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Module 30/Topic 18

SOME ROUTINE FIELD TESTS IN FOUNDATION ENGINEERING

This Section proposes to examine three field tests commonly conducted in
foundation engineering practice, viz., 1) Standard Penetration Test, 2) Plate Bearing
Test, and 3) Pile Load Tests.

18.1 Standard penetration test

The Standard Penetration Test (or SPT) is an empirical strength test – in fact the
by-product of sampling operation – routinely conducted in all sites where samples for
laboratory tests are collected at various depths along with the advancement of boring.
In fact, it is the brain child of an enterprising foreman of the Raymond Concrete Piling
Company in U.S.A. who thought of keeping a record of the number of blows during
drilling while on soil investigation expeditions.

The result of the test is expressed as the Standard Penetration Resistance, or the
N-value, which is reliably correlated with the Ø value of a cohesionless soil (see
Fig.10.6 ) and hence used as the strength parameter of the soil in the geotechnical
design of foundations in such soils. Even though attempts have been made to
correlate N-values with the qu, the unconfined compressive strength of a cohesive soil,
the same has been found to be not reliable. However, if qu values have not been
determined by testing samples for some reason, the designer has no choice except to
make use of qu values correlated from the N-values, for proceeding with the design.
In fact such a provision has been in-built in the computer program for the geotechnical
design of shallow foundations described under Sec.10.9.

18.1.1 Conducting the test

The test consists in causing the sampling spoon to penetrate the soil (Fig.18.1) by
the dropping of a hammer weighing 650 N from a height of 750 mm and counting the
number of blows for a penetration of 300 mm, which is designated as the N-value. In
the test, counts are taken for three consecutive 150 mm penetrations and the sum of
the number of blows for the last two 150 mm penetrations is taken as the N-value,
treating the first 150 mm penetration as a seating drive. It may be noted that in place
of a sample of height 100 mm for conducting the unconfined compression test, we
need to cause a penetration of 450 mm of the sampling tube for the standard
penetration test. This means, while unconfined compression test can locate weak
spots, the standard penetration test averages out results over a much greater depth.

18.2 Plate bearing test

The Plate Bearing Test, also called the ‘plate load test’, is an elaborate field test
conducted at a foundation site for the determination of bearing capacity (see Topic 5)
and settlement of foundations.
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The Indian Code (IS:1888-1971) prefers square plates of 300 – 750 mm size, the
size varying with the type of soil. Steel plates, made stiff by placing successively
smaller plates one on top of the other (see Fig.18.2) are typically used to transfer the
load to the soil under test. The bottom-most plate is provided a chequered base to
produce the effect of roughness at the interface with soil. The load can be applied
either from a loaded platform (gravity loading) transferred in stages through a hydraulic
jack, or by a hydraulic jack reacting against a steel truss (structural loading) designed
for the requisite capacity and anchored to the ground (Fig.18.3). In either case the
load is measured by a proving ring inserted between the plate and the jack (Fig.18.2).
The vertical deformation of the test plate is measured by dial gauges fixed to
immovable datum bars.

In relation to the mechanism of transfer of forces, which the student must clearly
understand, both the loaded platform and the reaction truss can be considered as
providing the necessary support for the jack to react against. Since action and reaction
are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction, the action of the jack is upwards on
the loaded platform and the truss and downwards on the test plate below. (The flow
of forces and reactions in the system is shown in the figures by arrows in colour.) In
gravity loading the jack can be looked upon as progressively transferring the dead load
(kentledge) on the platform to the soil, the maximum value of which is the full dead
weight itself. Since the platform will get lifted from its supports at this stage, the jack
alone bearing the entire load, it is necessary to load the platform with a load higher
than the estimated bearing capacity by a comfortable margin. In the same way the
truss must be designed for the same higher load – acting upwards – and the reactions
(action on the anchors) acting downwards,

18.2.1 Reduction of the results

The data from the test is plotted in the form of a load-settlement diagram (Fig.18.4),
both the quantities being plotted to arithmetic scales. (The fallacy of plotting the data
to log-log scales is explained by Kurian (2005: App.E: Sec.8) The determination of
bearing capacity when the curve is of the shape A given in Fig.18.4 is a direct matter.
However, if the load-settlement diagram has the shape of curve B (Fig.18.4),
determination of bearing capacity is fraught with serious uncertainty and one has to
resort to empirical considerations for identifying the value of bearing capacity. IS Code
recommends determination of the safe bearing value (not ultimate bearing capacity)
against the settlement of the plate which is related to the permissible design value of
settlement of the actual footing by the expression:
𝑆𝑓 𝐵 (𝐵𝑝 +0.3) 2
= (𝐵𝑓(𝐵 ) (18.1)
𝑆𝑝 𝑝 𝑓 +0.3)

where S - settlement (m),

B - width (m),
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subscripts p – test plate

f - actual footing

The same expression is also recommended for the determination of the settlement of
the footing at design load from the value of settlement of the test plate against the
same intensity of applied load, in the case of sand. For clay soils, however,
settlements can be taken proportionate to the width. The settlements so obtained are
elastic settlements, the test being not capable of indicating settlement due to
consolidation.

It is a common finding in conducting the plate bearing test – as also the pile load
test (Sec.18.3.1) that if the jack is worked to a particular value of load and left behind
at that stage, the pressure gauge dial recedes indicating thereby that there has been
a decrease in load. This happens with increase in settlement under load. The reason
for this is not far to seek. One only needs to realise that the loaded platform resting
on the side supports and the jack form a statically indeterminate continuous beam in
which the load on the sinking support decreases (see Sec.15.10).

The plate bearing test is perhaps the oldest test in foundation engineering, which
was in vogue long before the birth of modern Soil Mechanics. Considering the quality
of the result obtained from a plate bearing test against the effort, time and cost in
conducting it, it is the general consensus among the geotechnical community that, the
test should be discouraged, if not dispensed with and should no longer be
recommended as a routine test in foundation engineering practice. In its place, at a
fraction of the cost, time and effort, we can go for extracting undisturbed samples at
the site for the determination of shear strength parameters c and Ø and also γ using
which we can calculate the bearing capacity and safe bearing pressure by Terzaghi’s
equations. An added advantage is that we have the option for ‘effective stress
analysis’ or ‘total stress analysis’ depending on the situation at hand.

In the case of c and Ø soils, we have other options for determining c and Ø
respectively. In a predominantly cohesive soil c can be determined easily, reliably and
conservatively from an unconfined compression test, as qu/2, where qu is the
unconfined compressive strength of the soil. On the other hand, in a predominantly
cohesionless soil, Ø can be reliably estimated from the N-values obtained from the
standard penetration test which is conducted concomitantly with soil exploration and
sampling, at practically no extra cost (see Secs.10.1, 10.3).

18.3 Pile load tests

A pile installed in the field by any of the methods can be tested in 1) compression,
2) tension and 3) lateral load, to which it may be subjected in the in-service state. Even
though it is similar to and as elaborate as the plate bearing test, it cannot be dispensed
with unlike the latter, since pile being a deep foundation, passing through diverse
layers of soil, a test is the most reliable method of ascertaining its performance in any
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of the modes of loading mentioned above. In fact in most piling jobs, it is customary to
stipulate that load test should be conducted on one pile, if not more. And as in the
case of the plate bearing test, the load test on the pile involves measuring deflection
against load applied in stages till the soil fails under the load. The data is plotted as a
load-settlement diagram from which the ultimate load carrying capacity, or permissible
(working) load, may be interpreted.

