        SIU Carbondale, IL                                              MST, Rolla ,MO
        puri@engr.siu.edu                                               prakash@mst.edu
ABSTRACT
The seismic design of foundations for structures depends on dynamic bearing capacity, dynamic settlements and liquefaction
susceptibility of soil. The dynamic bearing capacity problem has been attracting the attention of researchers during the last about fifty
years. Till today (2013), there is no accepted dynamic bearing capacity theory. Most analysis for design of shallow foundations under
seismic loads are based on the assumption that the failure zones in soil occur along a static failure surface. This is the pseudo-static
approach. An attempt has been made in this paper to summarize the currently available information on design of shallow foundations
under seismic loading. The case of a foundation resting on an upper non-liquefying layer overlying a layer susceptible to liquefaction
is also included. The methods for determining the foundation settlements are also discussed.
INTRODUCTION
Shallow foundations may experience a reduction in bearing                liquefiable. Settlements of as much as 0.5-0.7m have been
capacity and increase in settlement and tilt due to seismic              observed in loose sands in Hachinohe during the 1968
loading as has been observed during several earthquakes. The             Tokachioki earthquake of magnitude 7.9. Settlements of 0.5 -
foundation must be safe both for the static as well for the              1.0 m were observed at Port and Roko Island in Kobe due to
dynamic loads imposed by the earthquakes. The earthquake                 the Hygoken Nanbu (M=6.9) earthquake. Foundation failures
associated ground shaking can affect the shallow foundation in           may occur due to reduction in bearing capacity, excessive
a variety of ways:                                                       settlement and tilt, both in liquefying and non-liquefying soils.
    (1) Cyclic degradation of soil strength may lead to
          bearing capacity failure during the earthquake.                CONSIDERATIONS IN FOUNDATION DESIGN
    (2) Large horizontal inertial force due to earthquake may
          cause the foundation to fail in sliding or overturning.        Foundation design depends on the several factors like site
    (3) Soil liquefaction beneath and around the foundation              location and conditions, soil parameters and nature of applied
          may lead to large settlement and tilting of the                loads on the foundation . The foundation must be safe which
          foundation.                                                    can be ensured by meeting the design criteria. Foundation
    (4) Softening or failure of the ground due to                        must be safe for the static condition as well as for the seismic
          redistribution of pore water pressure after an                 condition. The information on seismic design of shallow
          earthquake which may adversely affect the stability            foundations is presented below for four different cases:
          of the foundation post-earthquake.
                                                                             (1) Shallow Foundations on Soils Not Prone to
Bearing capacity failures of shallow foundations have been                       Liquefaction.
observed in Mexico City during Michoacan earthquake of                       (2) Settlement of Shallow Foundations on Soils Not
1985 (Mendoza and Avunit (1988), Zeevart (1991)) and in                          Prone to Liquefaction.
city of Adapazari due to 1999 Kocaeli earthquake (Karaca                     (3) Shallow Foundation on Soil Prone to Liquefaction.
(2001), Bakir et.al. (2002) and Yilmaz et. al (2004)).Typical                (4) Settlement of Shallow Foundations on Soil Prone to
examples of bearing capacity failure in Adapazari are shown                      Liquefaction.
in Fig. 1. The surface soils at the site of foundation damage
belong to CL/ ML group which are generally considered non-
qu = c Nc + q Nq + 0.5 γ B Nγ (1)
                                                                             c = Cohesion of soil
                                                                             γ = unit weight of soil
                                                                             q = Surcharge Pressure = γ D
                                                                             B=width of the foundation
                                                                             D= depthe of the foundation.
(a)
The static loads covers loads like self-weight of the structure,   For rectangular footing:
soil loads, surcharge loads and live loads. The calculations
then involve estimation of the safe bearing capacity of the        qu = c Nc (1+0.3 B/L) + qD Nq + 0.4 γ B γ                 (4)
footing and the amount of settlement. The conventional design
procedure involves selection of allowable bearing capacity as      Where B= width or diameter of the footing and L=length of
the smaller of the following two values; the safe bearing          the footing.
capacity, based on ultimate capacity and the allowable bearing
pressure and based on tolerable settlement. Terzaghi (1943),       Meyerhoff’s Analysis
Meyerhof (1951), Hansen (1970), Vesic (1973), Kumar
(2003), Dewaikar and Mohapatro (2003) and many others              The Terzaghi’s (1943) equation for ultimate bearing capacity
have done research in this area and either proposed new            was modified by Meyerhoff (1963) to give a more general
design equations or proposed correction factors for the            solution. The value of qu is obtained as (Meyerhoff ,1963):
prevalent equations.
