Assumptions and Limitations

Investigations have suggested that foundations to a depth of 3 to 4 times their width may be defined as shallow foundations (Das, 2007). The following assumptions and limitations have made the provided soil bearing capacity formulas for shallow foundations possible. The links below also contain additional information and/or resources for further reading.

• The soil is weightless, linear elastic, isotropic and homogeneous
• The soil is fully saturated (no air voids) with water and solids being incompressible
• Any loads are concentrated at the surface and act vertically and perpendicular
• Permeability and volume compressibility remain constant and are one-dimensional