Department of Civil Engineering

SLIIT

FOUNDATION
ENGINEERING I
SITE INVESTIGATION

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

SRI LANKA INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY
SRI LANKA

B.Sc Engineering, Year 4, Semester 1, CE 4811 Foundation Engineering I

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Department of Civil Engineering

SLIIT

B.Sc. Engineering Year 4 Semester 1

CE 4811 Foundation Engineering I - Assignment I
Site Investigation
XY piling (pvt) Ltd. has undertaken the design and construction of a building for a leading
private firm in Sri Lanka in the city of Colombo. The superstructure design of the building is
completed and XY piling (pvt) Ltd. is about to embark on the design of the foundation for the
building. M/s PQ Geotechnical Investigation (Pvt) Ltd. had carried out a borehole
investigation consisting of drilling three boreholes at the proposed site.
Senior engineers attached to XY piling (Pvt) Ltd. has already decided to use bored and cast
in-situ concrete piles for the proposed structure and has selected the diameters of the piles as
well.
As a Trainee Engineer attached to XY piling (pvt) Ltd., you are requested to interpret the
subsurface condition at the site and submit a report.
The report should include:
1. A discussion on the subsurface and bedrock condition at the site and preliminary
design calculation to investigate the possibility of shallow foundations for the
proposed structure.
2. The rationale behind selection of bored piles over other types of piles (e.g. precast
driven piles) considering the economy and the environmental impacts.
3. A discussion on the construction difficulties that are anticipated at this site and
suggested suitable remedial measures.
4. Interpretation of the site investigation data provided, to estimate the soil strength and

compressibility parameters required for the design of deep foundations. You may use
both Energy approach and the method proposed by Peck et al. (1953) (assume
borehole diameter 120mm and noliner).

B.Sc Engineering, Year 4, Semester 1, CE 4811 Foundation Engineering I

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Department of Civil Engineering

SLIIT

Selection of problem parameters

Select m, n and p to satisfy the following relationships and use the selected values to obtain
the relevant parameters from Table 1 to 6.
0p4
0m4
1n6
Design office number = 30 p + 6 m + n

Table 1. Selection of the energy ratio (Er) of the SPT set up

m

Er (%)

50

55

60

65

70

Table 2. Selection of the working load on columns and the depth to the basement floor
(Dr) below the EGL
m

Pwk (kN)

5000

5900

6700

7200

8000

Dr (m)

3.0

4.0

4.5

5.0

6.0

Table 4. Depth to the water table (Dw)

m

Dw (m)

1.5

2.0

2.5

Table 6. SPT values and soil layers at borehole locations

Selection three boreholes depending on the m, n and p values as below,
Location A Value given for m
Location B Value given for n
Location C Value given for p

B.Sc Engineering, Year 4, Semester 1, CE 4811 Foundation Engineering I

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Department of Civil Engineering

m, n, p
Depth (m)

Soil type

SLIIT
1

SPT Values

Fine Sand

14

15

13

17

15

13

Fine Sand

17

17

14

17

17

15

Fine Sand

21

20

16

18

19

18

Fine Sand

23

19

18

20

21

21

Clay

6.5

Clay

Coarse Sand 24

27

26

24

21

30

28

9.5

Coarse Sand 27

30

28

27

24

32

30

11

Coarse Sand 30

33

30

30

29

34

33

12.5

Coarse Sand 28

34

33

34

29

34

34

14

Coarse Sand 29

40

35

36

32

35

36

15.5

Coarse Sand 35

45

40

42

38

39

41

WR
17

18.5

>50

>50

>50

HWR

HWR

HWR

RQD=40
CR=40
WR

21

RQD=0
CR=0
MWR

22

23

>50

>50

WR
20

>50

>50
HWR

>50
HWR
WR

WR

RQD=40 >50

>50

CR=80

CR=80

MWR

WR

RQD=90 >50

>50

CR=100

WR
>50

>50

CR=80

RQD=10
CR=100

MWR
RQD=80

RQD=20
CR=100

WR
RQD=20

RQD=40

>50

CR=80
WR

WR

MWR

RQD=0

RQD=60

CR=30

CR=70

WR

RQD=75 RQD=0

RQD=40 RQD=30

CR=80

CR=40

CR=80

CR=50

MWR

MWR

MWR

RQD=55

RQD=95 RQD=75

CR=70

CR=100

CR=100

Consolidation properties of the clay layer

B.Sc Engineering, Year 4, Semester 1, CE 4811 Foundation Engineering I

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Department of Civil Engineering

SLIIT

Compression index (Cc)

0.2

0.3

.25

.3

.35

Void ratio

0.45

0.4

.55

.65

.7

Where,
HWR- Highly weathered rock
WR- Weathered rock
MWR- Moderately weathered rock

B.Sc Engineering, Year 4, Semester 1, CE 4811 Foundation Engineering I

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