Tribhuvan University

Khwopa College of Engineering

(An undertaking of Bhaktapur Municipality)

A
Lab Report on

Transportation Engineering-II
Practical No: 01

Determination of California Bearing Ratio Value

Submitted by: Submitted to:

Prabhav Singh Deuja Department of Civil Engineering
KCE076BCE058 Khwopa College of Engineering
Civil C/D

Date of submission: 2080/03/11

 Objectives
 To determine strength of the subgrade soil
 To determine the thickness of the pavement required for the anticipated traffic
density
Apparatus required

a. Cylindrical mold with inside diameter 150 mm and height 175 mm, provided with
a detachable extension collar 50 mm height and a detachable perforated base
plate 10 mm thick.
b. Spacer disc 148 mm in diameter and 47.7 mm in height along with the handle.
c. Metal rammers. Weight 2.6 kg with a drop of 310 mm (or) weight 4.89 kg a drop
450 mm.
d. Weights. One annular metal weight and several slotted weights weighing 2.5 kg
each, 147 mm in diameter, with a central hole 53 mm in diameter.
e. Loading machine. With a capacity of at least 5000 kg and equipped with a
movable head or base that travels at a uniform rate of 1.25 mm/min. Complete
with load indicating device.
f. Metal penetration piston 50 mm diameter and minimum of 100 mm in length.
g. Two dial gauges reading to 0.01 mm.
h. Sieves. 4.75 mm and 20 mm I.S. Sieves.
i. Miscellaneous apparatus, such as a mixing bowl, straight edge, scales soaking
tank or pan, drying oven, filter paper and containers.
Theory
The California Bearing Ratio or CBR test is performed in construction materials
laboratories to evaluate the strength of soil subgrades and base course materials.
Those who design and engineer highways, airport runways and taxiways, parking
lots, and other pavements rely on CBR test values when selecting pavement and
base thicknesses.
CBR is the ratio of force per unit area required to penetrate a soil mass with the
standard circular piston at the rate of 1.25 mm/min. to that required for the
corresponding penetration of a standard material.
CBR Value = (Test load/Standard load) x 100

CBR Value: The CBR value is the stress at the 0.100in (2.54mm) penetration
depth. Occasionally, the ratio at the 0.200in (5.08mm) penetration depth is
higher than the 0.100in depth, and the test must be rerun. If the check test
shows similar results, the stress from the 0.200in penetration depth is the
reported CBR.

As per AASHTO T-193 if the curves start concave upwards, they should be
corrected by extending the linear portion of the curve until it intersects the x-axis
(penetration) and use the intersection as the new origin of the axis. The zero-
point of the load-penetration curves must be adjusted.
 Preparation of Sample
a) The weight of mould with baseplate attached was measured to the nearest 5 g (m2).
b) The internal dimensions were measured to 0.5 mm.
c) The extension collar was attached to the mould and the base-plate was covered with a
filter paper.
d) d) The depth of the collar as fitted, and the thickness of the spacer plug or plugs, were
measured to 0.1 mm.

Procedure
1. Required specimen was collected from the field by the shovel.
2. The specimen was passed through 20mm sieve.
3. The water content of the specimen was measured and noted.
4. The specimen was then kept in the penetration test machine.
5. The penetration plunger was placed at the center of the specimen with the
smallest load possible but not exceeding 4 kg so that full contact of piston on the
sample is established.
6. Both the dial gauges were set to zero.
7. Load was applied on the plunger so that the penetration rate was about 1.25
mm/min.
8. Load readings were recorded at the penetration of 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 4.0,
5.0, 7.5, 10 and 12mm.
OBSERVATION AND CALCULATION

Load (divisions) Deflection(mm) Load (kN)

0 0 0
84 0.5 0.271
146 1 0.466
206 1.5 0.662
267 2 0.858
327 2.5 1.048
385 3 1.233
505 4 1.62
622 5 1.995
914 7.5 2.932
1174 10 3.757
1419 12.5 4.541

Load (kN)
5
4.5 f(x) = 0.362961859789321 x + 0.118032328369052
4 R² = 0.998051829914045
3.5
3
Load (kN)

2.5 Load (kN)

2 Linear (Load (kN))
1.5
1
0.5
0
0 2.5 5 7.5 10 12.5 15
Deflection (mm)

The value of corresponding load for 2.5mm and 5mm penetration was extracted
from the above graph
Deflection(mm) Load in (KN) Standard Load (Kg) CBR Value in %
2.5 1.0255 1370 7.63%
5 1.933 2055 9.59%

Result
The CBR value of the sample is the larger of the two values at 2.5mm and 5mm
i.e 9.59%.

Discussion and Conclusion

 The CBR is generally calculated or 2.5 and 5 mm. Generally, the value at 2.5 mm
is greater than that of 5mm. However, for our experiment the value for 5mm was
greater. If this was the case in a real engineering practice or experiment, the
experiment would have had to be repeated, and if similar result was observed
again, then and only then would we assume the CBR value to be correct.
However, due to the limited time we had, we could not afford to repeat the
experiment. As there was some error while performing the test which might
have caused these above problems.
2% is the usual CBR value found for clay, while 80% to 100% will be the CBR value
for high quality sub-base. 20mm is the max particle size for which the CBR test
can be applied to. It should be noted that the in-situ CBR of the subgrade
determined at the time of a ground investigation is likely to differ from the long-
term equilibrium value which can be determined once the pavement has been
constructed.
Precautions
 Soil sample should be free from organic matters.
 Recordings of data should be done carefully.
 Compaction should be done perfectly in three layers.