L3: High-Rise Foundations Flashcards

1
Q

What is the purpose of foundations?

A

To safely transfer building loads to the ground

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2
Q

What is the type of foundation based on?

A

Building size
Occupied weight
Need for stability
Soil/ground support capabilities

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3
Q

What are the foundation loads?

A

Dead, live, wind, horizontal pressures underground, structural member thrust, uplift, earthquake

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4
Q

What are foundations supported by?

A

Pressure bulbs (spheres of soil)

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5
Q

What can happen if buildings are in close proximity and how is it overcome?

A

Pressure bulbs overlap causing a failure as it cannot support both buildings

Caisson - produces its own pressure bulb
End bearing piles - individual pressure bulbs which combine into one similar to that of a caisson

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6
Q

What are the requirements of a foundation?

A

Safe against structural failure
Settlement not an impairing function
Technically and economically feasible

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7
Q

What is settlement and what is it dependent on?

A

Sinking of building as soil compresses; dependent on soil type (eg bedrock vs clay)

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8
Q

What are the two types of settlement?

A

Uniform and differential

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9
Q

What are signs of differential settlement?

A

Sloped floors, cracked walls/windows, door opening/closing improperly

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10
Q

What building is an example of uniform settlement and how much did it settle?

A

The Palace of Fine Arts; 3m

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11
Q

What are the two types of matter under buildings?

A

Rock (continuous)

Soil (particulate)

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12
Q

What is the difference between cohesive and non-cohesive soils?

A

Cohesive soils retain shear resistance in confining forces (stick together) and non-cohesive soils rely on friction between particles to support loads

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13
Q

How does level of cohesion affect angle of repose

A

Cohesive - steeper

Non-cohesive - shallower (cannot maintain vertical form)

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14
Q

How is soil tested?

A
Bearing capacity (driving hammer)
Test pits (less than 2.5m)
Test bores (deeper)
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15
Q

What does bearing capacity test?

A

How much force the soil pushes back (number of blows per metres driven)

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16
Q

What do test pits/bores show?

A

Strata (layers)

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17
Q

What is soil stability?

A

Soil’s ability to retain its engineering properties under varying conditions

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18
Q

What are examples of stable and unstable soils?

A

Stable - rock, gravel, sands, some silts

Unstable - clay

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19
Q

Why is clay considered an unstable soil?

A

Subject to changing water content - swells when wet and shrinks when dry; wet clay put under pressure will reduce in volume

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20
Q

How is the water table detected?

A

Shows in test pit/bore in course-grained soils but requires special devices in clay soils (impermeable)

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21
Q

What is compaction?

A

Process of increasing soil density in thin layers (lifts), to squeeze out air between particles and rearrange particles to improve soil stability

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22
Q

When is compaction useful?

A

For shallow foundations supported uniformly by large surface of soil

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23
Q

What are the two main types of excavation?

A

Benched and sheeted

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24
Q

When is benched excavation used?

A

When the site is sufficiently larger than the building area

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25
Q

How is benched excavation sloped?

A

Shallow in frictional soils; steeper in cohesive soils

26
Q

What does sheeted excavation require and why?

A

Bracing, to resist soil pressure

27
Q

What are the three options for sheeted slope supports and when are they used?

A
Soldier beams and lagging (deeper excavation)
Sheet piling (shallowed excavation)
Slurry wall (used as permanent foundation wall)
28
Q

What is soldier beams and lagging?

A

H shaped soldier beams (steel) driven into ground with lagging placed between (wood)

29
Q

What is sheet piling?

A

Sheet material driven into ground (timber, steel, precast concrete)

30
Q

What is slurry and how is a slurry wall formed?

A

Mixture of bentonite clay and water

Concrete guide walls laid out
Trench dug to desired depth and filled with slurry
Cage of steel installed
Concrete filled into trench using a tremie and slurry is removed
Slurry wall tied back

31
Q

What are the methods to brace sheeted slope support and when are they used?

