Soil Subgrade

Prepared by:

Arbaz M. Kazi
Asst. Professor

VCET, Vasai (W)

CALIFORNIA BEARING RATIO TEST (CBR)
Developed by the California Division of Highway.
For classifying and evaluating the Soil sub grade and base course materials
for flexible pavements.
It is an empirical test.
▫ Cannot be related directly with the fundamental properties of the soil.
Used to determine material properties for pavement design.
The ratio of the force per unit area required to penetrate a soil mass with
standard penetration plunger at a uniform rate of 1.25 mm/min., to the
corresponding penetration load of the standard material or crushed stone is
called CBR.
Apparatus

Drop =
450 mm

Weight of hammer =
4.89 kg
PROCEDURE :-
 Take 4.5-5 kg of soil & mix it thoroughly with required quantity of water (OMC) or field
moisture content.
 The spacer disc is placed at the bottom of the mould over the base plate & a coarse filter
paper is placed over the spacer disc.
 The moist soil is to be compacted over this in the mould by adopting either IS light or
heavy compaction.
 After compacting the last layer, the collar is removed & the excess of soil above the top of
the mould is evenly trimmed off.
 The clamps are removed & the mould with the compacted soil is lifted, leaving below the
base plate & spacer disc is removed.
 A filter paper is placed on the base plate, the mould with compacted soil is inverted &
placed over the base plate& clamps are tightened.
 Weight of 2.5-5 kg are placed over the soil in the mould. Then the whole mould is placed
in the water tank to allow soaking for 4 days (done for soaked condition testing).
PROCEDURE :-
 A swelling measuring device are placed on the top edge of the mould & the spindle of the dial
gauge is placed touching the top of the sample.
 Initial dial gauge reading are recorded & the test sample is kept undisturbed in the water tank.
 After 4 days of soaking, the mould is clamped over the base plate & the same surcharge
weights are placed on the specimen as the test could be conducted.
 The complete assembly is placed under the loading machine.
 Penetration plunger is brought in contact with the top surface of the soil by applying 4 kg of
load.
 The dial gauge of proving ring & the penetration dial gauge is set on 0.
 The load is applied through penetration rate of 1.25 mm/min.
 The load readings are taken at 0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 7.5, 10.0, 12.5 mm of
penetration.
 The max. load value & the corresponding penetration value are recorded.
 A graph is plotted by penetration (mm) on x-axis & load (kN) on y-axis & the value of load at
penetration 2.5 & 5.5 mm are found from the graph.
Observation Table: Virgin Black Cotton Soil

