HERIOT - WATT UNIVERSITY

School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society

Foundation Engineering
CLASS EXAMPLE
A new cooling tower is to be constructed on a flexible raft immediately adjacent
to an existing machine room as shown in the schematic below. The ground
profile for the site comprises 15m of stiff clay overlying incompressible rock.
The stress transmitted to the surface of the soil by the cooling tower is
125kN/m2. For the soil properties presented in the schematic, estimate the
elastic displacements at X and Y in the machine room which will result from the
construction of the new tower. Due to the sensitivity of the machinery, there is
concern over the angular distortion of the machine room due to the immediate
elastic settlement as this may affect operation. The immediate angular distortion
must not exceed 1/750; advise on the influence of the new cooling tower in this
regard. See pages 112-113 of notes (86-87 Latex version) for definition of
angular distortion. You can assume negligible distance between the machine
room and raft for new tower.

SECTION

Flexible raft

Rigid floor slab raft

Stiff clay
Eu = 25MPa
= 0.3

15m

New Tower
PLAN

10m

Machine Room
10m

20m

0.1

Values of F1
0.2

0.3

____

) and F2

0.4

(----)

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

L/B = 1
2
F1

L/B = 2
4

L/B = 5

F2

6
L/B = 5
L/B = 10
8

L/B = oo

L/B = 2
L/B = 1

L/B = oo

10
You are reminded of the formulae:

corner q

B
( 1 2 )I
Eu

where

L/B = 10

1 2
1

I F1

F2

SOLUTION