Soil Cover consideration on isolated footing 1

[BST-98]

Good day,

I have seen similar posts to this but no clear answer. Simple question as follows:

Pad footing with only axial loading 1.5m deep (1.5m of soil cover), is it necessary to consider all that weight on top of the pad footing if no uplift is occurring?

The only time I consider it is where uplift occurs & retaining structures.

Strange example but I'm interested to hear everyone's thoughts.

 

[EngDM]

Seems that there is a very similar thread running concurrent to this one. thread507-522240

 

[Tomfh]

I sometimes consider it, depending on the scenario, but I’m generally not too concerned about it when dealing with a footing that’s essentially “floating” in a mass of underground soil. For example, imagine a 12-inch footing that’s flush with the top of the soil. I struggle to see how placing that same footing 6 feet underground, in the same soil mass, could somehow be significantly worse.

However, some engineers get very particular about this. During a peer review, the reviewer insisted that we account for the footing weight and the soil above it, and then deduct this from the allowable bearing capacity. This approach effectively reduced the footing’s capacity to nearly zero, even though existing footings in the same soil, designed to much higher bearing capacities, have been performing well for 25 years.

 

[XR250]

Hasn't the soil already been compacted with this overburden? I mean technically, we should only account for the difference in unit weight between the concrete and the excavated soil.