Footings are placed at some depth below the ground surface with minimum embedment for the following purposes (Lambe and Whitman): 1. To gain additional bearing capacity derived by the embedment. 2. To place the footing below the zone of seasonal moisture variations for protection against swelling and shrinkage cycle in case of clayey soils and against the frost action in [...]
Plate load test (PLT) is an in situ test to determine the bearing capacity and probable settlement of a foundation under any given loading. The test essentially consists of loading a rigid plate in increments at the foundation level and determining the settlements corresponding to each load increment. The settlement of foundation can be obtained from the load-settlement relationship obtained [...]
The following point highlights the seven main theories for determining bearing capacity of the soil. The theories are: 1. Rankine's Theory of Bearing Capacity 2. Prandtl's Theory of Bearing Capacity 3. Terzaghi's Theory of Bearing Capacity 4. Skempton's Theory of Bearing Capacity 5. Meyerhof's Theory 6. Hansen's Theory of Bearing Capacity 7. Vesic's Theory of Bearing Capacity. 1. Rankine's Theory [...]