                                                                   qu = c Ncsc dc ic +q Nq sqs dq iq + 0.5 γ B Nγ sγ dγ iγ   (5)
Table 1. Terzaghi’s Bearing Capacity Factors (General Shear                     The design of foundations in earthquake prone areas requires
                          Failure)                                             different design approach involving earthquake forces along
                                                                               with the usual dead and live loads considered in the static
                                                                               analysis. The design approach involving limit equilibrium
               ø          Nc        Nq            Nø
                                                                               method or equivalent static method with consideration of
               0        5.7         1            0                             pseudo-static seismic forces along with other static forces has
               5        7.3        1.6          0.5                            been used as a primary method for the design of shallow
               10       9.6        2.7          1.2                            foundations in seismic areas. Reduction in bearing capacity of
               15      12.9        4.4          2.5                            the underlying soil and increase in settlement and tilt are the
                                                                               main causes of failure of a shallow foundation when subjected
               20      17.7        7.4           5
                                                                               to seismic loading (Sarma and Iossifelis (1990), Richards et.
               25      25.1       12.7          9.7                            al. (1993) and Budhu and Al-Karni (1993), Kumar and Kumar
               30      37.2       22.5         19.7                            (2003) Choudhury and Rao (2005)). So, the main interest lies
               34      52.6       36.5         35.0                            in first determining the soil parameters and then soil-structure
               35      57.8       41.4         42.4                            interaction and seismic behavior to determine the nature of
               40      95.7       81.3        100.4                            failure and finally, estimate the seismic bearing capacity of the
                                                                               footing as accurately as possible. A good design approach
               45      172.3      173.3       297.5                            would require consideration of all possible factors such as soil
                                                                               parameters, seismic vulnerability, nature of applied loads and
               Nq = eπtanφ tan2 (45⁰ + Ø /2)              (6)                  seismic soil-foundation interaction for an effective estimation
                  Nc = (Nq -1) cot Ø                      (7)                  of the seismic bearing capacity.
                  Nγ = (Nq – 1) tan (1.4 Ø)               (8)
         Sq = Sγ = 1.0                                 dq = dy =1.0
         (ii) For ∅ 10°                                (ii) For ∅   10°                         α angle of resultant measured
                                                                                                from vertical axis
         Sq = Sγ = 1 + 0.1 Kp                          dq = dy = 1 + 0.1 √Kp
                                                                                                                        ∅
                                                                                                Kp = tan2 45°
Pseudo-static Approach. This analysis technique uses limit                     loads and moments, then it may be designed as eccentrically
equilibrium methods in which the inertial forces generated on                  loaded foundation. The eccentricity ‘e’ is defined as;
the structure due to shaking of the ground are simply
accounted for by an equivalent unidirectional horizontal and                                                                    (9)
vertical forces, is termed as the Pseudo-static Approach. The
equivalent forces are taken as the mass of the body multiplied
                                                                               In which, V = vertical load and,
by coefficients of acceleration for both horizontal and vertical
                                                                                        M = Moment.
directions. These coefficients are termed as seismic
acceleration coefficients, Kh and Kv, for horizontal and vertical
                                                                               The effective width              2
direction respectively. The horizontal force may also produce
a moment. The foundation may thus, be treated as being
                                                                               The ultimate bearing capacity may be obtained using Eqs. 1-5
subjected to combined action of vertical and, horizontal loads
and moments. If the foundation is subjected only to vertical                   by replacing B with
     H    0.5B              
D                  exp tan    D f                (15)
      C             2     
        cos  
            4  2 
Budhu and Al-Karni’s (1993) also compared the effects of Kh    Fig. 6. Effect of kh and kv on NqE/Nq for ϕ =30̊ ; (Budhu and Al-
and Kv on NcE/Nc , NqE/Nq and NᵧE /Nᵧ for various angles of                              Karni ; 1993)
friction and also with results of other researchers. The
comparisons are shown in Figs. 4 through 8.
                                                                                        -                                                                                           (19)
                                                                                             α      α
                                                                                                                        α –ϕ                                        α           ϕ
                                                                                                            ϕ                                           ϕ
                                                                                        Ncd =                                       α               α                               (20)
                                                                                                                α               ϕ           α                   α               α
                                                                                                                    α       α               ϕ                   α           α
                                                                                                                        α           ϕ                               α           ϕ
                                                                                                            ϕ                                           ϕ
                                                                                        Nqd =                                                                                       (21)
                                                                                                                                        α               α
α α
                                                                                        -                                                                                           (22)
                                                                                             α      α
ϕ > tan-1
Where, Ncd, Nqd and Nγd are seismic bearing capacity factors
which are quantified using equilibrium of all the forces in the
horizontal direction. The expressions are as follows:
                          α –ϕ –                          α       ϕ
             ϕ                                ϕ
Ncd =                             α           α                                  (17)
                  α           ϕ           α           α               α
                      α       α           ϕ           α           α
                          α       ϕ                           α       ϕ
              ϕ                                   ϕ
Nqd =                                                                            (18)       Fig. 10. Variation of Ncd with kh. by Chaudhury and Rao
                                      α       α
                                                                                                                  (2005, 2006)
It is quite apparent from the comparisons shown in Figs. 13-15     Fig. 15. Comparison of Nγd by Chaudhury and Rao (2005,
that the values for the seismic bearing capacity factors                2006) with other studies in seismic case for ø =
suggested by Chaudhury and Rao (2005, 2006) are somewhat
smaller than those suggested by other previous researchers.
