Foundation Construction Course

Lesson 1 • Groundwater and Its Effects

Examines water table depth, perched water, and hydrostatic pressure on foundations. Links groundwater conditions to design and construction risk.

Lesson 2 • Soil Classification and Properties

Covers grain size, plasticity, and unified classification of soils. Connects soil type to bearing capacity and settlement potential.

Lesson 3 • Regulatory and Safety Framework

Outlines approval processes, geotechnical reporting standards, and site safety obligations. Frames the compliance context for all practical work.

Lesson 4 • Role of Foundations in Structures

Explains how foundations transfer structural loads to bearing soil or rock. Establishes the functional purpose that drives all subsequent design choices.

Lesson 1 • In-Situ Testing Techniques

Teaches standard penetration, cone penetration, and vane shear tests. Connects test results directly to bearing capacity and pile design parameters.

Lesson 2 • Laboratory Soil Testing

Covers consolidation, triaxial, and direct shear tests for strength and compressibility. Provides the lab data needed to validate field test correlations.

Lesson 3 • Subsurface Exploration Methods

Covers rotary drilling, auger boring, and trial pits for subsurface profiling. Builds on site investigation basics to select appropriate exploration tools.

Lesson 1 • Allowable Bearing Pressure Selection

Applies factors of safety and serviceability limits to derive allowable pressures. Bridges theory to practical design values used on drawings.

Lesson 2 • Bearing Capacity Theory

Derives general bearing capacity equations for shallow foundations on various soils. Establishes the theoretical basis for all subsequent sizing calculations.

Lesson 3 • Settlement Monitoring and Verification

Covers survey benchmarks, settlement plates, and back-analysis of monitored data. Closes the design loop by comparing predictions to field measurements.

Lesson 4 • Differential Settlement and Distortion

Evaluates differential settlement between adjacent footings and its effect on structure. Introduces angular distortion limits used in structural damage assessment.

Lesson 1 • Quality Control for Shallow Foundations

Establishes inspection hold points, concrete testing, and as-built survey requirements. Links construction quality to long-term foundation performance.

Lesson 2 • Raft Foundation Design

Covers rigid and flexible raft analysis methods for heavily loaded or weak-soil sites. Connects raft behaviour to differential settlement control.

Lesson 3 • Combined and Strap Footings

Addresses combined footings for closely spaced columns and strap beams for eccentric loads. Extends single-footing design to more complex column arrangements.

Lesson 4 • Spread and Strip Footing Design

Sizes isolated column footings and continuous wall footings using bearing capacity results. Introduces reinforcement layout and concrete cover requirements.

Lesson 1 • Micropiles and Specialty Systems

Introduces small-diameter grouted micropiles for restricted access and underpinning. Addresses helical piles and jet-grouted columns as alternative systems.

Lesson 2 • Caissons and Large-Diameter Shafts

Covers open caissons, pneumatic caissons, and drilled shafts for bridge and heavy industrial use. Extends pile knowledge to large-diameter, high-capacity elements.

Lesson 3 • Driven pile systems

Covers steel H-piles, precast concrete piles, and pipe piles installed by impact or vibratory driving. Connects pile type to soil conditions and installation effects.

Lesson 4 • When deep foundations are required

Identifies weak near-surface soils, heavy loads, and scour conditions that necessitate deep foundations. Builds decision criteria on top of bearing capacity knowledge.

Lesson 1 • Lateral load and moment capacity

Analyses pile response to horizontal loads using p-y curves and elastic methods. Addresses fixed-head and free-head conditions for different pile cap configurations.

Lesson 2 • Pile group behaviour and efficiency

Evaluates group efficiency factors, block failure, and differential settlement within pile groups. Extends single-pile design to multi-pile cap configurations.

Lesson 3 • Dynamic pile analysis

Covers wave equation analysis, dynamic formulas, and high-strain dynamic testing. Provides rapid capacity verification during pile installation.

Lesson 4 • Static load testing programmes

Plans and interprets maintained load, quick load, and bi-directional load tests. Provides the verification data required before full production pile installation.

Lesson 1 • Secant, contiguous, and diaphragm walls

Explains construction sequences for secant pile walls, contiguous pile walls, and slurry diaphragm walls. Addresses watertightness and structural continuity requirements.

Lesson 2 • Sheet pile and soldier pile walls

Covers cantilever and propped sheet pile design and soldier pile with lagging systems. Connects earth pressure theory to practical wall sizing and embedment depth.

Lesson 3 • Dewatering and groundwater control

Covers wellpoints, deep wells, and cut-off walls for groundwater management in excavations. Links dewatering design to settlement risk for adjacent structures.

Lesson 4 • Lateral earth pressure theory

Derives active, passive, and at-rest earth pressures for cohesive and cohesionless soils. Provides the loading basis for all retaining and support structure design.

Lesson 1 • Pile integrity testing methods

Covers low-strain sonic echo, cross-hole sonic logging, and gamma-gamma testing for pile defects. Provides non-destructive tools to verify pile continuity before loading.

Lesson 2 • Diagnosing foundation distress

Identifies crack patterns, differential movement, and heave as indicators of foundation failure modes. Builds diagnostic skills that guide remediation strategy selection.

Lesson 3 • Underpinning and strengthening methods

Covers mass concrete underpinning, pile underpinning, and resin injection for foundation repair. Addresses sequencing and temporary support during underpinning operations.

Lesson 4 • Ground improvement as remediation

Applies compaction grouting, dynamic compaction, and stone columns to improve weak bearing strata. Extends remediation options beyond structural underpinning to soil treatment.