11/18/2018 HOW TO CALCULATE BEARING CAPACITY OF SOIL FROM PLATE LOAD TEST? - CivilBlog.

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CAPACITY OF SOIL FROM

PLATE LOAD TEST?
Suryakanta | November 8, 2015 | Foundation, Geotechnical, How To | 29
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PLT (PLATE LOAD TEST) posts.

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Plate load test is a field test which is commonly adopted to determine the
bearing capacity and settlement of soil under a given condition of loading. Subscribe

In this test a square or circular rigid plate of standard dimension

(generally 300 mm2 for square or 300 mm dia for circular) is placed at HOW TO INCREASE
foundation level and load is applied in increments. Then settlement of the REPETITION OF
plate corresponding to each load increment is recorded for calculating PLYWOOD
bearing capacity of soil.
How to Increase …
To know the detail test procedure click the link given below.

How to perform Plate Load Test On site?

CALCULATION OF BEARING
00:00 08:39
CAPACITY OF SOIL
The whole process of calculating bearing capacity of soil using plate load
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test data consists of the following 4 primary steps.

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11/18/2018 HOW TO CALCULATE BEARING CAPACITY OF SOIL FROM PLATE LOAD TEST? - CivilBlog.Org

Step-1 (Plotting a Load-Settlement Curve)

Civilblog.org
Step-2 (Finding Ultimate Bearing Capacity) 14K likes
Step-3 (Calculating Safe Bearing Capacity)
Step-4 (Calculating Settlement of Proposed Footing)

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1. STEP-1 (PLOTTING A LOAD-

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SETTLEMENT CURVE)
After performing the plate load test, plot a load settlement curve (see fig-
1) on arithmetic scale, with applied pressure in kN/m2 in x-axis and
corresponding settlement (in mm) in y-axis.

Depending on the type of soil below the test plate, the load settlement
curve can be of 4 different types as shown below.

Curve A: This type

curve is obtained in
case of loose to
medium cohesion
less soil (i.e. 15 < N <
30). This type of curve
shows no clear point of
failure.

Curve B: This type

curve is obtained in
Fig-1 Types of load settlement curves
case of cohesive soil.
As the load increases
the curve leans toward settlement curve.

Curve C: This type curve is obtained in case of partially cohesive soil (i.e.
C-phi soil). This type of curve also does not show a clear point of failure.

Curve D: This type curve is obtained in case of dense cohesionless soil

(i.e. N > 30). This type of curve is common in case of dense sand or gravel
deposits.

2. STEP-2 (FINDING ULTIMATE BEARING

CAPACITY)
After drawing the load settlement curve, the next step is to identify the
failure point on the load settlement curve.

In case of curve B & D, the point of failure can be easily identified by the
sudden drop down of the curve. Or draw two tangent lines from the
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beginning straight portion of the curve and end straight portion of the
curve. The point where these two tangents cross each other is called the
point of failure. The pressure corresponding to this point is called
ultimate bearing capacity of the soil.

But in case of curve A & C, it is difficult to find out a clear point of failure
on the load settlement curve. To overcome this problem scientist Abbet
introduced another method of drawing load settlement curve. According
to his method, a log-log chart is plotted with settlement are plotted as
abscissa against corresponding pressure intensities as ordinate. Such a
plotting will give two straight lines, the intersection of which will be
considered as the failure point. Find the corresponding value of pressure
to the failure point. This is considered as the ultimate bearing capacity
of soil.

log-log scale

3. STEP-3 (CALCULATING SAFE BEARING

CAPACITY)
In order to calculate safe bearing capacity of the soil, divide the ultimate
bearing capacity of soil by a suitable factor of safety.

Safe bearing capacity of soil = Ultimate bearing capacity / Factor of

safety

The values of factor of safety normally used are 2, 2.5 or 3 depending

upon the site condition and importance of the structure.

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4. STEP-4 (CALCULATING SETTLEMENT OF

PROPOSED FOOTING)
The following formula as suggested by Terzaghi and Peck is used to
calculate the settlement of footing for granular soil.

Sf = Sp {[B*(Bp+0.3)] / [Bp*(B+0.3)]}2

For clayey soil the following equation can be used.

Sf = Sp*(B/Bp)

Where,

Sp = Settlement of plate, mm

Sf = Settlemnt of footing, mm

Bp = Width or dia of plate, m

B = Width of footing, m

For calculating settlement of a given size of foundation subjecting to

a given load, first calculate the corresponding intensity of loading by
dividing the area of footing by the load, i.e.

Intensity of Loading = Load (kN) / Area of footing (m2)

Then from the load settlement curve drawn using PLT data, find out the
plate settlement corresponding to the calculated intensity of loading and
use this value of settlement in the formula to calculate the settlement of
footing.

EXAMPLE CALCULATION
A plate load test was conducted using a plate of 0.75m*0.75m size, on a
uniform deposit of sand and the following data were obtained:

Pressure (KN/m2) Settlement (mm)

0 0

50 1.5

100 2

200 4

300 7.5

400 12.5
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500 20

600 40.6

Calculate the safe bearing capacity of soil taking factor of safety as 2.5.

Calculate settlement of a square footing of size 2mx2m at safe bearing

capacity

ANSWER
Calculation of Safe Bearing Capacity

From the load settlement curve (see fig below) the ultimate bearing
capacity of soil is found to be 500 kN/m2 and corresponding settlement is
12 mm.

Load settlement curve

So Safe bearing capacity (qsafe) = Ultimate bearing capacity (qult) /

Factor of safety = 500 / 2.5 = 200 kN/m2

Calculation of Footing Settlement

Width of footing (B) = 2m

Width of plate (Bp) = 750 mm = 0.75m

Plate settlement (Sp) = 12mm

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So settlement of footing at safe load can be calculated using the following

formula

Sf = Sp {[B*(Bp+0.3)] / [Bp*(B+0.3)]}2

Sf = 12 {[2*(0.75+0.3)] / [0.75*(2+0.3)]}2

Sf = 17.78 = 18 mm

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Suryakanta
Geotechnical-Material Engineer. You can
connect me on Google +. To know more about
me just visit AboutMe

29 COMMENTS

Christine November 18, 2018 Reply

Hi Mr Suryanta, I would like to ask for a reference of your

Fig.1 which I can cite on the paper Im writing. Do you have

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