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Frost Action
Significant Soil Volume Changes
Adjacent Structures and Property Lines
Groundwater
Underground Defects
Scour and Undermining by Water
Frost Action
In areas where the air temperature falls below the freezing point, the moisture in
the soil near the surface of the ground may freeze. When the temperature
subsequently rises above the freezing point, any frozen moisture may melt. As
the soil moisture freezes and melts, it alternately expands and contracts.
Repeated expansion and contraction of soil moisture beneath a footing may
cause it to be lifted during cold weather and dropped during warmer weather.
Such a sequence usually cannot be tolerated by the structure.
The general solution to prevention of frost action on footing is to place the
foundation below the depth of soil that is expected ever to be penetrated by frost.
Since frost penetration varies with location, local building codes often dictate
minimum depths of footings.
the Bureau of Reclamation and by G.F. Sowers indicate that susceptible soils can
often be identified by the plasticity index (PI) and the shrinkage limit as shown in
the following table:
Likelihood of volume
change with change in
moisture
Little
Little to moderate
Moderate to sever
Plasticity Index
Shrinkage limit
Arid regions
00 15
15 30
30 or more
Humid regions
00 30
30 50
50 or more
12 or more
10 12
10 or less
Whether a susceptible soil will tend to swell or shrink depends on its initial
moisture. Theoretically, a moist soil can shrink until it reaches the shrinkage limit
(as determined for an undisturbed sample). If it is initially drier than the shrinkage
limit, it should not shrink. Sower found that there is a little or no swelling in highly
plastic clays if their initial moisture content corresponds to a water plasticity ratio
(liquidity index, LI) of 0.2 or more.
In areas where the local experience is often misleading, the following rules for
foundation depth are useful:
1. Minimum depth, 5 ft; maximum depth, GWL
2. Below all strata susceptible to high volume changes as shown by the PI or
cracking, but within the above limits.
3. Below large roots
4. Below any level of artificially increased temperature (such as steam lines).
30 o
b
45 o
Soft soil
Average soil
Foundation depth must be selected with future nearby excavation in mind. This is
particularly true close to the property lines, where only limited legal control over
the construction operations on the adjoining site may be possible. Under such
conditions, a minimum foundation depth of 10 ft would be prudent. When future
deep excavations are planned, such as for an addition having a basement, the
foundations for the initial part of a structure should be placed deep enough so
that they will be unaffected by the addition. If this is not done, underpinning will
be required in the future, which is usually far more expensive than the additional
depth would have been in the initial construction.
Groundwater
The presence of groundwater within the soil immediately around a footing is
undesirable for several reasons:
First, footing construction below the GWL is difficult and expensive. Generally,
the area must be drained prior to construction.
For these reasons footing should be placed above the groundwater level
wherever practical to do so.
Underground Defects
Footing location is also affected by the presence of underground defects. These
include faults, caves and mines as well as man-made discontinuities such as
sewer lines and underground cables and utilities. Minor breaks in bedrock
seldom are a problem unless they are active. Structures should never be built on
or near tectonic faults that may slip. Certainly, foundations placed directly above
a cave or mine should be avoided if it all possible. The man-made discontinuities
listed above are often encountered, and obviously foundations should not be
placed above them. When they are encountered where a footing is desired,
either they or the footing should be relocated. As a matter of fact, a survey of
underground utility lines (or even an exploration) should be made prior to
excavation for a foundation in order to avoid damage to the utility lines during
excavation.
q2
1.338
f
in meters
Where
q = discharge per unit width in cumecs
f = Lacys silt factor = 1.76 m3/2
= 0.5 for fine silt
= 9 for gravels
m = weighted mean diameter D50, mm