(23)
Where,                                                                                                                        (26)
                                                                     F̅ is given by
For purely cohesive soil                                             The values for the numerical parameters and model partial
                                                                     factor are given in Tables 4 and 5.
Table 5. Values of the model partial factor γRd Eurocode 8-5        The settlement of the foundation due to applied loads is one of
                                                                    the most important considerations in ensuring the safe
Medium-                                                             performance of the supported structure. A foundation
            Loose          Loose         Non                        subjected to seismic load may undergo vertical settlement, tilt
dense to                                                Sensitive
              dry         saturate     sensitive                    and may also experience sliding. The settlement and tilt of the
 dense                                                    clay
             sand          d sand        clay                       foundation is commonly obtained by using same procedures as
  sand
  1.00          1.15        1.50         1.00             1.15      for a foundation subjected static vertical loads and moments.
                                                                    The following methods can be conveniently used in this case.
For Seismic Design Category C
        IBC 2006 suggests for conducting an investigation           Prakash and Saran (1977) Method
        and evaluation of the potential earthquake hazards
        like slope instability, liquefaction and surface rupture    A procedure to determine the settlement and tilt of foundations
        due to faulting or lateral spreading for the structures     subjected vertical load and moment was developed by Prakash
        determined to be in the this category.                      and Saran (1977) which uses Eqs. (28) and (29)
The most common cause of seismic bearing capacity failure is                    R = 2T*τ                                     (33a)
the liquefaction of the underlying soil. Localized failure due to
punching can also lead to seismic bearing capacity failure.                   τ = shear strength of unliquefiable soil layer
Liquefaction analysis can help determine the soil layers                       T= vertical distance from the bottom of footing to the
susceptible to liquefaction. This analysis involves the             top of liquefiable oil layer, m
following two requirements:
                                                                             P= Load per unit length of the footing. This load
    1.   The foundation must not bear directly on soil layers       includes dead, live and seismic loads acting on footings as
         that will liquefy during the design earthquake. Even       well as weight of footing itself.
         the lightly loaded foundations can sink in to the
         liquefied soil.
                                                                                                                   5
                                                                                                                1.
                                                                                                                             0
Where, su = undrained shear strength of cohesive soil
                                                                                                                           1.
                                                                                                           4
                                                                                                                                            25
                                                                                                                                         0.
                                                                                                                                 5
      = Normal stress on the failure surface.
                                                                                                                               0.
  h
                                                                                                                                              0
                                                                                                           3
where,                = Equivalent Shear Stress Ratio induced by the   Where, rb = scaling factor concerning the shear deformation
                  .                                                    which may be obtained from Fig. 22. Based on the studies of
earthquake shaking of M = 7.5                                          Niigata earthquake (1964) done by Yoshimi and Tokimatsu
                                                                       1977, the importance of large width of the structure (compared
amax           = maximum horizontal acceleration at the ground         to the thickness of the liquefied layer) on reducing the
surface                                                                liquefaction induced settlement can be noted very clearly from
                                                                       figure 21. It can be seen from Fig (22) that appreciable
σo =total overburden pressure at the depth considered.                 settlement occurred where the width ratio was less than 2
rd      = Stress reduction factor that varies with depth.              whereas the settlement was small and constant where the
rm          = Scaling factor for a stress ratio concerning the         width ratio exceeds 2 or 3. Ishihara and Tokimatsu (1988)
magnitude of earthquake .                                              developed parameter ‘rb’ that is equal to the settlement ratio
                                                                       normalized by the settlement ratio at width ratio equal to 3.
By integrating the volumetric strains for different depths, the        They found the computed values generally consistent with the
settlement of the structure can be computed. For values of M           observed values, and proposed that this simplified method of
other than 7.5, magnitude scaling factors may be used.                 computation can be used as a first approximation to predict
Ishihara and Tokimatsu (1988) suggested that the immediate             earthquake induced settlement of structures.
settlement caused by the change in soil modulus can be
computed as:
Se = q .B .Ip (42)
            1.2
                      3%
     FS L
            1.0       3.5 %
                      4%
            0.8                                                            Dr= 40       Dr= 30
                                                                  Dr= 50 (N1)60 =6    (N1)60 =3
                                                        Dr= 60 (N1)60 =10 qc1=45       qc1=33
            0.6                                       (N1)60 =14 qc1=60
                              6%                       qc1=80
                                             Dr= 70
                               8%           [(N1 )60 =20, qc1=110]
            0.4                          Dr=80
                        max= 10 % [(N1 )60 =25, qc1=147]
                                Dr= 90%
            0.2                                               2
                                   [(N1 )60 =30, qc1 =200kg/cm ]
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equivalent static approach is still commonly used for their           Geotech. Geoenviron.Engng.,ASCE, 136(7), 918-929
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