ABSTRACT
The accurate estimation of soil bearing capacity plays an important role in the design of a stable foundation for road pavement and airfields projects. Plate load test is one of the quick, direct and economic methods for soil bearing capacity determination. This method is useful to solve the design problems for subgrade and subbase layers, where application of high wheel loads is expected due to heavy traffic during construction and service life of the pavement. This study is interesting to investigate, analyze and discuss the geotechnical behavior of soil layers selected from two locations south of Iraq.
On the other hand, the comparison is made between the values of bearing capacity, modulus of subgrade reaction and elasticity of soil determined by carrying out field plate load tests and conventional laboratory tests. Furthermore, the effect of stress distribution and test condition on the shape of elasticitystress curve and modulus of subgrade reaction are discussed in detail.
