Settlement of shallow foundations in sands. Selection of stiffness on the basis of penetration resistance.

The paper discusses the use of the formulae of the theory of elasticity to compute the settlement of shallow foundations in sands when subjected to static loading. Special emphasis is put on the selection of the operational drained Young modulus to be introduced in these formulae, basing on the results of three types of in-situ tests, namely SPT, CPT and DMT. The problem of the "depth of influence" within which the settlements of footings resting on cohesionless soils should be computed, is also examined