Master of Science / Department of Architectural Engineering and Construction Science / Darren D. Reynolds / Highly expansive soils can severely damage the foundations which they support. These
damages create unnecessary maintenance cost to the owner and can be detrimental to the
building superstructure. Post-tensioned ribbed mat foundations are commonly used in light
commercial construction in areas in the United States that have highly expansive soils. Mild reinforced
ribbed mat foundations are rarely used in these areas. This report investigates why
post-tensioned ribbed mat foundations are more common in these areas than mild-reinforced
ribbed mat foundations. The approach to this investigation is a design example which designs
and compares the two foundation types. The design example is a typical 2-story office building
located in Dallas, Texas, which is an area that has highly expansive soils. First, a post-tensioned
ribbed mat foundation is designed for the office building. Next, a mild-reinforced ribbed mat
foundation is designed for the same building. A comparison is done between the two
foundations based on serviceability, strength requirements and construction costs. The findings
in the comparison is that post-tensioning is a more economical and constructible method. Using
mild-reinforcement requires the use of shear reinforcement in the ribs which is not typical in
foundation design and construction and is less economical, and additional reinforcement in the
slab is needed to resist bending stresses which is also less economical. The finding of the report
is that of the two foundation types, the post-tensioned ribbed mat foundation is the better design
based on the three areas of interest listed above. The use of a mild-reinforced mat foundation
would require construction procedures that are not typical and would be less economical.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:KSU/oai:krex.k-state.edu:2097/498 |
| Date | January 1900 |
| Creators | Burgoon, Justin Eugene |
| Publisher | Kansas State University |
| Source Sets | K-State Research Exchange |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Report |
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