Sr No Penetration (mm) SDR PDR Load = PRC x PDR

1 0.50 50 3.5 35.68
2 1.00 100 5.5 56.07
3 1.50 150 7 71.36
4 2.00 200 8 81.55
5 2.50 250 8.5 86.65
6 3.00 300 9 91.74
7 3.50 350 9.5 96.84
8 4.00 400 10 101.94
9 5.00 500 11 112.13
10 7.50 750 12.5 127.42
11 10.00 1000 13.5 137.61
12 12.50 1250 14.5 147.81
CBR 2.5 6.32
CBR 5 5.47
CBR Graph:
 Plate Bearing Test
I. Plate Load Test is a field test for determining the ultimate bearing
capacity of soil and the likely settlement under a given load.
II. Circular or square bearing plates of mild steel not less than 25mm in
thickness and varying in size from 300 - 750mm.
III. The subgrade modulus is defined as the load intensity ‘p’ applied on the
standard plate per unit deflection i.e. k=p/d, value of d =1.25mm. The test
load is gradually increased till the plate starts to sink at a rapid rate.
IV. The ultimate bearing capacity of soil is divided by suitable factor of
safety (which varies from 2 to 3) to arrive at the value of safe bearing
capacity of soil.
 APPARATUS
(i) Test plate of square or circular shape
(ii) Hydraulic jack & pump
(iii) Pressure gauge
(iv) Proving ring or load cell
(v) 4 no of dial gauges & dial gauge stands
(vi) Magnetic bases for dial gauges & supporting channels
(vii) Loading platform equipment or Truss with anchor rods
(viii) Plumb bob
(ix) Sprit level
(x) Tripod
(xi) Pulley block
 TEST SETUP
By gravity loading
By loading truss method
PLAN AND ELEVATION OF THE PIT
 PROCEDURE
1. To conduct the plate load test a pit of size 5Bp x 5Bp where Bp=width of
plate, is excavated up to a depth of Df where Df=depth of proposed
foundation.
2. Generally 0.3 sq.m plate is used and sometimes 0.6 sq.m plate are also used.
so Bp = 0.3 or 0.6.
3. A central hole of depth Dp is made at the bottom of the test pit where, Dp
=(Bp/5Bp)*Df
4. The plate is placed in the central hole and load is applied on it by a hydraulic
jack system.
5. A seating load of 7 kN/sq.m is first applied and released after some time.
After that load is increased in increment of 20% of rate estimated load or
1/10th of ultimate load.
 PROCEDURE
6. Settlement should be recorded with 3 dial gauges.
7. Each stage of the loading is maintained till the rate of movement of the pile
top is not more than 0.1mm per hour in sandy soils and 0.02mm per hour in
case of clayey soils as maximum of two hours.
8. Under each load increment, settlements are observed at 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16,
20, 60 minutes.
9. The loading should be continued up to twice the safe load or the load at
which the total settlement reaches a specified value.
10.The load is removed in the same decrements at 1-hour interval & the final
rebound recorded 24 hours after the entire load has been removed.
11.Plot a graph of Load v/s Settlement and make a curve for loading as well as
unloading obtained from a pile load test.
 USES
1. To find out the ultimate bearing
capacity of the proposed
foundation.
2. To determine the settlement of
a footing under a given load
intensity.
3. We can design a shallow
footing for any allowable
settlement.
 ADVANTAGES

• Time-saving and cost saving

• No vehicle required

• on-site evaluation of test result

• Easy to handle

• Reliable and precise

• Understanding of foundation behaviour

 LIMITATION
 The Plate Load Test being of short duration , does not give the
ultimate settlements particularly in case of cohesive soils.
 The width of the plate should not be less than 30cm. It is
experimentally shown that the load settlement behaviour of soil
is qualitatively different for smaller width.
 The foundation settlements is loose sands are usually much
larger than what is predicted by plate load test.
 The settlement influence zone is much larger for the real
foundation sizes than that for the test plate.
 Definition
 Modulus of subgrade reaction is the reaction
pressure sustained by the soil sample under a rigid
plate of standard diameter per unit settlement
measured at a specified pressure or settlement.
 IRC specifies that the K value be measured at 1.25
mm settlement.
 Modulus of Subgrade Reaction
 To calculate the Modulus of Subgrade Reaction, Plate
Bearing Test is conducted.
 In this a compressive stress is applied to the soil pavement
layer through rigid plates of relatively large size and the
deflections are measured for various stress values.
 The exact load deflection behavior of the soil or the
pavement layer in-situ for static loads is obtained by the
plate bearing test.
 Modulus of Subgrade Reaction
Calculation
A graph is plotted with the mean settlement (mm)
on x axis and load (kN/sq.m) on y-axis. The
pressure p corresponding to a settlement of 1.25 mm
is obtained from the graph. The modulus of sub-
grade reaction K is calculated from the relation
K = P/0.00125 kN/sq.m /m or kN/cu.m
 Modulus of Subgrade Reaction
Correction 1:Subsequent soaking condition of subgrade
The modulus of subgrade found by this method depends on the moisture
content of the soil at the time of testing.
 The minimum value of K is obtained at the time of soaking condition.
 For K value in soaking condition, a correction factor must be applied to
the K value found at the prevailing field moisture content.
 Two samples are collected from the site where the plate load test was
conducted.
 One sample is subjected to laboratory compression test under unsoaked
condition and the other in soaked condition.
 Pressure sustained by the soil samples at different settlements is plotted.
 Modulus of Subgrade Reaction
Correction 2: Correction for plate size
• A heavy reaction load is required for soils with high K value
when a plate of diameter 75 cm is used for testing.
• If the reaction load is to be reduced a plate of smaller
diameter has to be used.
• If K1 is the modulus of subgrade of smaller size plate and a1
is the diameter of the smaller plate, then the K value
corresponding to the standard plate (diameter a) is