GATE CE 2025 Set 2 — Question 56
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Geotechnical Engineering → Shallow Foundations → Plate Load Test
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Question
A designer used plate load test to obtain the value of the bearing capacity factor . A circular plate of 1 m diameter was placed on the surface of a dry sand layer extending very deep beneath the ground. The unit weight of the sand is 16.66 kN/m. The plate is loaded to failure at a pressure of 1500 kPa.Considering Terzaghi’s bearing capacity theory, the bearing capacity factor is ______ (round off to the nearest integer).
Correct answer
300 to 300
Solution
For a circular footing on the surface of dry sand (), Terzaghi's ultimate bearing capacity is given by:Given:
kPa
kN/m
m
Substituting the values:Rounding to the nearest integer, .
kPa
kN/m
m
Substituting the values:Rounding to the nearest integer, .
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