Parametric Study on Settlement of Isolated Footings

Abstract

Foundation is defined as that part of the structure which transfers the load from superstructure to the soil. When the soil is loaded by weight of the structure built on it, due to its compressibility soil compacts & the settlement of foundations occurs. Present study is focused out to determine the effect of various parameters affecting settlement of the foundation. A 4-storied building is considered for settlement calculation. The building is modeled & analyzed in E-TABS software to get final load acting on the footings. The minimum depth of the foundation ( ) & the sizes of the footings were computed for isolated footings. For settlement calculations 3 types of soils were considered i.e. Dense Sand, Stiff Clay & Gravely Soils. The parameters were varied for these soil types & the settlements for depths lesser than minimum depth of foundation & greater than minimum depth of foundation are calculated. Further the settlements are also computed using SAFE software. The E-TABS analyzed file is being imported to SAFE software & the settlement were tabulated. Based on these analysis & calculations, the effects of Elastic Modulus of soil (E), Shape of foundation & Depth of foundation ) in all three soils were observed. Keywords: Superstructure, Compressibility, Dense Sand, Stiff Clay, Gravely Soils, SAFE, E-TABS.