Part 4: Shallow Foundation: Effect of Water Table on Bearing Capacity

This is part 4 in Shallow Foundation series. The Video tutorial explains effect of water table on bearing Capacity. There are 5 different cases explained in this tutorial. Effect of water table: Water in soil is known to affect its unit weight and also the shear parameters c and φ. When the soil is submerged under water, the effective unit weight γ ′ is to be used in the computation of bearing capacity. Similarly, the effective stress parameters, c′ and φ′, obtained from an appropriate test in the laboratory, on saturated sample of the soil, are to be used. However, the effect of water table on the shear parameters of the foundation soil is usually considered small and hence, ignored. But the effective unit weight γ ′ is roughly half the saturated unit weight; consequently there will be about 50% reduction in the value of the corresponding term in the bearing capacity formula