Plate-Load Tests on an Unsaturated Lean Clay

Juan Carlos Rojas1 , Luis Mauricio Salinas2 , and Claudia Sejas2

1

Department of Geotechnical Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy rojasvidovic@unina.it Laboratorio de Geotecnia, Universidad Mayor de San Simn, Cochabamba, Bolivia msalinas@fcyt.umss.edu.bo, gtumss@fcyt.umss.edu.bo

Summary. Plate-load tests are a common eld method to estimate soil bearing pressure. Classic-result-test interpretations do not consider the matric suction eect. This paper analyzes the matric suction eect in bearing pressure from plate-load tests conducted in a lean clay soil. Seven plate-load tests were carried on in an unsaturated lean clay deposit; two of them were performed in saturated condition to verify the site homogeneity and test repeatability, ve of them took into account dierent matric-suction values. Matric suction along the plate inuence zone was monitored with four Jet Fill tensiometers, inserted at 0.1, 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 m around every test pit. The results show bearing pressure values are highly inuenced by matric suction changes. Key words: plate-load test, bearing pressure, unsaturated soils, eld tests

Introduction
The most reliable method to obtain the ultimate bearing capacity at a uniform site is a load test. These kinds of tests are often used to predict the response of buildings foundations and road pavements. If a footing is placed in the capillary zone, the soil below is not fully saturated and a negative pore-water pressure, uw , is present. However, in the design practice, the bearing capacity of the soil is underestimated because of the actual higher level of stress is not taken into consideration. The aim of the research was to quantify the eect of matric suction on the in-situ-bearing capacity obtained by means of a plate-load test. A comprehensive experimental testing program was carried out in a eld site at Cochabamba, Bolivia on lean clay (CL). Seven tests were conducted under dierent matric suction values. Matric suction was measured using tensiometers installed at dierent depths covering the zone of load inuence.

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Previous Studies
Previous studies considering plate-load tests on unsaturated soils have been published; Table 1 shows a summary of the highlights of these projects. The literature related with deals mainly with four variables: plate size, soil stiness variation, loading rate and ultimate load denition.
Table 1. Details of plate-load tests performed on unsaturated soils Author Steensen-Bach et al. (1987) Larson (1997) Conciani et al. (1998) Rojas and Salinas (2002) Costa et al. (2003) Xu (2004) Mohamed and Vanapalli (2006)

Soil type sand silt collapsible clay lean clay clayey sand expansive clay sand

Suction evaluation Plate base [m] tensiometers w correlation tensiometers w correlation tensiometers w correlation tensiometers 0.1 , 0.2 0.5 , 1 , 2 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.3 0.1 , 0.15

square plates;

circular plates

Site Characterization
The test site is located in the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia. Figures 1a and 1b show the results of cone penetration tests, CPT. The soil prole is presented in Fig. 1c to a depth of 3 m. The ground water table was at a depth of about 2.6 m during the cone penetration tests. Fig. 1c presents the average results of characterization tests executed in samples gathered from 8 spread points, at profundities of 1.5 m and 2 m. Figure 2 shows the pressure-plate test data measured by Pardo and Salinas (2006) and the drying branch of the soil-water retention curves, SWRC, obtained following two methods: Fredlund et al. (1997) physico-empirical estimation and Zapata et al. (2000) correlation.

Field Experimental Program

The program was designed with the objective of determining the ultimate bearing capacity of a clayey soil in saturated and unsaturated conditions. Seven pits, 1.2 3.0 m2 , were excavated up to 1.4 m of depth in order to assure a homogeneous clayey soil prole under the plate and to full ASTM criteria of free space next to the plate (i.e. 4 times the diameter of the plate). Four tensiometers were installed in each pit at depths of 0.1, 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 m below the base of the pit.

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Fig. 1. CPT test results and the rst 3 m of soil prole

Fig. 2. Estimated soil-water retention curves and matric suctions measurements

Two out of seven excavations (i.e. pits S1 and S2) were lled with water at a constant level and suction was measured; in such a manner the repeatability and deviations of the soil conditions and properties in saturated conditions were veried. It was considered saturation in the soil prole was reached when the suction in the four tensiometers reached the zero value. The rest of the excavations (i.e. pits U1 to U5) were also lled with a constant level of water;

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nevertheless, it was taken away before a zero value was observed. This procedure ended up with dierent suction values in the rest of the ve pits. Seven plate load tests were carried out using a 0.31-m-rigid-circular-steel plate, following ASTM D 1194 standard, a world-wide-accepted procedure. The counter load, 200 kN, was given by a Mercedes Benz truck, prepared by Ap Van Den Berg for this kind of tests. During the execution of each test, measurements of vertical strain were taken until a maximum deformation of 0.03 mm/min for 3 consecutives measurement was read. The number of load increments that was set for the tests was taken with the principle that each increment of load should not be greater than 10% the maximum load to be reached (i.e. 650 kPa due to manometer capacity of the hydraulic jack). In addition, the tests were stopped when the maximum expected pressure was reached or a deformation of 31 mm was observed (i.e. 10% of the plate diameter).

