Determination of average bearing capacity for black cotton soil (in numan federation) and, selection of suitable foundation structure

This research work determined the average bearing capacity for black cotton soil in Numan Federation and selection of suitable foundation for simple structures using Adamawa State Polytechnic, Yola Numan Campus as case study. Series of laboratory soil tests were carried out to analyse the soils sampled collected from the campus. The results for test analyses showed that the bearing capacity of soil is poor in terms of meeting engineering requirement. The consolidation test show that the soil settles deeper than the allowable and the permeability rates of the soil is very low. Hence the soil became densely saturated very soft in the wet season. The study recommended that engineering practices to determine bearing capacity of soils should be conducted before embarking on construction. Also, various practices that can stabilize the black cotton soil can be adopted to improve the bearing capacity of the soil in Numan federation.