Plate Load Test
IS:1888-1982
1
A semi-direct method of determining bearing capacity in the field is by
conducting plate bearing test according to procedure laid down by IS:
1888-1982.
Rough mild steel plates 30 cm, 45 cm, 60 cm, or 75cm and 2.5 cm
thickness are used.
Smaller size for stiff or dense soil and larger size for soft or loose soil.
IS:1888-1982
Bottom of the plate is grooved for increased roughness.
Concrete blocks may be used to replace bearing plates.
2
Procedure
A pit of dimension not less than five times the width of plate is excavated up to
the anticipated depth of foundation. Carefully leveled and cleaned bottom.
Plan
Section
3
Test is carried out at the level of proposed foundation. If water table is above
the foundation level, pump out the water carefully and it should be kept just at
the level of the foundation.
Test plate should be placed over a 5 mm thick sand layer and it should be
centered with the loading arrangement.
Reaction supports should be at least (3.5 x width of plate) away from the test
plate location, and loading arrangement should provide sufficient working
space.
4
The load on the plate is applied either by gravity loading or reaction
loading. The settlement of the plate is measured by a set of four dial gauges
placed near each corner of plate. The dial gauges are fixed to independent
supports which do not get disturbed during test. A typical set-up is shown
in Fig.
5
A seating pressure of 7 kN/m2 is applied and then released after some
time before the test.
Loads are applied on the test plate in increments of approximately 1/5th of
the estimated ultimate safe load up to failure or at least a settlement of 25
mm has occurred whichever is earlier.
At each load settlement is recorded at time intervals of 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 16,
25 min and thereafter at intervals of one hour. An average of these four
readings is taken as the settlement of plate for the applied load.
The load is increased when the settlement rate drops below 0.02 mm/min for
cohesionless soil or after 24 hours in case of clayey soil.
The minimum duration for any load should, however, be at least 60 min.
Dial gauges used for testing should have at least 25 mm travel and 0.01 mm
accuracy.
The load - settlement curve can then be plotted from load-settlement data.
7
Bearing Capacity
In case of dense cohesionless soil and highly cohesive soils ultimate bearing
capacity may be estimated from the peak load in load-settlement curve.
In case of partially cohesive soils and loose to medium dense soils the ultimate
bearing capacity load may be estimated by assuming the load settlement curve
so as to be a bilinear relationship.
8
A more precise determination of bearing capacity load is possible if
the load-settlement curve is plotted in log-log scale and the relationship is
assume to be bilinear. The intersection point is taken as the yield point or
the bearing capacity load.
9
Relative Settlement Calculations
Terzaghi and Peck (1948):
Sf Settlement of a foundation of
B f B p 30
2
Sf width Bf (cm)
S p B p B f 30 Sp Settlement of the test plate of
width Bp (cm) at the same load
intensity as on the foundation
n
Sf Bf
S p B p
Relative Pressure Calculations
quf Bf
For cohesioless soil
qup Bp
For cohesive soil quf qup
Proportioning of Footings Based on Plate Load
Test Results
The process of selecting appropriate values of depth and size of a footing is
termed as proportioning. The footings are proportioned based on safe soil
pressure.
The safe soil pressure is obtained taking into account the ultimate bearing
capacity the amount and kind of settlement expected and the ability of a
given structure to tolerate this settlement.
This safe bearing pressure is dependent on many factors such as type of
soil, the stiffness of the soil and its variation with depth, dimension of the
foundation, and position of water table, permissible settlement etc.
Shallow foundations are proportioned on the pressure; the soil can safely
carry with adequate factor of safety against shear failure and without
causing detrimental settlement.
A number of methods are available to estimate this safe pressure based on
different field and laboratory test data.
13
Criteria For Satisfactory Design Of Foundation
A minimum depth of foundation should be provided to protect the
foundation against environmental factors such as erosion etc.
The foundation must be safe against failure of the soil. This is ensured by
limiting the maximum pressure on soil to the safe bearing capacity of the
soil which is obtained by dividing the ultimate bearing capacity of the soil
by an adequate factor of safety.
The foundation must not settles excessively under the working loads. The
permissible settlement is specified in IS: 1904-1978.
14
Safe Bearing Pressure From Settlement
Consideration
Sf=Sp [(Bf/Bp){(Bp+0.30)/( Bf+0.30)}]2
Where,
Sf=settlement of a footing of width Bf (m)
Sp=settlement of the test plate of width Bp (m)
15
16
For a particular size and type of footing, allowable settlement of footing
taken from IS code 1904:1978 may be put in above equation and compute
the settlement of test plate.
The bearing pressure on the plate may be then read off from the load-
settlement curve of the plate load test. This is pressure of footing from
settlement consideration.
17
Safe Bearing Capacity from shear Consideration
Terzaghi’s bearing capacity equation given as:
qult = c Nc + ϒ.Df(Nq-1)+ 0.4 CW2.ϒ.B.Nϒ
For cohesionless soil c=0
qult = ϒ.Df(Nq-1)+ 0.4 CW2.ϒ.B.Nϒ
In case of plate load test the overburden pressure is zero, hence ϒ.Df=0.
The equation ultimate bearing capacity of test plate may be written as
qup = 0.4 .ϒ.Bp.Nϒ
Where qup= Failure pressure kN/m2
Bp= Width of test plate (m)
ϒ = Unit weight of the soil (kN/m3
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Nϒ = Non dimensional bearing capacity factor
By conducting core cutter method or sand replacement method the unit
weight of the soil is determined. Width of test plate may be chosen
according to the design requirement and failure pressure may be from load-
settlement curve obtained from plate load test.
The value of Nϒ may be calculated from equation mentioned earlier. Then
the value of other bearing capacity factors may be read from Fig. given.
19
Limitations of Plate Load Test
Plate load test gives reliable results only when the soil condition is uniform
from base of the footing to a depth at least 1.5 times the width of the footing. It
is due to fact that the load test reflects the load settlement characteristics of the
stratum limited to 1.5 times the width of plate.
The foundation settlements in loose sands are usually much larger than what is
predicted .
A plate load test is a short duration test and gives mostly the immediate
settlements(Si). In case of granular soils the Si is close to total settlements.
However, due to considerable consolidation settlement in case of cohesive soils,
the becomes irrelevant in such case.
IS CODE
• is.1888.1982 Plate Load [Link]