18.3.1 Compression test

In most instances the load is applied on the test pile from a loaded platform against
which a hydraulic jack reacts. An alternative method using anchor piles is illustrated
in Fig.18.5. In this method of loading, which may be described as structural, the jack
reacts against a stout horizontal beam above, which is fixed across two anchor piles
established on either side of the test pile. Thus when the jack is worked, the beam is
subjected to bending (hogging), the anchor piles to tension, and the test pile to
compression. (Note that a truss of the type shown in Fig.18.3, and of requisite capacity,
can replace the beam.) The theoretical limit of the load that can be applied to the test
pile by this method is the sum of the anchoring capacity of the anchor piles. Hence it
should be ensured in the test that the anchoring capacity of the anchor piles has a
comfortable margin over the anticipated failure load of the test pile. Further, the anchor
piles should be spaced sufficiently away from the test pile so that there is no
interference between the zones of influence of the anchor and test piles. Note that the
wider the spacing of the anchor piles, the higher the bending moment on the beam,
and the heavier its section, under the same central load, due to increased span.

With regard to the load-settlement diagram, as in the plate bearing test, the shape
of the plot can vary markedly depending upon the mechanism of load transfer through
the pile (Fig.18.6). Curve A is typical of friction piles in whose case failure occurs
abruptly the moment friction is overcome, beyond which settlements increase without
the pile taking any additional load. It is as if no soil is present below the pile. (Presence
of soil which cannot offer any bearing resistance is as good as no soil being present.)
The near vertical part of the plot corresponds to this stage and the ultimate load is
obtained directly against this vertical. In the case of end-bearing piles and end
bearing-cum-friction piles (Curve B), the load-settlement diagrams are continuous
leaving considerable ambiguity as to the value of the ultimate load, the determination
of which, therefore, has to be necessarily based on empirical considerations.

In many instances the ultimate load is reckoned against a specific empirical value
for the settlement of the pile at the tip. Since the settlements are measured in the test
at the top of the pile, the measured settlement includes the tip settlement and the
elastic compression of the pile. In the case of a point-bearing pile, since the section
of the pile is subjected to a uniform axial compression, equal to the applied load, over
the full depth, the elastic compression at any load P = (PL/AE), where L is the length,
A, the cross-sectional area, and E, the Young’s modulus of the pile material. This is
as if the pile is free-standing without soil around it. (Presence of soil which cannot
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offer frictional resistance on the sides is as good as no soil being present.)

Determination of elastic compression in this manner assumes that the pile response
continues to be linearly elastic even when the soil below fails. (This is analogous to
the assumption of a perfectly rigid test plate in the plate bearing test – Sec.18.1.) In
the above it is seen that, while specified tip settlement is a constant, the elastic
settlement is a linear function of the unknown load Pu which we want to determine. In
other words, our effort is to locate the point on the load-settlement diagram
corresponding to a specific value of tip settlement, if the latter serves as the criterion
for determining the ultimate load. This can be obtained by following the simple
procedure outlined below.

An inclined line is drawn at the slope (L/AE) through the origin (Fig.18.6). The
specified value of the tip settlement is now set off on the y-axis as OS and a line is
drawn through S parallel to OO’, and the point at which this parallel line intersects the
curve is noted. The load corresponding to this point represents the ultimate load
carrying capacity of the pile. It is noted from Fig.18.6 that the total measured
settlement at this point is equal to the sum of the specified tip settlement and the elastic
compression of the pile at the failure load.

18.3.2 Tension test

A suitable set up is necessary for carrying out the pull-out test. One such possibility
which suggests itself is using a pair of jacks on either side of the test pile supported
on and reacting against a pair of compression reaction piles (Fig.18.7) and working
against a horizontal beam tied to the top of the test pile. An alternative to the above
scheme, which can dispense with one jack, is to support the reaction beam on the
corresponding reaction pile (see inset).

18.3.3 Lateral load test

In order to conduct a lateral load test, facility for a stout vertical wall is to be created
(Fig.18.8a) on which a horizontal jack placed in between the pile and the wall can
react. Alternatively, this test can be conveniently conducted by introducing the jack
horizontally between two piles (Fig.18.8b), which, happily, gives two results from one
test.

Kurian (2005: Sec. 5.7.10) summarises the important provisions of load tests on
piles covered by IS: 2911 (Part IV) – 1979, to which professional readers’ attention is
invited.