A COMPUTER PACKAGE FOR PROPORTIONING OF FOOTING FOUNDATIONS

Abstract

A designer has to be very cautious when dealing with the design of foundations as unsafe design may lead to unrepairable damage to the structure. The foundation interacts with the under lying soil whose behavior is difficult to predict accurately. The designer judiciously interprets the results of the various field and laboratory tests such as standard penetration test, plate load test, static cone penetration test, consolidation test shear test etc, and obtains the required design parameters. The processing of test results involves laborious computations, codal provisions and judgement based on experience. A computer program which incorporates all these factors having inbuilt processing facilities of test results to predict the allowable bearing capacity and settlement would be of great help to the designer. In this dissertation work a program PROFF has been developed, written in 'C' language using TURBO_C compiler which uses various facilities of TURBO_C such as structured programming. modular programming, graphics functions and window input/output, context sensitive help and data entry templates making the program user friendly, menu driven and interactive. The program PROFF provides for proportioning of shallow foundations resting on sand and clay deposits. The program processes the results of the usual field and laboratory tests such as standard penetration test, static cone penetration test,plate load test, consolidation and shear test and presents the results in a convenient form. The program also provides assistance to a beginner in the art of proportioning of foundation with the necessary guide lines, design process and codal provisions. To an experienced designer, it provides quick means of processing voluminous test data to design foundation efficiently.