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What Is Plate Load Test

Plate load testing involves placing a steel plate on compacted soil and incrementally increasing the load on the plate to determine the soil's ultimate bearing capacity and settlement characteristics. Dial gauges measure the plate's settlement under each load increment. A graph of load versus settlement is made to find the ultimate load and calculate the soil's ultimate and safe bearing capacities based on the plate size and a safety factor. Foundation settlement is estimated based on the plate settlement and relative foundation and plate sizes.

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180 views

What Is Plate Load Test

Plate load testing involves placing a steel plate on compacted soil and incrementally increasing the load on the plate to determine the soil's ultimate bearing capacity and settlement characteristics. Dial gauges measure the plate's settlement under each load increment. A graph of load versus settlement is made to find the ultimate load and calculate the soil's ultimate and safe bearing capacities based on the plate size and a safety factor. Foundation settlement is estimated based on the plate settlement and relative foundation and plate sizes.

Uploaded by

vipin
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What is Plate Load Test?

Plate load test is done at site to determine the ultimate bearing


capacity of soil and settlement of foundation under the loads for
clayey and sandy soils. So, plate load test is helpful for the selection
and design the foundation. To calculate safe bearing capacity
suitable factor of safety is applied.

Apparatus for Plate Load Test on Soil


Mild Steel plate

Hydraulic jack

Reaction beam or reaction truss

Dial gauges

Excavating tools

Procedure of Plate Load Test on Soil


A Pit is excavated in the ground at which foundation is to be laid.
The size of pit is generally 5 times the size of the plate. The depth
excavated should be equal to proposed foundation depth.

The plate used is made of mild steel. It may be square (0.3m x


0.3m) or circular (0.3m diameter) with 25mm thickness.

After excavation of pit, at center of excavated pit steel plate sized


hole with Dp thickness is excavated and arrange the plate in it.

The Thickness of plate Dp is calculated by below formula

After arranging the plate in central hole hydraulic jack is arranged


on top of plate to apply load. Reaction beam or reaction trusses is
provided for the hydraulic jack to take up the reaction. Otherwise a
loaded platform is created (using sand bags etc.) on the top of
hydraulic jack and provided the reaction.
After that seating load of 7kN/m2 is applied to set the plate and
released after some time. Now load is applied with an increment of
20% of safe load.

Dial gauges are arranged at bottom to record the settlement values.


At 1min, 5min, 10min, 20min, 40min, and 60min and after that for
every one-hour interval the settlement is observed and noted. The
observations are made until the total settlement of 25mm has
occurred.

In case of reaction truss loading, a truss is arranged on jack and


both sides of truss are anchored to the ground with strong support.
Two ends of truss are loaded uniformly, then truss transforms the
load into the plate and settlement occurs.

Load is applied with an increment of 2kN at every interval.


Settlement is observed at different intervals as said in above
method. For clayey soils, the observations are made until the rate of
settlement is to be 0.2mm per hour.
Calculation of Bearing Capacity from Plate Load Test
From the results obtained in plate load test, a logarithmic graph is
drawn between loads applied to the corresponding settlement. Load
is taken on x-axis and settlement is on y-axis.

From the graph, we can find out the value of ultimate load for the
plate, which is equal to the corresponding settlement of 1/5th of
plate width.

The curve breaks at one point, the load corresponding to that break
point is considered as ultimate load for plate. From this ultimate load
for plate we can determine the value of ultimate bearing capacity
and safe bearing capacity of soil for foundation.

Bearing Capacity Calculation for Clayey Soils

Ultimate bearing capacity = ultimate load for plate

I.e. qu(f) = qu(p)

Bearing Capacity Calculation for Sandy Soils

Ultimate bearing capacity = ultimate load for plate x {Width of pit


(Bf) / Size of Plate (Bp)}

qu(f) = qu(p) x Bf / Bp

Finally, safe bearing capacity = ultimate bearing capacity / factor of


safety

The factor of safety ranges from 2 to 3.

Calculation of Foundation Settlement from Plate Load Test


We can also calculate settlement for given load from plate load test
as follows

Foundation Settlement Calculation on Clayey Soils

Settlement of foundation (sf) = sp x Bf/Bp

Foundation Settlement Calculation on Sandy Soils

Settlement of foundation (sf) = sp [{Bf(Bp + 0.3)}/{Bp(Bf + 0.3)}]2

Where Bf and Bp are widths of foundation and plate.

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