What lies beneath: Structural Design of Foundations

This course is a practical guide to designing foundation elements and retaining walls from a structural perspective. It focuses on turning given geotechnical inputs into safe, buildable designs using a clear, code-based workflow. You’ll see how to choose between shallow and deep systems, size and check members, and detail reinforcement.

Target audience: Early-career civil and structural engineers, final-year students, and allied professionals who want a concise, design-oriented introduction. Some familiarity with basic structural analysis is helpful; geotechnical parameters are assumed to be provided from a site report

Course content:

• Choose appropriate systems (strip, isolated/combined, raft, piles, caissons, retaining walls) from project constraints and geotechnical inputs

• apply a repeatable design workflow: load combinations → sizing → global checks (bearing, sliding, overturning) → member checks (bending, shear, punching) → detailing and durability

• Design shallow foundations, including cases with eccentricity

• Understand deep foundation behavior (end-bearing vs shaft friction), pile groups and caps, and caisson staging and stability

• Design of reinforced-concrete cantilever retaining walls

How the course will be conducted:

Self-study, online. You’ll work through short lectures, example videos, concise readings, and auto-graded quizzes. A stable internet connection and a computer or tablet are sufficient. The course is divided into 4 modules. The total study time is estimated at 10 hours. We recommend 2.5 hours per week.

To pass the course you need to:

Complete all modules and pass the final assessment based on the design workflows and examples. Upon completion, a course certificate is available.

Presentation of the teachers:

Jaime Gonzalez-Libreros Jaime Gonzalez-Libreros is an Associate Senior Lecturer in the Division of Fire and Structural Engineering at Luleå University of Technology. He has over two decades of experience across academia and industry on the structural design and assessment of concrete bridges and buildings, with teaching and supervision from bachelor’s to PhD level.

Trailer: