Recent Developments in Screw Plate Testing in Adelaide J.N. KAY and G.W. NICHOLS University of Adelaide, South Australia and P.W, MITCHELL and D.L. AVALLE Pak-Poy & Kneebone Ply. Ltd, South Australia. SUMMARY neaeuravent of strength ond settl Tintiorly useful results have been odtoined in soft clays and sands. Extensive use hos been rant oaronaters. to be sarticularly veluable when used in conjunction with the potential for producing extensive ‘Tao case studies ore reported to demonstrate the re: conbination of the two hos. tho 1 INTRODUCTION The scraw alate Iood test, used mainly in granular soils in Europa (Janby and Sennaset, 1977) ond to Sona axtent_in the United States (Schnartmann 1970), was onpaliad to stiff cloy by two of the authors in Adelaide in 1973 (Kay and ‘Aitchell, 1980). Three dinenstonel consolidetion theory was Used to, interpret drained tests (Koy ond Aval 1932) and further favourasle comparisons rece made jiith trloxial tests and self-boring pressureneter testa for the Goult clay neor Cambridge, Enalond (ey and Parry, 1982). Since 1982, a considerable onaune of commercial testing has been done in the Adelaide oree using the screw alate orticularly in Conjunction with tha electricel cone penetration teat and the combination has oroved to bs highly Successful. This penar describes tho develoonent and apolication of 0 trailer mounted unit thot Conveniently combines the two tests. In addition, twa case studies are discussed, one in hich predictions rade from Conpored with measured settlements ond 0 second in Which the use of the cone panetroueter supplemented by serow olate tests Leads te considerable cost savings in the final design. ‘ou plots tests are 2 ELOPMENTS IN TEST EQUIPMENT AND PROCEDURES 2.1 Conbined Cone Penetroneter ond Seren Plate Test Unit A test unit that combines focilities for elactrical Gone pangtrotion testing, scrow olate testing, ond Boring ond sonoling has been constructed ond used extensively by the University of Adelaide since Tonusey 1982. The end view of the trailer mounted ayatem ts show in Figure 1, The rear end of the 1.7 t cooscity trailer supports @ main frame that, For testing, is anchored to the ground at four corners. An upper frane that supports 0 hydraulic Linder con readily be aoved laterally on the main Frome: it con be set ot the centre of anchor susport for maximum reaction for cone panetration tests then roved to a point 0.8 m onay for boring, Screw plate tests ond Sampling os required. Tha conbination of on electrical cone panatration made of the scraw plate test in the Adeloide area in recent’ years oat of the testing has been in stiff clays but 540 Fourth Australia - New Zealand Conference on Geonechanics, Perth, 14-18 Nay 1984 for The screw plate test has been Bctrical cone nenetroneter. The high quality design informotion ot developments. Found low test with a scrow alate test in close oroximity has Groven to be Righly successful in o number of woys. The cone rasistonee a hos been shown to have o high correlation with undrained sheor strength, cy for Goult clay in England (sce Figure 2 after Koy ‘ond Parry, 1982) ond the sane is proving to be the Case in Adelaide. In the relationship where de = NeCy + Ove o. HYDRAULIC RAM (RETRACTABLE) — TRAVELLING FRAME (LOCATED FOR SCREW PLATE TEST) FRAME LOCATION FOR CONE PENETRATION TEST HYDRAULIC | POWER UNIT, i REMOVABLE ‘OUTRIGGERS: ‘ancHors | Figuee 1 Trailer mounted test unit. Oye is the overburden stress, the coefficient No woe found te ba 20 for the Gault cloy ond 11 to19 for clays in the Adaloide area. In aidition, the friction ratio from the cone has proved to be o fed indicator of soil type cccerding to the Brocedure recommended by Soorle (1979). An initicl ene test provides ideal guidance for depth and type of serew plate tost ond also, where gopronriote, the required magnitude of lood Teeroment for the drained component of the test. of perticulor significance is the fact thot the Geren plate may be used to calibrate the cone penetrometer on a site-by-site basis. Proposals Rove been made for correlations betwoen soil Teiffness ond cone tip resistence