Effect of Plate Sizes on Clay Soil for determining Bearing Pressure and Settlement Using Model Plate Load Test

Abstract

This study is a semi-laboratory plate load test conducted on a pit outside the laboratory on undisturbed clay soil from the site. The soil has liquid limit of 35 % and plasticity index of 21 % with 54 percent passing sieve 200 μm the soil is classified as A-6 soil. The model plate load test and plaxis model plate load test for the three square plate’s shows an increase in allowable bearing capacity from 130 x 130 mm square plate size of 27 kN/m2 to 37 kN/m2 for square plate of 160 x 160 mm and 40 kN/m2 for 200 x 200 mm square plate size. While settlement decreases from 25 mm for 130 x 130 mm square plate size to 15 mm settlement for square plate of 160 x160 mm and 5 mm for plate size of 200 mm x 200 mm. plaxjs model plate load follow the same pattern as that of Model plate load test with allowable bearing capacity of 333 kN/m2 for 130 x 130 mm square plate to 400 kN/m2 for 160 x 160 mm square plate and 417 kN/m2 for 200 x 200 mm square plate. The settlement was 10 mm for square plate of 130 x 130 mm to 7.5 mm for square plate of 160 x 160 mm and 4.5 mm for square plate of 200 x 200 mm. The settlement yielded a good correlation coefficient.