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

o Mild Steel plate
o Hydraulic jack
o Reaction beam or reaction truss
o Dial gauges
o 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

The whole process of calculating bearing capacity of soil using plate load test data consists of the
following 4 primary steps.

 Step-1 (Plotting a Load-Settlement Curve)

 Step-2 (Finding Ultimate Bearing Capacity)
 Step-3 (Calculating Safe Bearing Capacity)
 Step-4 (Calculating Settlement of Proposed Footing)

1. Step-1 (Plotting a Load-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.
 Fig-1 Types of load settlement curves

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 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 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.

. 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
 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

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

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
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