Die Setzung von Fundamenten auf unterschiedlichen Gründungen mit eingeschränkter Lastausbreitung

The settlement of footings on different kinds of subsoil treatment with reduced load distribution

In principal, the foundation of footings can be ranked between the border case of a shallow foundation on unimproved ground and a deep foundation with piles. In the first case the pressure of the total load spreads systematically in the subsoil. More or less large settlements occur but - at least in the case of small footings - they decrease fairly quickly due to the spreading of the pressure with the depth. In the second case piles transfer the load directly to soil strata with high bearing capacity. Although no notably relieving spreading of pressure occurs settlements are small even at a high load due to the stiffness of the piles.
In between these two cases there are many foundation methods or combinations with settlement performances that cannot easily be evaluated. They range from the so-called pile-plate foundation to soil improvement below the foundation. In all these cases the load pressure concentrates on the reinforced or improved subsoil under the foundation. However, either more or less of it is delivered to the untreated soil around. This "escaping" part, hereinafter called "load distribution" is often difficult to be determined. It may, however, be of substantial importance with regard to the settlement behaviour, so this is to introduce a suitable approximation to consider in a settlement calculation the appropriate load distribution.