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Engineering Simple #soil#bearing-capacity

Soil Bearing Capacity

Allowable bearing pressure by soil type, with safety factors.

A free, animated soil bearing capacity you can read here or embed on any website, from Scrollchart.

Soil Bearing Capacity

Soil Bearing CapacityAllowable bearing pressure (kPa, log scale) with factor of safety 3 applied501005001k5k10kAllowable bearing pressure (kPa)Soft clay50 kPaStiff clay150 kPaLoose sand200 kPaDense sand500 kPaDense gravel1 MPaWeak rock3 MPaSound rock10 MPa

Allowable bearing pressure for rock, dense gravel, sand, clay, soft clay, organic. Three orders of magnitude across the range.

Good for

  • Foundation-design articles explaining the range from soft-clay piling to rock pad footings
  • Civil-engineering coursework on Terzaghi's bearing-capacity equation and SPT correlations
  • Geotechnical site-investigation content linking CPT/SPT results to allowable design pressures

Source & accuracy

This soil bearing capacity is an editorial illustration built to represent the concept accurately. Where it shows figures, they are typical or representative values chosen to make the relationship clear, not a single underlying dataset. The diagram and its explainer are reviewed and maintained centrally, and updated over time as understanding improves.

From soil type to allowable bearing pressure

Sand, clay, silt, and rock each support different loads per unit area. Dense sand can safely carry 3,000 to 4,000 pounds per square foot; loose sand only 1,000 to 2,000. Clay varies from 500 psi for soft clay near water tables to 5,000+ for stiff, dry clay. Engineers determine soil type through bore holes and lab testing, then reference soil engineering tables to find the ultimate bearing capacity. A safety factor (usually 2.5 to 3.0) is applied to get the allowable bearing pressure that designs use.

Why depth, water, and settlement matter

Bearing pressure varies with foundation depth. Going deeper reaches stiffer, stronger soil strata, which increases allowable pressure. Water in the soil (high water table) reduces bearing capacity because water pressure reduces the effective stress holding particles together. Settlement also depends on soil compressibility. Dense sand settles little; soft clay may settle inches over years as water drains and soil consolidates. Designers match foundation type and depth to both the allowable bearing pressure and acceptable settlement limits for the building above.

Embed this diagram

Add this animated soil bearing capacity to your own site. Copy one line of HTML, or use the embed builder for theme and sizing options.

Reference

What this is
A free, embeddable, animated soil bearing capacity for any website.
Who uses it
Engineering blogs & docs.
How to embed
Copy one line of HTML. No signup. No watermark. Works in WordPress, Webflow, Ghost, Substack, plain HTML.
File size
iframe embed, ~80 KB gzipped (loads on demand, does not block your page paint).
License
Free forever. Editorial explainer text included; updated centrally over time.
URL
scrollchart.com/diagram/soil-bearing-capacity

Embed format options

Copy the universal HTML snippet, the WordPress shortcode, or an iframe fallback - see the WordPress plugin page for details. Any format keeps the same Core Web Vitals profile and the same explainer text.

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Frequently asked questions

Where can I get a free animated "Soil Bearing Capacity" for my website?
Scrollchart provides "Soil Bearing Capacity" as a free, embeddable animated diagram you can add to any website with one line of HTML. No signup is required and there is no watermark. The diagram and its explainer text are served from scrollchart.com, so the embed stays current without any maintenance on your end.
How do I embed a soil bearing capacity in WordPress or a static site?
Paste the HTML snippet from the Scrollchart diagram page into your WordPress post (in HTML/code view), your Webflow embed block, or directly into a static HTML file. No plugin is needed. The diagram loads from scrollchart.com and paints in as the reader scrolls.
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