International Training Programs for Seismic Design of Building Structures

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Building Foundation Types in Taiwan

Hsii-Sheng Hsieh1

、Introduction
1、
Taiwan is a densely populated island with most of its major cities located in the western
plain. High-rise and low-rise buildings co-exist in the metropolitan areas, and their foundation
types may be very much different pending on the structural loading and subsurface condition.
In general, shallow and deep foundations are used to support low-rise and high-rise buildings,
respectively. Footings are classified as shallow foundation, while rafts and piles are
considered as deep foundations.
Bearing capacity, settlement and uplift pressure are three factors that have to be
considered for foundation design. Theories or equations regarding these issues can be found in
textbooks (Lambe and Whitman, 1969; Peck et al., 1974; Terzaghi et al., 1996) or design
codes. A sufficient and good subsurface exploratory program is required to supplement the
foundation design. In addition, engineering judgment also plays an important role in modeling
the foundation problem and selecting the soil parameters.
Construction of a deep foundation in metropolitan area involves potential danger. Failed
to recognize adverse ground conditions or poor construction quality may lead to excavation
failures or induce damage to adjacent buildings.

、Soil Conditions in Taiwan

2、
Various soil conditions are encountered in Taiwan metropolitan areas. In Taipei area, for
example, ground conditions ranging from very soft clay to dense sandy gravel layers can be
found in construction sites. In central part of Taiwan, subsurface consists of very dense gravel
layer with boulders. While in southern part of Taiwan, the ground condition is basically of
alluvium plain nature, which consists alternating layers of sandy or clayey materials.
Ground water level is generally high in major metropolitan areas, which is typically at
2~3 m below ground surface. The high ground water level is a major obstacle to the
construction of deep foundation, and sometimes it is the main culprit responsible for
construction failure.
Soft clay is especially difficult to handle for foundation engineers. Due to its low shear
strength and high water content, soft clay may be a great threat to the safety of foundation
excavation. And following the completion of foundation, large amount of consolidation
settlement is sometimes inevitable.
Dense gravel layer has its own unique foundation problem. This material provides
excellent bearing capacity to support buildings, but it is very difficult to excavate in case deep
foundation is required.
The SPT (Standard Penetration Test) N value is a simple index to classify the strength of
soil (Peck et al., 1974). For example, very soft clay has an SPT N value ranging between 0
and 2. While for very dense gravel layer, the SPT N value generally exceeds 50.

、Shallow Foundations
3、
In general, shallow foundation is adequate to support the loading of most low-rise

1
Associate Professor, Department of Construction Engineering, National Yunlin University of
Science & Technology


 

buildings. Residential or commercial buildings less than 5-story are considered as low-rise
buildings, and these buildings apply an average loading of no more than 50 KN/m2 on the
ground. Shallow foundation often exists in the form of single footing or combined footing,
which usually rest at a depth of 1 m below ground surface.
To construct shallow footings, the highly compressible topsoil has to be removed first;
otherwise the shallow foundations may suffer large settlement afterwards. In addition, placing
the footing at a suitable depth below ground surface would also provide better bearing
capacity. In the old days, short and small diameter woodpiles were sometimes installed
beneath the footings to strengthen the performance of foundation.

、Deep Foundations
4、
For most high-rise buildings, deep foundation is often required to support the structural
loading and to minimize the differential settlement between columns. Since most high-rise
buildings in Taiwan are coupled with the construction of deep basements, the deep foundation
could either be in the form of deep raft foundation or raft foundation with large diameter piles.
In order to construct the deep basement as well as the raft foundation, a deep retaining
wall together with an appropriate bracing system have to be employed first. Taiwan local
contractors are very familiar with the construction of diaphragm wall and internal bracing
system for basement excavation. Cases with basement excavation depth of more than 20 m are
not uncommon. In a few large-scale projects, the basement excavations were carried beyond a
depth of 30 m. Though local contractors already had a lot of experience with deep basement
excavation, major construction hazards induced by defects of diaphragm wall and internal
bracing system were often heard.
Large bored piles with a diameter over 2 m and a capacity of more than 15,000 kN are
often used in Taiwan. Construction of these large piles either adopts reversed-circulation or
full-cased technique to stabilize the drilled shafts. Large-scale pile loading tests are routinely
used to verify the design capacity of piles. Loadings of more than 40,000 kN and 20,000 kN
had been applied to test the capacities of compression and uplift piles, respectively.

