DESIGN OF RAFT

FOUNDATION
USING ETABS, SAFE,
AND MANUAL
CALCULATIONS
After the analysis of and design of water tank in the tank, now we have to design the
foundation for the water tank. We would define a raft foundation for the tank.
A raft footing is a thick, reinforced concrete slab that extends over a large area, supporting
multiple columns and walls to distribute structural loads evenly to the ground, especially
on weak or soft soils.

We will design the foundation on Etabs, safe and also verify our design by using manual
calculations which are done by using Excel.
In order to design a raft E-tabs, first me a copy of your already file using save as option in
etabs.

Now define your raft slab thickness.

After that, go to the base story and draw your slab.

After that you can give an o set of some distance on each side if your edge corners are out.
Also, If you wanted to distribute the loads over a more wider area, this o set option can be
used. In order to give o set, you can go to edit and edit shells and then click on expand and
give the o set value.
After that, we have define the area springs for the raft to define the soil behaviour

accordingly.

In order to define spring properties, you would have to get the soil bearing capacity value
from the geotechnical investigation report and also you would have to use the allowable
settlement value for raft which is provided in codes (usually 1 or 2 inches).
In order to get modulus of subgrade reaction, we would have to divide SBC by the
settlement and the put that value in the compressional only box in etabs.
After that, we would have to assign this area spring to our slab. For this we can use the
assign menu and apply the defined area spring for our raft.
After that we would run the analysis. When analysis is complete, go to slab design and
click on start design.

Same procedure is followed when we design in safe. For designing in safe, we first run
analysis and after that go to export to export the base reactions directly to safe.
After exporting, we would open safe. I am using safe 2016 for the design. After opening , we
would import that saved file.

All the remaining procedure is same as we use in the Etabs. After running analysis in Safe,
we would see by checking the punching shear design criteria which is the mostly critical in
case of raft design. ( We find thickness by two criteria in manual calculations) .
This is the result for punching shear design. But as you can see that at some locations, we
have values greater than 1 which is Demand/Capacity Ratio and in order to pass, at all
locations this value should be less than zero. So, we can increase the thickness of raft or
we can increase the raft area. I have taken a slab of 21 inches. Now I would increase
thickness from 21 to 25 inches and then see the results.
Still, it is above 1. So, I will increase its thickness to 35 inches.
Here, we can see that these all values are below one. So, we can use the thickness of raft
as 35 inches.

Now, we shall verify our results by manual calculation using Excel spreadsheet.

INPUTS
V H
Size of Column 18 x 18 inch
Strength of Concrete 4000 Psi
Grade of Steel 60000 Psi
SBC 1.5428 KSF
Df 5 ft
Grid Spacing X-axis
1-2 12.5 ft
2-3 12.5 ft
4-0
Grid Spacing Y-axis
A-B 12.5 ft
 B-C 12.5 ft
D-A

Projection to left from face of column ft

Projection to right from face of column ft
Projection to upward from face of column ft
Projection to downward from face of
column ft
Total Length of Foooting 28 ft
Total Width of Footing 28 ft
Number of Span X-Axis 2
Number of Span Y-Axis 2

CALCULATION OF ECCENTRICITY
Node Fz (Kips) X (ft) Y(ft) Mx (Kips-ft) My (Kips-ft) Type
1C 91 1.5 1.5 -0.4 0.4 Central
1B 102 1.5 14 0 0.4 Central
1A 91 1.5 26.5 0.4 0.4 Central

2C 102 14 1.5 -0.4 0 Central

2B 102 14 14 0 0 Central
2A 102 14 26.5 0.4 0 Central

3C 91 26.5 1.5 -0.4 -0.4 Central

3B 102 26.5 14 0 -0.4 Central
3A 91 26.5 26.5 0.4 -0.4 Central

Total 874 0 0

Center of Mass For Raft

X 14 ft
Y 14 ft
Center of Gravity For Load
x 0 ft
y 0 ft

ex 0 ft

ey 0 ft
 NET SOIL PRESSURE
Ix 51221.33333 ft4
Iy 51221.33333 ft4
Area of Footing 784 ft2
Self Weight 269.5 Kips
Live load 0 Kips/ft2
Total Load 1143.5 Kips
Mx 0 Kips-ft
My 0 Kips-ft
P/A 1.458545918 Kips/ft2
Mx/Ix 0 Kips/ft3
My/Iy 0 Kips/ft3

Sr.
No Location Along X Along Y X Y σ Remarks
1 1C 1 C -12.5 -12.5 1.458546 Ok
1B 1 B -12.5 0 1.458546 Ok
1A 1 A -12.5 12.5 1.458546 Ok

2 2C 2 C 0 -12.5 1.458546 Ok
2B 2 B 0 0 1.458546 Ok
2A 2 A 0 12.5 1.458546 Ok

3 3C 3 C 12.5 -12.5 1.458546 Ok

3B 3 B 12.5 0 1.458546 Ok
3A 3 A 12.5 12.5 1.458546 Ok

AVERAGE STRESS & BENDING MOMENTS

X-Direction
Strip Length W MMax (Kips-ft)
C-C 12.5 1.458546 28.487225
B-B 12.5 1.458546 28.487225

Y-Direction
Strip Length W MMax (Kips-ft)
1-1 12.5 1.458546 28.487225
2-2 12.5 1.458546 28.487225
Calculation of Depth Factors
Max Moment 42.73083745 Kips-ft 0.33333333
Depth 27.39898342 inches 0.5
0.08333333
Therefore ,Depth MOMENT 27.5 inches
FOS 1.5
Shear Strength 21.08185107 PSI

For Two Way Shear Central Column

Column Load 102 Kips

Perimeter of critical section 4d+72
7257.42723

d 34.5 inches
Depth Provided 34.5 inches
CC 2 inches
Effective Depth 30.5 inches
Hence both the results are near to each other.
Now next step is to design the reinforcement and then a detailed drawings for them.

Stay tuned for more….