Meyerhof’s general equation does not account for the water table level. This, however, affects the bearing capacity since the buoyancy force will interfere and thus the effective unit weight will have to be taken into account instead of the total unit weight.
To account for this modification, three cases are to be considered, depending on the relative position of water table (see Figure 2):
If the water table is located so that 0<D1<Df, then the factor q in the bearing capacity equation becomes:
Also the value of g in the last term of the general equation has to be replaced by:
If the water table is located so that 0<d<B, then:
Also the factor in the last term of the equation has to be replaced by:
If the water table is located so that d>B, the water table is assumed to have no effect on the ultimate bearing capacity.
