Unexpectedly high soil bearing capacity from Analytical stress method (EC 7)

[umut.akparlar]

Hi,

I wanted to design a pad foundation on a clay ground, and it has approximately 150 kPa bearing capacity. I can use semi empirical stress method and enter the bearing capacity manually. When I wanted to use the analytical model, I will have a much bigger bearing capacity with selecting similar soil specs from soil database.

Semi empirical

Analytical:

qlim is nearly 2.2mPa which is not expected for a clay ground. 

Kindly provide input on this.

Thanks 

[Simau]

Hi @umut.akparlar 

How do you get qu = 0.15 MPa with semi empirical method and why do you choose ground clay in the analytical method.
Are these values from a geotechnical report?

[umut.akparlar]

Hi @Simau 

We have approximate bearing capacity value from a similar site but I don't have a detailed geotechnical report. 

I selected clay because there are other buildings at that site with clay soil and I assume clay for preliminary design purposes. 

Assumed clay bearing capacity values are much lower than analytical method:

Thanks