How to Design a Safe and Economical PC & RC

Isolated Footings
AYMAN SUMMRA1 , MAGDY ABD EL MOHSEN1
Assistant Prof., Al-Azhar University Cairo Egypt

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1- Introduction
There are some rules of thumb used in structural engineering practice to design a plain
concrete footing (pad), one of them is

a
1
, refer to figure (2) and where q all = allowable bearing capacity, In fact by

hf
q all
using this relation it is found that it does give bigger thickness of plain concrete
footing than really required. In this paper more refined relations have been derived
which prove themselves to be more accurate, safe and economical and reduces to a
large extent the volume of the RC footing.

2- Current Codal Equations for Determination of Plain Concrete

Fooling Thickness
2.1 Indian Standard IS 456: 2000 & Explanatory Handbook on
IS 456: 1978
IS 456: 2000 given the following equation, refer to figure (1)

tan 0.9

100q o
1
f ck

(1)

Where

q o = calculated maximum bearing pressure at the base of pc footing in N / mm 2 ,

and

f ck = characteristic strength of concrete at 28 days in N / mm 2

2.2 Eurocode 2: Design of Concrete Structures part 1.6 General

Rules Plain Concrete Structures DD ENV 1992 1 6: 1996
This code gives the following equation; refer to figure (2)
hf
a

3 gd

(2)

f ctd

Where:

gd = the design value of the ground pressure

f ctd = the design value of the concrete tensile strength ( in the same units as f ctd )
f ctd =

f ctk 0.05

c , c = 1.8 ( see Table 6.1 taken from Ref. (4) )

As a simplification the code gives the relation

he

1.5 may be used.

Based on a well documented Excel sheet for design of plain concrete footing,
many practical examples have been solved; keeping the contact pressure between
the RC footing and the PC footing equal to 5 Kg / cm 2 to minimize the volume of
the RC footing as mentioned above. All practical values of allowable bearing
capacity used in design of isolated footing have been utilized ranging from 0.5

Kg / cm 2 to 3 Kg / cm 2 . It has been found that the IS equation gives very big

values of PC footing thickness in all cases; and there is a big difference between
these values and those obtained by the program, so this equation is not
recommended to use in design. However, the Eurocode equation gives a
reasonable agreement with values obtained by the program, yet it still needs to
some modifications.
The relation

hf
a

obtained by Eurocode and program are given in Table 1 for

different values of q all

and by keeping contact pressure between RC and PC

footing equal to 5 Kg / cm 2 .

Table 1

hf
a

Values as per ENV & program

q all ( gd )

Eurocode

Program

% Diff.

( Kg / cm 2 )

(1)

(2)

(1 2) / (2)

0.5

0.488

0.3546

38%

0.75

0.6

0.419

43%

0.69

0.479

44%

0.98

0.82

20%

2.5

1.1

0.966

14%

3.0

1.2

1.5

-20%

Correlations have been made to find more refined forms of Eurocode equation which
give more close values of PC footing to those obtained by the program; the following
modified forms have been obtained
hf
a

hf
a

hf
a

0.8427 ( 3 gd / f ctd ) 1.347

(3)

1.033( 3 gd / f ctd ) 0.1891

(4)

1.414( 3 gd / f ctd ) 0.4359

(5)

The values obtained by Eqns. (3), (4), (5) with those given by program are given in
Table 2.
Table 2

gd

hf
a

Values as per program and Equation

Program

Eqn. (3)

Eqn. (4)

Eqn. (5)

0.5

0.3546

0.32

0.315

0.25

0.75

0.419

0.42

0.43

0.41

0.479

0.511

0.524

0.54

0.82

0.82

0.823

0.94

2.5

0.966

0.958

0.947

1.1

3.0

1.5

1.07

1.05

1.3

( Kg / cm 2 )

From Table 2, it is noted that Eqns. (3), (4) give quite close agreement with the
program except for gd = 3 Kg / cm 2 . However, for gd = 3 Kg / cm 2 using PC
footing under RC footing would not decrease bending moment in RC footing
significantly, where without using PC footing under RC footing B.M. in RC footing
will increase by 15% only ; while for gd = 2.5 Kg / cm 2 this increase will be 75% ;
so it is advisable to use PC footing under RC footing for gd up to 2.5 Kg / cm 2 .

References
(1) IS 456 : 2000, Plain and Reinforced Concrete Code of Practice ( 4th Rev. )
(2) Explanatory Handbook on IS for Plain and Reinforced Concrete ( IS : 456
1978 )
(3) Eurocode 2: Design of Concrete Structures Part 1.6 General Rules Plain
Concrete Structures, DD ENV 1992 1 6: 1996.
(4) Design Aids for Eurocode 2, The Concrete Society, 2005.