New method for determination of bearing capacity of soil foundation

Reasonable determination of bearing capacity of foundation is the most important part of foundation design. The in-situ plate loading test is the most reliable method to determine the bearing capacity. However, the actual bearing capacity relates to not only soil property but also the size, buried depth and settlement requirement of the foundation. The size of the plate in the plate loading test is not the same as that of actual foundation, and how to determine the bearing capacity of the actual foundation by the plate loading test reasonably is not yet addressed. Thus, a new solution method is proposed in this paper. That is, the strength and deformation parameters are back-computed by the plate loading test. Then, based on those parameters, the tangent modulus method is employed to compute the load - settlement curve (p–s curve) of the foundation. Finally, according to the double controlling principles, the settlement requirement and strength safety factor requirement of the foundation, the bearing capacity of the foundation is determined by the p–s curve. The bearing capacity meets both settlement and strength requirements of the foundation. An example is adopted to illustrate the proposed method, and results are compared with those by the methods of the current codes of China to prove the rationality of this new method.