Plate Bearing Test - Surface or deeper parameters

[SLaryea]

Hi everyone,

I am quite certain that the PBT can give you the ultimate bearing capacity for a soil at some depth depending on the diameter of the plate.

When it it comes to stiffness is the value calculated a stiffness (resilient) is that for the bear surface or deeper material (as in the case of bearing capacity)

Also what CBR are you getting…near surface or at depth.

Your comments are highly appreciated as always

Thank you

 

[geotechguy1]

What diameter is the plate? Look at a bousinesqq stress bulb in the context of the plate diameter. Probably mostly you are only testing up to ~2*width of the plate (and the test is majority influence by the top 1B)

 

[EireChch]

Any parameter you assess is estimated/calculated using the material within the zone of influence of the plate which as GG1 said, it is approx 2xD.

However you intuition is correct, the material that is closer to the surface does influence more if the material is uniform. However if you have a dense SAND sitting over a very soft CLAY then the clay layer will see most settlement hence it will influence the results more.

 

[BigH]

To be honest, for me, the plate bearing test is only useful for pavement design . . .

 

[SLaryea]

Yes I agree with you about its use for pavement design - I was just curious about the questions I raised as I’d gotten myself confused.