Foundation Engineering (PBCET504) Syllabus

Earth pressure: at rest, active and passive earth pressures, Rankine's theory, earth pressure and point of application for cohesionless and cohesive soils, influence of surcharge and water table, earth pressure with layered backfill, Coulomb's theory (concept only). Stability of finite slopes: toe failure, base failure, slip failure, Swedish circle method, friction circle method, Taylor's stability number and stability charts (demo only).

General considerations: functions of foundations, shallow and deep foundation definitions. Site investigation and soil exploration: objectives, planning, reconnaissance, IS guidelines for spacing and depth of borings, Standard Penetration Test (procedure, correlations, corrections), boring log, soil profile, plate load test. Failure mechanisms (general, local and punching shear). Terzaghi's bearing capacity theory for strip footing, gross/net bearing pressure, ultimate/safe bearing capacity, bearing capacity factors. Terzaghi's formulae for circular and square footings, factors affecting bearing capacity, effect of water table. Settlement analysis: causes, estimation of immediate settlement (IS code).

Design of isolated footings, combined footings (rectangular and trapezoidal). Raft foundations: types, design principles, bearing capacity equations for raft on sand (Teng's equation based on SPT) and clay (Skempton's formula), floating foundations.

Pile foundations: uses and classification, selection of type and length, bearing capacity of single pile in clay and sand (IS static formulae), dynamic formulae (modified Hiley formula), IS pile load test (conventional), negative skin friction, group action, group efficiency, capacity of pile groups. Includes a mandatory project — site investigation, shallow and deep foundation design using two sets of soil exploration data, with detailed drawings and report.