Concrete Foundation Capacity Reinforcement

Design standards specify minimum requirements and not necessarily what the design at hand requires. A case in point is that of foundation shear reinforcement. Historically, the US concrete design code (ACI 318) has been silent on this topic. As of 2019, ACI 318 is no longer silent on this issue. With a few exceptions, ACI 318-19 outlines identical treatment of foundations and other structural concrete elements when it comes to shear design. However, ACI 318-19 is still not mandatory across the United States as shown on the IBC adoptions map shown below. ACI 318-19 is referenced in IBC 2021 and will become mandatory in jurisdictions that adopt the already available IBC 2021. We also note that jurisdictions that have not adopted the latest edition of a standard do not discourage the design professional from using the latest edition of that standard. Design standards evolve and it is commonly accepted that newer versions are more advanced.

At CTE Wind USA, we are ahead of the curve. We always perform FEM analyses of our foundations and provide shear reinforcement as dictated by code and the results of our FEM analyses.