Current professional practice of shallow foundation design in Argentina employs the ASD method, Brinch Hansen’s formula, and a FoS = 3.0. After some timid attempts to develop our own LRFD-based code, we are now in the process of adopting Eurocode 7 (2024) and developing a national annex.
This brings us to the problem of adopting resistance factors compatible with the load factors of ACI 318, which is the code already adopted by structural engineers in Argentina. Almost 70% of the industrial infrastructure of Argentina is located on the Pampeano Formation, an indurated loess-loam cemented with CaCO3.
Our methods for ground investigation in this formation are (still) largely based on SPT soundings, recovery of undisturbed samples, and lab testing. Determining the uncertainty of our representative parameters for this practice is, therefore, of paramount importance for us.
This paper examines the uncertainty of the mechanical properties of the Pampeano Formation and runs the exercise of calibrating resistance factors, through a simplified approach, for the design of shallow foundations subjected to vertical loads employing the Brinch-Hansen formula.