but it is Likely thot for mst soils auch correlations are only yolvable in specific strata ot given localities {Lod et ol., 1977). Relatively few screw plate tests are neaded one site to determine, for example, E'/q¢ ratios (where &’ is the drained Young's modulus) for general interpretation of the cone results, Such @ procedure is illustrated in Figure 7 under the “Case Studies" section of this, poper. UNDRAINED SHEAR STRENGTH (KPa) 0 100) 2001 CONE, PENETROMETER (Ne=20) ‘@ SCREW PLATE DEPTH (m) Figure 2 Comparison of cone resistence with undroined strength from seren plate test. 2.2 Tests in Sond Soils Tt has become evident thot earlier proposals for ‘general relationships between E' ond aq for sonds of the form E'/ag = 2 (Schmertnann 1970) should be restricted to normally consolidated sonds. Tests by Chopman and Donald’ (1983) heve indicater constrained modulus, M, values in a send tonk to bed to 18 times the cone tip resistence. Screw plote tests by the cuthors in Adelaide have show Ev/gg = 12 ot Glenelg ond E'/az = 5 ot North Haven both“in coastal sonds. A typical locd versus deflection graph for 2.5 m depth at the North Haven site 1s shown in Figure 9. For taste in sandy sails where coving of the borehole is likely, @ drilling mid circulation system hos been incorporated in the test unit. A soll exial flow punp circulates 9 water-bontonite 5a slurry through @ water awivel in @ rotary drilling ‘arrangement. The slurry corries the displaced soil From the bottom of the borehole to the surface for discharge into o settlement tonk. In the tonk the coarse groined soils settle out and the overflow is recirculated. When the desired test depth is reached the screw plote is lowered through the bentonite slurry £0 the Botton of the borehole ond screned head about 100 mm for tho stort of the test as for clay soils. 1000) E237 MPa. 00] ‘800 STRESS (kPa) Bs Test oePTH 25m | TEST RATE 0.3mm/m| SOIL TYPE: 4 MEDIUM DENSE SAND) t DEFLECTION (mm) Figure 3 Screw plote test in sand ot North Haven For the determination of Young's modulus, E, for sand a controlled rate of deflection of 0/300 m/min is used whore D is the plote dioneter in millimeters. &" is conputed from BY = 0,42040/49 (2) where So/Bp is the slope of the stress-deflection graph. This is similer to the relotionship used for determination of the dreined modulus for cley soils (Key and Parry, 1982). The test combination appears to be valuable for a wide range of conditions but it is porticularly Veluable for coses where sono doubt exists in the Uecision between raft or piled foundations in sand Soils, When tast procedures ore crude there is a naturel preference for the more conservative piled Foundetion in spite of considerably higher costs. Results from the cane penetroneter and screw plate test combinetion may wall provide dato that confirm the suitability of 9 roft design for circunstances there, using conventional methods @ more costly piled foundation is indicated. A point of coution should bs noted that is relevant. whenever @ new method is used that permits sone improvement in design procedures. Elonents of risk may exist thot, although not previously considered In an explicit manner, my be implicitly covered by © larger safety mrgin. This 1s apolicable to Structures founded on sand where o potential for Liquefaction due to earthquake looding exists. Ini oH) conjunction with use of an improved method for Static onolysis tt may be important to separately Consider the potential for liquefaction. 3 cASE STUDIES Two projects have been completed whore screw plate tests were used for determination of drained soil modulus. In the first, @ 12 storey bonk building {in the City of Adelaide, o comparison is made betwaen settlement prediction ond results of carefully conducted measurement program. The Second involves the exploration and settlement prediction for o grain silo at Torlee S.A. where the results have 2 dromatic effect on type and cost of foundations. 