Designing Footing as a Horizontal Beam

[kdg8159]

I have a footing of a concrete foundation wall that I would like to design as a horizontal beam spanning between two exterior walls (58'-4" span) to resist the sliding forces imposed by the foundation wall. Can I just use my soil bearing pressure as a force in the vertical direction and my sliding force as the horizontal load and design it accordingly?

thanks
Keith

 

[hokie66]

Sounds right to me.

 

[larsacious]

This is a conservative approach. You probably have passive pressure to resist the horizontal force.

 

[ToadJones]

Probably could also include some component of your slab, if one exists

 

[ron9876]

Toad Jones just one quick note. Be sure that the slab on grade that you are using to brace the wall has the capacity to resist the imposed load. May not work. If a 4" slab with a coefficient of friction of 0.3 then you have 15 psf to resist based on sliding. That is before you use 0.6 x dead load.