Results and Discussion

The results obtained from CPT tests (Fig. 1) and plate-load tests S1 and S2 (Fig. 3), veried a reasonably repeatability of test results and a low variability of the soil deposit in the selected site. Figure 3 shows the results of the 7 plate-load tests. As it is expected in this type of soils, none of them show a peak load, therefore, the peak load

Fig. 3. Pressure-settlement curves

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has been estimated by extrapolation of the load-settlement curves using the hyperbolic equation proposed by Kondner (1970). For homogeneous saturated clay the bearing capacity is considered independent of the foundation breadth. Consoli et al. (1998) determined the eect of footing size on bearing capacity of unsaturated low plasticity clay (CL), and concluded that the eect of the size of the load area in the measured settlement and bearing capacity was shown to be negligible. Thus, the stress-strain characteristics obtained by means bearing capacity do not need corrections. However, the saturated approach assumes constant shear-strain modulus, E , but his variability increases under unsaturated conditions, due to matric suction variations with depth. The ultimate bearing capacity, qP L , is also dened as the pressure level that corresponds at predened settlement or to the onset of permanent soil deformation. The standard method ASTM D1194 consider as qP L value the pressure corresponding to a settlement equal to 10% of plate diameter, d. Another criterion is to estimate the qP L value as the stress dened by the intersection of the tangents of the initial and nal portions of the pressuresettlement curve, named yield stress criteria (Steensen-Bach et al. 1987, Larson 1997, Consoli et al. 1998, Costa et al. 2003, Xu 2004). Tests S1, S2 and U1, which have the smallest values of suction, present a yield load, the other tests were stopped before the yield load was reached. Table 2 summarizes the bearing capacity values calculated following these criteria. Additionally, for saturated conditions the theoretical ultimate bearing capacity, qu , of 115 kPa was calculated using Meyerhofs method. The ratio between the experimental ultimate bearing capacity considering failure criteria, qP Lfailure , and qu (Table 2), shows that, for saturated conditions, Meyerhofs
Table 2. Bearing capacity values determined using dierent criteria Test Suction Bearing capacity [kPa]

qP Lunsat /qP Lsat

qP Lfailure /qu

[kPa] Yield ASTM Failure Yield ASTM Failure S1 S2 U1 U2 U3 U4 U5

0 0 10 48 56 60 63

122 124 197 375 670 715 800

244 220 316 499 802 844 968

450 376 552 671 961 980 1112

1 1 1.6 3.0 5.4 5.8 6.5

1 1 1.4 2.2 3.5 3.6 4.2

1 1 1.5 1.8 2.5 2.6 3.0

3.9 3.3 4.8 5.8 8.3 8.5 9.7

yield stress criteria pressure corresponding to 31 mm settlement qP Lunsat /qP Lsat = ultimate unsaturated saturated bearing capacity ratio qP Lfailure /qu = eld failure criteria and Meyerhofs method ratio

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method greatly under predicts the ultimate bearing capacity, similar results were reported by Larson (1997). Matric suction values measured before the tests started are summarized in Table 3, together with the water content values measured on samples gathered from similar depths. The matric suction variation during plate loading was not registered, and is not considered in the analysis. The eld values of matric suction-water content, measured at 0.1 m depth, follow approximately the pressure-plate data trend (Fig. 2). This fact is due to the hysteresis of the SWRC. Fredlund et al. (1997) and Zapata et al. (2000) methods provide a main drying curve. By the other hand, the procedure followed by Pardo and Salinas (2006) to condition the undisturbed soil samples before the test (i.e. addition of water on samples surface without reaching the completely saturation) generated a drying scanning curve; then, this SWRC reects properly the stress history, age, and water changes of the sample. Thus, in the cases were the water content is measured in the eld to obtain the matric suction by means of the main drying SWRC, the bearing capacity can be overestimated compared to when the matric suction is determined by measurements in situ. A representative matric suction value must be dened. In previous works where the matric suction prole was obtained, this value was establish as an average matric suction corresponding to values registered in the stress bulb zone, a depth beneath the plate assumed as 1 d in Costa et al. (2003) and 1.5 B in Mohamed and Vanapalli (2006). In this study, the matric suction value registered at 0.1 m depth has been considered as representative of the soil prole, considering the average value does not correspond to experimental evidence and more studies have to be carried on. However, for this case, the average in the stress bulb zone (i.e. 1 d) is almost the same. The increase of ultimate bearing capacity with matric suction is illustrated in Fig. 4. Due to the scattered points, it is not possible to recognize a clear trend. Mohamed and Vanapalli (2006) and Costa et al. (2003) established that
Table 3. Matric suction and water content values Test Matric suction [kPa] at depth [m] 0.1 S1 S2 U1 U2 U3 U4 U5 0 0 10 48 56 60 63 0.3 0 3 4 38 46 53 57 0.6 0 0 13 15 4 6 11 0.9 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 Gravimetric water content [%] at depth [m] 0.1 27.4 22.4 22.8 21.1 14.8 15.6 16.7 0.3 24.5 23.5 21.0 20.8 12.1 9.8 0.6 23.2 25.8 22.6 22.7 20.9 15.2

