{"id":218,"date":"2025-01-29T02:47:37","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T02:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/fundamentalsoffoundationengineering\/chapter\/4-1-introduction-to-part-4\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T13:58:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T13:58:46","slug":"4-1-introduction-to-part-4","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/fundamentalsoffoundationengineering\/chapter\/4-1-introduction-to-part-4\/","title":{"raw":"4.1 Introduction to Part 4","rendered":"4.1 Introduction to Part 4"},"content":{"raw":"As soil is compressible, every shallow foundation will settle, at least for a few millimeters. The Geotechnical Engineer is called to design the foundation so that the settlement that will inevitably occur will not affect the integrity of the structure, and will not interrupt the function(s) for which the structure was designed for, thus satisfy <em>Serviceability Limit State <\/em>requirements<em>.<\/em>\n\nFoundation settlement can be classified into three basic types: <em>uniform settlement, tilt and non-uniform settlement<\/em> (<a href=\"https:\/\/oercollective.caul.edu.au\/app\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2025\/01\/4.1-HR-better-quality.png\">Figure 4.1<\/a>) Uniform settlement may disrupt utilities function such as pipe connections, and therefore affect the serviceability of the structure, or interfere with nearby structures. On the other hand, distortion caused by non-uniform settlement induces bending in structural elements, which can result in cracking, and affect the integrity of the structure (<a href=\"https:\/\/oercollective.caul.edu.au\/app\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2025\/01\/4.1-HR-better-quality.png\">Figures 4.1<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/oercollective.caul.edu.au\/app\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2025\/01\/4.2-non-uniform-settlement-1-e1743559227198.jpg\">4.2<\/a>).\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_216\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"600\"]<img class=\"wp-image-216 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/01\/4.1-HR-better-quality-e1743559210316.png\" alt=\"Diagram illustrating three types of settlement of a building: uniform, tilt, and non-uniform settlement.\" width=\"600\" height=\"114\"> Figure 4.1. Types of settlement.[\/caption]\n\n&nbsp;\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_216\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"800\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/oercollective.caul.edu.au\/app\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2025\/01\/4.2-non-uniform-settlement-1-e1743559227198.jpg\"><img class=\"wp-image-217 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/03\/4.2-non-uniform-settlement-1-e1743559227198.jpg\" alt=\"Photograph of houses in Mexico City which have settled non-uniformly.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\"><\/a> Figure 4.2. Non-uniform settlement in Mexico City (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dolgin\/3308060784\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mexico is sinking<\/a> by Avi Dolgin, via Flickr, is licensed under <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/2.0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CC BY-NC-SA 2.0<\/a>).[\/caption]","rendered":"<p>As soil is compressible, every shallow foundation will settle, at least for a few millimeters. The Geotechnical Engineer is called to design the foundation so that the settlement that will inevitably occur will not affect the integrity of the structure, and will not interrupt the function(s) for which the structure was designed for, thus satisfy <em>Serviceability Limit State <\/em>requirements<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Foundation settlement can be classified into three basic types: <em>uniform settlement, tilt and non-uniform settlement<\/em> (<a href=\"https:\/\/oercollective.caul.edu.au\/app\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2025\/01\/4.1-HR-better-quality.png\">Figure 4.1<\/a>) Uniform settlement may disrupt utilities function such as pipe connections, and therefore affect the serviceability of the structure, or interfere with nearby structures. On the other hand, distortion caused by non-uniform settlement induces bending in structural elements, which can result in cracking, and affect the integrity of the structure (<a href=\"https:\/\/oercollective.caul.edu.au\/app\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2025\/01\/4.1-HR-better-quality.png\">Figures 4.1<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/oercollective.caul.edu.au\/app\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2025\/01\/4.2-non-uniform-settlement-1-e1743559227198.jpg\">4.2<\/a>).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_216\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-216\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-216 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/01\/4.1-HR-better-quality-e1743559210316.png\" alt=\"Diagram illustrating three types of settlement of a building: uniform, tilt, and non-uniform settlement.\" width=\"600\" height=\"114\" srcset=\"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/fundamentalsoffoundationengineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/01\/4.1-HR-better-quality-e1743559210316.png 600w, https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/fundamentalsoffoundationengineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/01\/4.1-HR-better-quality-e1743559210316-300x57.png 300w, https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/fundamentalsoffoundationengineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/01\/4.1-HR-better-quality-e1743559210316-65x12.png 65w, https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/fundamentalsoffoundationengineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/01\/4.1-HR-better-quality-e1743559210316-225x43.png 225w, https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/fundamentalsoffoundationengineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/01\/4.1-HR-better-quality-e1743559210316-350x67.png 350w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-216\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Figure 4.1. Types of settlement.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_216\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-216\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/oercollective.caul.edu.au\/app\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2025\/01\/4.2-non-uniform-settlement-1-e1743559227198.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-217 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/03\/4.2-non-uniform-settlement-1-e1743559227198.jpg\" alt=\"Photograph of houses in Mexico City which have settled non-uniformly.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/fundamentalsoffoundationengineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/03\/4.2-non-uniform-settlement-1-e1743559227198.jpg 800w, https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/fundamentalsoffoundationengineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/03\/4.2-non-uniform-settlement-1-e1743559227198-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/fundamentalsoffoundationengineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/03\/4.2-non-uniform-settlement-1-e1743559227198-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/fundamentalsoffoundationengineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/03\/4.2-non-uniform-settlement-1-e1743559227198-65x49.jpg 65w, https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/fundamentalsoffoundationengineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/03\/4.2-non-uniform-settlement-1-e1743559227198-225x169.jpg 225w, https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/fundamentalsoffoundationengineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/03\/4.2-non-uniform-settlement-1-e1743559227198-350x263.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-216\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Figure 4.2. Non-uniform settlement in Mexico City (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dolgin\/3308060784\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mexico is sinking<\/a> by Avi Dolgin, via Flickr, is licensed under <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/2.0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CC BY-NC-SA 2.0<\/a>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"menu_order":1,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"","pb_short_title":"4.1 Introduction to Part 4","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-218","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":215,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/fundamentalsoffoundationengineering\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/fundamentalsoffoundationengineering\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/fundamentalsoffoundationengineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/fundamentalsoffoundationengineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/fundamentalsoffoundationengineering\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/fundamentalsoffoundationengineering\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/218\/revisions\/219"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/fundamentalsoffoundationengineering\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/215"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/fundamentalsoffoundationengineering\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/218\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/fundamentalsoffoundationengineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/fundamentalsoffoundationengineering\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=218"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/fundamentalsoffoundationengineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=218"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/fundamentalsoffoundationengineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}