Course aims:

To design building foundations: continuous foundations, isolated foundations, rigid/elastic foundations, raft foundations et cetera.
To describe the technological process of building foundations
To comply with the design and quality control standards for building foundations.

Course Entry Requirements:

Not necessary.

Course contents:

1. The building foundation and the terrain. The importance of the correct design of building foundations. The classification of building foundations. The selection of the minimum foundation depth. Building materials used for foundations. 2. General principles regarding the geotechnical design of the terrain. The mechanical behaviour of the soil under the foundation’s load. 3. General principles regarding the configuration of a building’s infrastructure. Definitions. Requirements regarding the design of the sub-structure and of the foundations. 4. Simple concrete continuous foundations. General design regulations. The design of the continuous foundations. 5. Special cases of continuous foundations. Rigid continuous foundations for diaphragm walls. 6. Foundations with isolated supports. Continuous foundations for structural walls on compressible soils. Foundations for buildings on good terrain in highly seismic areas. 7. Rigid foundations. Areas of use. Rigid isolated foundations. Determination of the plane surface of the foundation bottom. 8. Elastic foundations. The design of centric reinforced concrete isolated foundations. 9. Foundations for steel columns. The design of prefabricated foundations. 10. The design of reinforced concrete continuous foundations under columns. 11. Reinforced concrete raft foundations. Areas of use. Design regulations. 12. Opened caisson foundations. Areas of use. 13. Pillar foundations. Areas of use. The classification of pillar foundations. 14. Deep foundations. Retaining systems for excavations.

Teaching methods:

Presentation, discussions, examples, case studies, practical applications.

Learning outcomes:

Students will be able to graphically represent building foundations. Students will be able to design foundations for residential and industrial buildings under standard load conditions. Students will be able to schedule the construction works for the building infrastructure and to elaborate the estimate.

Learning outcomes verification and assessment criteria:

Written exam (50% of final grade), 1 practical problem (20% of final grade), and laboratory portfolio (30% of final grade).

Recommended reading:

SR EN 1997-1, Proiectarea geotehnică. Partea 1, Reguli Generale, Bucuresti, 2006, 50.
N.Radulescu, H. Popa, A. Munteanu, Fundaţii. Îndrumător de proiectare, MatrixRom, Bucuresti, 2001, 135.
Braja M. Das, Principles of Foundation Engineering,, PC Boston, Boston, 1990, 180.