CE 366

FOUNDATION ENGINEERING

AGU
Department Of Civil Engineering

INSTRUCTOR : Assoc. Prof. Dr. Müge AKIN

 Site exploration and
characterization
•geotechnical
engineers work with soil, which is a
natural material with unknown engineering
properties.
•geotechnical engineers spend most of their time
identifying the types of soils on a site and
evaluating their engineering properties (i.e.
strength, consolidation characteristics, compaction
characteristics, hydraulic conductivity etc.)
Site Exploration

• The elements of a site investigation generally should provide the following:

• to determine the type of foundation required (shallow or deep)

• to allow the geotechnical consultant to make a recommendation on the allowable
load capacity of the foundation
• Sufficient data/laboratory tests to make settlement predictions
• Location of the ground water table
• identification and solution of construction problems (sheeting and dewatering or
rock excavation, etc..)
• to identify potential problems (settlements, existing damage, etc..)
• to identify environmental problems

• but how do we accomplish those goals?

Site Exploration
 Possible construction problems in advance (sheeting,
dewatering, slope instability etc.)
Site Exploration

 Potential geotechnical problems concerning adjacent structures

 Site Exploration Phases

 Planning
 The desk study and walk-over survey
 Subsurface exploration:
 boring, drilling, probing and trial
pitting
 engineering geophysics
 Sampling and sample disturbance
 Laboratory testing
 In situ testing
 Writing a report
 Location, number and depth of borings
 General rules for required depth of borings?
 The depth of exploration should not be less than 10 m below the
actual foundation level unless rock is encountered.

 Where should be the b.h’s drilled?

 Importance of the building
 Shape and size of the structure
 Cost is affordable
 Depends on soil conditions
Subsurface Exploration: boring, drilling, probing
 Determination of gwt

•location of gwt is very important in foundation

design.

•you can simply install an observation well, once

gwt level becomes stable, lower a probe and
determine the gwt depth.
 Soil sampling

1) disturbed sampling (bulk or bag samples): obtained from

cuttings emerged from the drilling operation.
• Grain size analysis
• Determination of liquid and plastic limits
• Specific gravity of soil solids
• Organic content determination
• Classification of soil
Cannot be used for consolidation and shear
strength tests
2) undisturbed sampling:intact soil samples in terms of soil
fabric, obtained by shelby tubes shown in the figure.
 Sampling and Sample Disturbance
Undisturbed sampling techniques

 Drive samplers are pushed into the soil without rotation, displacing
the soil as they penetrate.
 They generally have a sharp cutting edge at their base.
 In contrast, rotary samplers have a relatively thick and blunt cutting
surface, which has hard inclusions of tungsten or diamond set into
it.
 The sampler is rotated and pushed gently downwards, cutting and
grinding the soil away beneath it.
 Undisturbed sampling is generally not possible in granular soils.

Shelby type tube

 Laboratory Testing
 Classification Tests

Casagrande Fall cone Plastic limit

cup apparatus apparatus test

Set of sieves

Drying oven Specific Gravity test Precision balance

 Laboratory Testing
 Strength and Stiffness Tests

Point load test

Laboratory vane test

CBR test

Direct shear test Unconfined compression test

 Laboratory Testing
 Triaxial Tests
In-Situ Testing

•there is always the question of which is better, laboratory testing or in-situ

testing for geotechnical investigation of a site. Both have advantages and
disadvantages.

