For K-12 Students · Soil Bearing
Soil Bearing for a solar-panel mount
Built for k-12 students learning it in middle or high school. Watch the idea come alive with plain-language steps and everyday examples — perfect for projects and homework. Simulate a solar-panel mount live below — adjust the inputs and watch it respond, right in your browser.
Soil Bearing Capacity (Terzaghi)Live
foundation design
Allowable bearing pressure
400kPa
Allowable load ≈ 801 kN per metre of footing
Controls
Presets
Terzaghi's equation predicts the ultimate bearing capacity of a shallow footing as the sum of cohesion, surcharge, and self-weight terms, each with a bearing-capacity factor that grows sharply with the soil friction angle. Dividing by a factor of safety gives the allowable pressure. Educational tool, not a geotechnical design.
Data Inspector
Nc30.1
Nq18.4
Nγ22.4
Ultimate qult1201 kPa
Governing equation
Reading this result: Mixed c-φ soil: all three terms contribute — deeper embedment and a wider footing both push the ultimate capacity higher.
Runs locally in your browser — free forever. Scale to the cloud when reality gets heavy.
More with Soil Bearing
Frequently asked questions
- Is this good for k-12 students?
- Yes — this version of "Soil Bearing for a solar-panel mount" is framed for k-12 students learning it in middle or high school. Watch the idea come alive with plain-language steps and everyday examples — perfect for projects and homework.
- Do I need to install anything?
- No. It runs in any modern browser, free, with no account required.