Graphical Aid for Design of Base Plate Subjected to Moment

The purpose of the base plate is to distribute the column load to the concrete pedestal in such a way that the stress does not exceed the allowable bearing stress of the concrete. When the load is concentric, the distribution of pressure is uniform and is equal to P over A. The solution offered by Blodgett2 requires solving cubic equations to obtain the value of x. A modular ratio of 10 has been used by him in a worked out example. An alternative shorter method, usually adopted by people on a construction site, is to assume that the centroid of the compression area is exactly at the center of the leeward anchor bolts.