• advantages of in-situ testing:

1) even though we called “undisturbed”, there is some amount of sample
disturbance depending on the type of soil during sampling for lab tests.
e.g. for sandy soils it is very difficult or very expensive to obtain
“undrained” samples.
2) in-situ testing is usually less expensive compared to lab tests.
3) test results are available immediately

• disadvantages of in-situ testing:

1) variable or unknown boundary conditions such as drainage conditions,
and confining pressure.
2) in-situ test results are most frequently converted to geotechnical
parameters such as internal friction angle, unit weight etc. via empirical
correlations that may not be accurate.
FIELD TESTS
MAJOR FIELDTESTS
 Standard PenetrationTest (SPT).
 Cone PenetrationTest (CPT).
 Vane shear test (VST).
 The Pressure-meterTest (PMT).
 The Plate LoadTest (PLT).
 Geophysical Methods
The Standard Penetration Test (SPT)
 The Standard Penetration Test (SPT)

The boring log shows refusal and the test is halted if

1. 50 blows are required for any 150-mm increment.
2. 100 blows are obtained (to drive the required 300 mm).
3. 10 successive blows produce no advance.
 The Standard Penetration Test (SPT)
The standard blow count N60 can be computed from the
measured N as follows:
N 60  N x ER xC B xC S xC R
0.6
(N1 )60  N60 xCN
 N=measured SPT N value
 N60= SPT N value corrected for 60% energy efficiency and fieldprocedures
 (N1)60 = SPT N value corrected for 60% energy efficiency and field procedures, and overburden correction
 CN = correction factor for overburdenpressure
 σv´is the effective overburden pressure of the test location (in kPa)
 ER = hammer energy ratio
 CB = correction factor for boreholediameter
 CS = correction factor for samplers with and withoutliners
 CR = correction factor for rodlength
The Standard Penetration Test (SPT)
Uses of SPT data and
correlations

•remember that SPT is an in-situ

test, which does not directly
measure any of the engineering
properties or design parameters
for a soil.

•but there are empirical

correlations available between
SPT blow count and different soil
properties such as Dr or ' .

•suspect and be cautious when

using SPT correlations, especially
in clayey soils. Remember that all
of such correlations are very
approximate.
 Cone Penetration Test (CPT)
•developed in Europe in early 20th century and becoming increasingly popular,

•atruck-mounted cone is pushed into the

ground at constant rate.
• two things are measured
1) cone resistance (qc)
2) cone side friction (fsc)
3) pore pressures (u) can also be
measured with a “piezo cone”

•in practice side friction could be

expressed in terms of friction ratio,Rf

Rf (%)= fsc /qc.100

• note that no soil sample is recovered during CPT, hence inspection of soil samples is not
possible.

• can not be used in gravelly soils.

The Cone Penetration Test (CPT)
Field Vane Test in situ shear strength and sensitivity of a soft clay

Once the vane has been pushed into the ground, it is rotated at a slow rate. Torsional
force is measured, and is then converted to unit shearing resistance by assuming the
geometry of the shear surface, and the shear stress distribution across it.
 Field Vane Test
Undrained shear strength from vane test; cuv
cuv = Tmax/(πD2 (H/2+D/2)),
H/D is usually kept as 2 so;
cuv = 6 Tmax/ 7π D3

cuv-design =  . cuv
 Pressuremeter Test
The aim of pressuremeter test is to obtain information on the stiffness, and in weaker materials on
the strength of the ground, by measuring the relationship between radial pressure and the resulting
deformation.
Pressuremeter Test
Pressuremeter Test
Field Load Test (Plate Load Test)
 The ultimate load capacity and allowable bearing
capacity of foundation can be effectively
determined.

 Generally referred as ‘Plate Load Test’

 The plates used in the tests are made of steel

generally with the dimensions of :
• 25mm thick and 150 to 722 mm in diameter Or
square plates with 305x305 mm
 A hole is excavated with a minimum diameter of
4B (B=diameter of the test plate) up to a depth of
Df (Df=depth of the proposedfoundation)

 Load is applied in steps by means of a jack

 At least 1 hour elapses after application of each
step load before the next load is applied
 The test should be conducted until failure or at
least until the plate has gone through 25 mm of
settlement.

qu(F)=ultimate bearing capacity of the proposedfoundation

qu(P)=ultimate bearing capacity of the testplate
SF= settlement of foundation
SP=settlement of plate
 Plate Load Test