、Design Considerations
5、
Three major factors have to be taken into consideration while designing the building
foundations, these factors are:

Bearing capacity of foundation

Total and differential settlement of foundation

Uplift force acting on the foundation
The bearing capacity has to be checked with an appropriate factor of safety to avoid
catastrophic foundation failure. The use of an appropriate bearing capacity equation and the
selection of soil parameters are of utmost importance. For example, if c, φ is used instead of
S u (undrained shear strength) to calculate the bearing capacity of soft clay, one could
significantly overestimate the bearing capacity, and possibly lead to an un-conservative
foundation design. Various bearing capacity equations for shallow as well as deep foundations
can be found in textbooks (Terzaghi et al., 1996; Peck et al., 1974). It has to be pointed out
that these equations were derived based upon different failure modes, and engineering
judgment cannot be ignored while performing a bearing capacity check.
To correctly estimate the settlement of a specific foundation is a difficult task. One can
use the theory of consolidation (Terzaghi et al., 1996) as a basic tool; however, engineering
judgment has to be exercised to obtain realistic settlement estimation. As a design practice,
soil is often considered as elasto-plastic springs in the structural model, subsequent computer



analysis would yield reaction force as well as deformation of soil springs. This type of
analysis requires modulus of subgrade reaction (Kv) as an input parameter. Kv is not an
intrinsic soil parameter, and cannot be obtained from routine laboratory tests. By simplifying
the soil response as springs and with the aid of computer program, the designer can have a
better understanding on the overall performance of foundation. But once again, one has to rely
upon experience and judgment to select an appropriate Kv for foundation design. Typical
values of Kv can be found in reference (Bowles, 1988).
Other than bearing capacity and settlement concerns, some structures may suffer from
uplift problem owing to insufficient structural loading. For example, the dead weight of
underground parking lot can be less than the buoyancy force of ground water, and it has a
tendency to “float”. Under this circumstance, auxiliary measures such as installing tension
piles or adding extra dead weight has to be taken to alleviate uplift problem.

、Seismic Related Foundation Problems

6、
When subject to cyclic ground motion such as earthquake loading, loose saturated sandy
material may temporarily lose its shear strength and behave like liquid in a short period of a
few seconds. This phenomenon is loosely termed as “liquefaction”. Upon liquefaction, the
bearing capacity of soil is sharply reduced, and building foundations may suffer excessive
settlement as a result. The Chi-Chi earthquake that hit Taiwan in 1999 induced widespread
liquefaction problems, many buildings located in the western plain of Taiwan tilted, settled, or
even collapsed while foundation soil temporally lost its strength.
If construction budget permitted, one may use pile foundation or ground improvement
techniques to counter possible liquefaction problem. However, it is sometimes difficult to
justify the use of such expensive counter measures against liquefaction for low-rise residential
buildings, considering that the next large-scale liquefaction is only a remote possibility.
For existing high-rise buildings with deep basement, loose sandy materials that may
liquefy during earthquake were removed during basement excavation, and therefore
liquefaction is not a threat to the stability of foundation.

、Recent Developments
7、
In recent years, many high-rise construction sites encountered very soft ground condition.
Instead of using large diameter piles to counter bearing capacity and differential settlement
problems, the designer could opt to partially improve the foundation soil or revise the plan
layout of diaphragm wall.
To partially improve the foundation soil, jet grout or deep mixing technique is often
adopted to construct discrete soil improvement piles. The partially improved soil mass
apparently has a lower compressibility and higher strength than the original soil mass.
Diaphragm wall usually serves as temporary earth retaining structure, but it can also be
considered as long, slender piles if it is designed to take structural loadings. By using
diaphragm wall as load supporting element, the rigidity of raft foundation is increased
significantly, and the foundation settlement is minimized as a result.

、Conclusions
8、
Deep and shallow foundations are both extensively used in Taiwan. Design of the
foundations is based upon well-established approaches, which is more or less considered as a
routine. As for buildings resting upon soft grounds, engineering judgment must be exercised
to reach a safe and sound foundation design.
Footings, rafts as well as large bored piles are the three main foundation types in Taiwan.
As an alternative to expensive pile foundations, specially designed diaphragm wall or soil
 

improvement can be adopted in conjunction with raft foundation to support the structural
loading.
Construction of deep foundation requires good quality control of the retaining system, or
the contractor may suffer unexpected excavation failure. The integrity and safety of buildings
adjacent to the construction site is also an important issue. Failed to control the ground
settlement around construction site may severely damage the adjacent buildings.
Strong ground motions such as earthquake loadings could result in liquefaction of loose
sandy soils. It is imperative that the liquefaction potential of the foundation soil be carefully
evaluated in the design stage. Based upon the outcome of liquefaction analysis, the project
owner can then decide to take or not to take preventive measures against possible liquefaction.

、References
8、
Bowles, J. Foundation Analysis and Design, 4th edition, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New
York (1988).
Lambe, T.W., and Whitman, R.V. Soil Mechanics, John Wiley and Sons, New York (1969).
Peck, R.B., Hanson, W.E., and Thornburn, T.H. Foundation Engineering, second edition,
John Wiley and Sons, New York (1974).
Terzaghi, K., Peck, R.B., and Mesri, G. Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice, Third
edition, John Wiley and Sons, New York (1996).