Fundamentals of Foundation Engineering

This book aims to introduce the principle and design of various foundations, covering shallow foundations, mat foundations, earth retaining structures, excavations, pile foundations, and slope stability. Since the analysis and design of a foundation are based on the soil properties under short-term (undrained) or long-term (drained) conditions, the assessment of soil properties from the geotechnical site investigation and the concept of drained or undrained soil properties are discussed in the first two chapters. Foundation elements transfer various load combinations from the superstructure to the underlying soils or rocks. The load transfer mechanisms, vertical stress or earth pressure distributions, and failure modes of each foundation type are clearly explained in this book. After understanding the soil responses subjected to the loadings from the foundation, the design methods, required factors of safety, and improvement measures for each foundation type are elaborated.

This book presents both theoretical explication and practical applications for readers to easily comprehend the theoretical background, design methods, and practical applications and considerations. Each chapter provides relevant exercise examples and a problem set for self-practice. The analysis methods introduced in the book can be applied in actual analysis and design as they contain the most up-to-date knowledge of foundation design. This book is suitable for teachers and students to use in foundation engineering courses and engineers who are engaged in foundation design to create a technically sound, construction-feasible, and economical design of the foundation system.

Chang-Yu Ou is a chair professor of the Department of Civil and Construction Engineering at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST), Taipei, Taiwan. He received his doctoral degree from Stanford University, USA, in 1987. His areas of interest are deep excavations, soil behavior, soft ground tunneling, and ground improvement. He has published more than 200 journal and conference papers. He also has published two monograph books regarding deep excavations in English by Taylor & Francis in 2006 and 2022, respectively, and three deep excavation books in Chinese.

Chih-Wei Lu is a professor at NTUST. He completed his Ph. at Kyoto University, Japan. Dr. Lu worked as a geotechnical engineer in Moh and Associates Inc., experiencing an engineering practice in foundation design, geotechnical investigation, and soil liquefaction potential assessment. His research interests involve soil dynamics and soil liquefaction, effective stress analysis on interaction of superstructure–foundation–soil system, and innovative design for geotechnical structures.

Yang Kuo-Hsin is a professor in the Geotechnical Engineering Program of the Department of Civil Engineering at the National Taiwan University (NTU). He completed his PhD at the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests involve slope stability and earth retaining structures, application of geosynthetics, geotechnical engineering modeling, and geo-disaster engineering. He has many years’ experience in research and practice on the analysis, design, and case study of slopes and earth retaining structures using both numerical modeling and physical tests.

Fuchen Teng is an associate professor of the Department of Civil and Construction Engineering at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST), Taipei, Taiwan. He received his doctoral degree from NTUST in 2011. Before joining the Department of Civil and Construction Engineering, he worked as a post-doctoral fellow and engineer at Northwestern University and Sinotech Engineering Consultants during 2013–2016. He is a member of the ATC6 of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering. His areas of interest are ground improvement, soil stress-strain-strength behaviors, soil–structure interaction problems, and geological disposal of rad-wastes.

Jiunn-Shyang Chiou is an associate professor of the Department of Civil Engineering at NTU. He received his doctoral degree from NTU in 2001. He was a research fellow of the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, Taiwan. He was a geotechnical engineer of Sinotech Engineering Consultants Ltd. His areas of interest are geotechnical earthquake engineering, foundation engineering, seismic design of structure foundations, and soil– structure interaction analysis. He has published more than 60 journal and conference papers.

An-Jui Li received his PhD degree from the University of Western Australia in 2009. Before joining NTUST in 2017 as an associate professor, he worked as a lecturer at Central Queensland University and Deakin University in Australia for 7+ years. An-Jui teaches geotechnical engineering units. His primary area of research includes rock mechanics, excavation, and slope stability. Currently, he has published 50+ journal and conference articles.

Jianye Ching is a distinguished professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at NTU. He obtained his PhD in 2002 in the University of California at Berkeley. His main research interests are geotechnical reliability analysis and reliability-based design, basic uncertainties in soil properties, random fields and spatial variability, reliability-based geotechnical design codes, and probabilistic site characterization. He is the author or co-author of more than 100 publications in international journals.

received his PhD from NTUST. He established Land Engineering Consultant Co. Ltd. in 1988. He possesses a 35-year experience in engineering and also was an adjunct associate professor of the Department of Civil and Construction Engineering at NTUST. His specialties are geological investigation, geotechnical monitoring, and landslide mitigation.