A

Crosslot - used in tight urban areas
Rakers - used when width is too large for crosslot
Tiebacks - most common

32
Q

Why is tiebacks the most common compared to crosslot and rakers?

A

Crosslot and rakers take up space in the excavated area

33
Q

How are tiebacks installed?

A

Steel tendon/cable placed in a hole drilled in the wall and cured at the end with grout;
Walers installed to horizontally connect tiebacks

34
Q

When can a sheeted slope support be unbraced?

A

When the excavation is very shallow compared to the sheeted slope support (cantilevered)

35
Q

What are two other options for excavation?

A

Soil nailing and shotcrete

Secant pile walls

36
Q

What is soil nailing and shotcrete and when can it be used?

A

Soil nails (tiebacks) installed
Grid of rebar placed over soil
Shotcrete (sprayed concrete) applied over rebar and cures
Nails tightened with anchor plate

Used in cohesive soils because needs to hold before shotcrete is applied

37
Q

What is a secant pile wall?

A

A series of interlocking poured, reinforced concrete piles; alternating concrete and concrete with steel rebar

38
Q

What are the advantages of a secant pile wall?

A

Stiffer than sheeted slope support and can be installed in difficult soil

39
Q

What is a tangent pile wall?

A

A secant pile wall without overlap between piles

40
Q

Why is dewatering done?

A

Because excavation must be done in dry conditions

41
Q

What are the methods for dewatering and when are they used?

A

Well points - most common

Watertight barrier - used when reachable impermeable layer

42
Q

What are well points?

A

Wells placed around perimeter to pump from water table; can affect surrounding buildings

43
Q

What is a watertight barrier?

A

A slurry wall around the perimeter to an impermeable layer, isolating the water table; does not affect surrounding buildings

44
Q

What are the three main parts of buildings?

A

Foundation
Substructure
Superstructure

45
Q

What are the types of shallow foundations?

A

Mat/raft foundation

Floating foundation

46
Q

What is a mat/raft foundation?

A

Where the soil cannot support the building weight so column footings are merged together

47
Q

What is a floating foundation?

A

Where soil is dug and replaced by building; 1 storey of soil supports 5-8 building storeys

48
Q

What are the types of deep foundations?

A

Caissons
Piles
Site cast concrete piles

49
Q

What is the purpose of deep foundations?

A

To reach through the weak soil

50
Q

What are caissons?

A

Large, column-like members poured into the ground

51
Q

What are piles?

A

Mechanically pounded then cut level at top; 2-24 piles together with pile caps and clusters joined by grade beams

52
Q

What are the types of caissons?

A

Belled ending (on top of good soil) or socketed (into good soil)

53
Q

What are the types of piles?

A

End bearing (on top of good soil) or friction pile (cannot reach good soil so uses friction against weak soil to stay up)

54
Q

What are site cast concrete piles?

A

Steel casing driven into soil and then filled with concrete

55
Q

What are the types of site cast concrete piles?

A

Cased (casing remains) or uncased (casing removed)

56
Q

What is seismic base isolation?

A

Flexible joints to allow for shifting at connection between foundation and sub/super structure

57
Q

What makes up base isolators?

A

Column base plate, lead core, layers of steel plates and rubber, isolate base plate

58
Q

What is underpinning?

A

Process of strengthening and stabilising foundations of an existing building eg. fixing failing foundation, adding levels

59
Q

What are the three approaches to underpinning?

A

Digging trenches at intervals and underpinning bit by bit
Exposing entire portions of foundation by temporary supports (needle beams)
Installing mini-piles without excavation

60
Q

What is up-down construction?

A

Building substructure and superstructure are built simultaneously

61
Q

What is the up-down construction process?

A

Perimeter slurry wall
Drill holes and fill with slurry
Steel columns set in concrete footing poured using a tremie
Ground floor slab poured with opening
Superstructure is built while excavation takes place (each storey individually with controlled low strength material placed to support formwork above - excavated with next storey)