The study of soil characteristics and behavior has long been a concern to engineers, especially as it relates to the construction of structures and roads. Soil mechanics is that branch of science that deals with the study of physical properties of soil and the behavior of soil masses subjected to various types of forces. The application of soil mechanics principles in retaining and subsurface structures is called geotechnical engineering and is mainly concerned with the design of foundations.

Foundations are generally categorized into 2 broad categories: (1) Shallow foundations and (2) deep foundations.

This CapCAL package will tackle the former of the 2 categories, shallow foundations. In the analysis of shallow foundations, 2 fundamental criteria have to be established for a shallow foundation to perform satisfactorily:

• The foundation has to be safe against overall shear failure in soil

• The foundation cannot undergo excessive displacement or settlement

The scope of this tutorial is confined to the first criterion by providing extensive insight on the concepts, definitions, and methodologies underlying the determination of a soil's ultimate bearing capacity under a shallow foundations. This is realized through first presenting Terzaghi's noted contributions to this domain in formulating the basic bearing capacity equation, which was later developed by Meyerhof to account for a series of deviations from Terzaghi's slightly more 'idealistic' approach. Other imposing effects such as water table existence at critical depths, soil compressibility, load eccentricity, effect of layered soils,  and proximity to sloping ground are also discussed in this tutorial.