Evaluation of Bearing Capacity from Field and Laboratory Tests

Abstract

In this work, the comparison between the values of bearing capacity of soildetermined by two different methods, the first method is field plate load test and thesecond method is several laboratory tests. The study find out that the allowable bearingcapacity estimated from the first method widely near from its value computed by secondmethod. Also this study confirm the probability of using Plate load test for estimatingsoil bearing capacity for small jobs and shallow layer depth to avoid usingcomprehensive soil investigation and economizing both cost and time. Empiricalrelation ship for bearing capacity estimation achieved from the results of the twomethods by using stiff brown silty clay soil at Erbil governorate - north of Iraq.