CALIFORNIA BEARING

RATIO TEST

DEFINITION:
It is the ratio of force per unit area required to
penetrate a soil mass with standard circular
piston at the rate of 1.25 mm/min. to that
required for the corresponding penetration of
a standard crushed rock material.
C.B.R. = (Test load/Standard load)*100

AIM :
To determine the California bearing ratio of a
compacted soil sample for both soaked and
unsoaked condition by conducting a load
penetration test in the laboratory.
APPARATUS:
Cylindrical mould of 150mmdia with a
detachable collar and base plate, metal
rammer, loading machine, spacer disc, dial
gauge, proving ring, surcharge

PROCEDURE:
Take about 5 kg of soil and mix thoroughly with
the required water.
Dynamic compaction:
Fix the extension collar and the base plate to the
mould. Insert the spacer disc over the base . Place
the filter paper on the top of the spacer disc.
Compact the soil in 3 equal layers, each layer
being given 55 blows by the 2.6 kg rammer in the
mechanical compacting machine.

Remove the collar and trim off soil.

Turn the mould upside down and remove the

base plate and the displacer disc.

Put filter paper on the top of the compacted
soil (collar side)

UNSOAKED CONDITION
Place the mould assembly with the surcharge
weights on the penetration test machine
Seat the penetration plunger at the center of
the specimen so that the plunger just touches
the soil.
Set the stress and strain dial gauge to read
zero. Apply the load on the piston so that the
penetration rate is about 1.25 mm/min.

Record the load readings at penetrations of

0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0,

6,7,7.5,8,9, 10 ,11, 12and 12.5 mm.
The load penetration curve is plotted. The
loads for 2.5mm and 5mm penetration are
taken into consideration for calculating CBR.
If the initial position of curve is concave
upwards then correction is applied.

SOAKED CONDITON :
Detach the mould from the loading equipment
A filter paper is kept on top of soil and perforated
plate on the top of filter paper.
Turn the mould upside down and now place a filter
paper and surcharge
Now the mould assembly is immersedin water tank
for 3days.
Then specimen isallowed drain for 15min by
removing the surcharge and filter paper
The loading is done similar to unsoaked condition

OBSERVATIONS :
Proving ring constant = 2.1kg/division
Dialgauge L.C. = 0.01mm/division
DIAL
GAUGE
READIN
G

PENETRA Unsoake
TION
d
(mm)
conditio
n
Proving
ring
reading

Unsoake
d
conditio
n

soaked Soaked
conditio conditio
n
n

Load
(kg)

Proving
ring
reading

Load
(kg)

Graph

CALCULATIONS :
Unsoaked condition:
CBR at 2.5mm penetration= ( pt/ps )2.5mm
CBR at 5mm penetration=( pt/ps )5mm
Soaked condition:
CBR at 2.5mm penetration= ( pt/ps )2.5mm
CBR at 5mm penetration= ( pt/ps )5mm

RESULT :
CBR value of given soil sample is found as :
Unsoaked CBR value=
Soaked CBR value=
APPLICATIONS :
Determination of thickness of flexible
pavements
Strength of subgrade of pavement