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Fig. 4. Variation of bearing capacity at failure with respect to matric suction

the bearing capacity versus matric suction relationship is similar to the shear strength behaviour of unsaturated soils (i.e. a linear increase up to the air entry value and a nonlinear increase beyond the air entry value). Following this criterion, a trend curve has been plotted (Fig. 4). For the suction range covered in this work (i.e. 0 to 63 kPa), the dierent criteria to dene the ultimate bearing capacity, qLP , does not reect in the same proportion the matric suction eect (Table 2). For instance, the bearing capacity of U4 test using yield stress criterion is six times higher than the saturated conditions, four considering ASTM norm and three if failure condition is assumed.

Conclusions
The following conclusions are applicable to the results of this experimental program on a lean clay soil. In order to know the magnitude of suction during a plate load test, it has to be measured in the eld. The estimation of the suction by means of the water content of the eld might increase its actual value. For saturated conditions, the ultimate bearing capacity estimated by Meyerhofs theoretical method provided lower values than the ones calculated with the plate load tests. The dierent criteria to dene the ultimate bearing capacity, qLP , do not reect the matric suction eect in the same proportion. In the analyzed suction

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range, the matric suction eect increase the maximum bearing capacity, from plate-load test, in three to six times, depending on the criteria selected to dene the qLP . The results suggest a considerable contribution of the matric suction to the bearing capacity of the soil.

References
ASTM 1194-94 Standard test method for bearing capacity of soil for static load and spread footings. 2003 Annual book of ASTM Standards 04.08. Conciani W, Soares MM, Naime JM, Crestana S (1998) Plate load test with CT. In: 2nd International conference on unsaturated soils, Beijing: 333337 Consoli NC, Schnaid F, and Milititsky J (1998) Interpretation of plate load tests on residual soil site, J Geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering 124(9): 857867 Costa YD, Cintra JC, Zornberg JC (2003) Inuence of matric suction on the results of plate load tests performed on a lateritic soil deposit, J Geotechnical Testing 26:219227 Fredlund MD, Fredlund DG, Wilson GW (1997) Prediction of the soil-water characteristic curve from grain-size distribution and volume-mass properties. 3rd Brazilian symposium on unsaturated soils, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Kondner RL (1970) Hyperbolic stress-strain response: cohesive soils, J Soil Mechanics and Foundations Division 93:283310 Larson L (1997) Investigations and load tests in silty soils. Swedish Geotechnical Institute, Report No. 54 Larson L (2001) Investigations and load tests in clay till. Swedish Geotechnical Institute, Report No. 59 Mohamed FMO, Vanapalli SK (2006) Laboratory investigations for the measurements of the bearing capacity of an unsaturated coarse-grained soil. Canadian geotechnical conference, Vancouver 2006 (in print) Pardo JM, Salinas LM (2006) Curva de retencin de agua del suelo (SWRC): Anlisis de estimaciones y ajustes. IV Congreso de Ciencia del Suelo, Bolivia Rojas JC, Salinas LM (2002) Bearing pressure and settlement for a lean clay in saturated and unsaturated conditions. In: Proceedings of 3rd Unsaturated Soils Conference, Recife, Vol. 2:703708 Steensen-Bach JO, Foged N, Steenfelt JS (1987) Capillary induced stresses fact or ction? In: Proceedings 9th European conference on soil mechanics and foundation engineering: 83-89 Xu Y (2004) Bearing capacity of unsaturated expansive soils, J Geotechnical and Geological Engineering 22:611625 Zapata CE, Houston WN, Houston SL, Walsh KD (2000) Soil-water characteristic curve variability. Advances in unsaturated geotechnical special publication, No. 99

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