The importance of amount of settlement in determining the bearing capacity of soils

In this study, it is aimed to determine safe bearing capacity of soils, which are out cropped around Tamzi and Akcakale villages located in Gumushane, providing allowable settlement conditions for an optimum foundation design. To define the geotechnical properties of soils, three trenches were dug and two seismic refraction with two Multichannel Spectral Analysis of Surface Waves (MASW) were carried out in each research area. Sieve analyses, shear box tests, triaxial compression tests were carried out on disturbed and undisturbed samples taken from the trenches. Seismic velocities of the soils are determined by seismic refraction and MASW methods. While determining the safe bearing capacity; the equations proposed by Terzaghi, Meyerhof, Kurtuluş, Tezcan and Özdemir, Türker, Keçeli were used and the obtained safe bearing capacity values were compared to each other. After, the soils were modeled numerically by using finite elements method and safe bearing capacities providing allowable settlement conditions were determined. According to the results, safe bearing capacity values obtained from empirical equations are not satisfactory to have an optimum foundation design. For the optimum foundation design, safe bearing capacity should be accepted as 190 kN/m2 for clayey soil (CL) and 485 kN/m2 for the clayey sand (SC).