Abstract: The thickness of a spread footing is controlled by the punching stress. A larger than necessary footing thickness is usually resulted since the trial and error method is involved and this method is also cumbersome. The new procedure for determining the footing thickness for the punching failure mode for various footing dimensions is presented in this paper. The new method has the advantages of simple calculation and also resulting in an economical and safe footing design.

Key words: Spread Footings, Punching Failure Mode, Design Optimization