3.1 Savings Bank Projact A cross section of the Sovings Bonk building is show in Figure 1. The building was constructed HINDMARSH CLAY ALLE FE COM RAS TTI Figure 4 Geologic profile at Savings Bank site on 0 99.5 m x 93,5 mx 0.9 m thick raft foundation. The genaralized soil conditions were 10 m of stiff cloy overlying a predominantly rock stratum known locally os the Hollet Cove Sandstone. Three screw plate taste in the clay indicated drained Young's modulus (E') values of 45 WPo, 69 MPa and 45 MPo ot depths of 1m, 3 mond 6.1m, respectively, below the roft-soil interface (Figure 5). Compression of the cloy stretum due to the building locd was predicted to be 20 mm besed on on overage E' valve oF 55 Wo. A borehole extensometer wos installed near the contre of the raft and neosurenents of compression in the clay stratum have been token since the start of construction. Results ore Indicated in Figure 6. The totol compression aver 9m of cley thickness is 15am ond since this implies about 17 am over the 10 mtre thickness, the ogresmant with predictions is excellent, A more detailed description of this study appecrs in a paper by the first author ond Cavognora (Kay ond Covagnore, 1983). 3.2 Groin Silo Foundetion Design The foundation desian project for @ grain storage 5a. silo at Tarlea S.A, by Pak Pay and Knesbone Pty, Lids for South Australian Bulk Handling Ltd. DRAINED MODULUS (MPa) 020 4060 SOIL PROFILE Bo green —grey clay § Korey cian J) vettow-brown E Kas cy = YZetayey sand Ea] 8 green-grey clay sandstone 7 © — Indicates screw plate tests Figure § Soil profile ond screw plote modul! at Savings Bank site DATE 1980 1381 (mm) COMPRESSION T z PERIOD OF SECTION ON SIGNIFICANT EXTENSOMETER Lona ° € ofa Figure & Meosured compressions ot Sovings Sank sito. demonstrates the volue of the combination of the electrical cone penetrometer ond the screw plate test. Figure 7 shows © summary of cone tip resistance, ao, three drained Young's modulus, &' Values, the computed E'/aq ratios ond the implied design'E' values for theese distinct strota to a depth of 9.5m. Unfortunately, the cone test did net extend too sufficient depth to sotisfy requirements for settlement computations. Stondard Poneteation tests, pocket penstroneter results ond Visual interpretation from on adjacent borehole were used os on indication of £’ at greoter depths. Egtinotes wore mode of f° 2.30 .MPa from 9.5 m. $0, Fats7a'aReER GndPE? 2180 iipa’eron 1803 teas m.sing @ method proposed by the first author (Koy ued Covagnoro, 1963) for layered systens the tral settlement wos predicted os 52 mm ond the Girterentiol settlonent os 24 mm. A realistic Giectotion of differentiol settlement bosed on {hese results would be 15 to 90 em, 0 range Ancoptoble for this application. An earlier Groly2ie bosed on standard penetration test N ehtues ranging from 8 to 20 resulted in o Meonmendation for pile foundations. The cost [ffecence in fovour of the roft foundation is Getimated to be $200,000. 4 CONCLUSION The screw plate lood test hos become Firmly estoblished as a valuable field test procedure in the Adelaide oreo ond, particularly in conjunction with the electrical cone panetroneter, it oppecrs. te offer on economical means for obtoining extensive high quality doto on strength ond Stiffness properties for o wide ronge of soil types Results from a cose study of a raft on a stiff cloy layer, where measured ond predicted settlements are compared, support earlier evidence of the value of the measured properties. A second case study demonstrates the potentiel that now exists for Gonsiderable cost savings when the more recently developed field testing techniques ore used. 5 REFERENCES CHAPMAN, GA ond DONALD 1 8. (1981) “Intéraretation of Static Panetrotion Tests in Sond", procesdings, Tenth Internationol Conference on Soil Mechonics ond Foundation Enginearing CONE RESISTANCE E(MPa) gE ae (MPa) scREW £ «atpar 24 6 PLATE % DESIGN | 30 | 1] 30 Ab 102 | 29 | too Si so | 28 er 82 a 8 2 re 30 6 [or] X® INFERRED FROM SPT, POCKET PENETROMETER AND VISUAL DESCRIPTION OF STRATA Figure 7 Cone resistance, screw plate moduli fond inferred modulus profile for Tarlee site It is onticipeted that @ field measurement program will be conducted to evaluate the predictions. icockholm, Vol. 2, pp- 255-458. JANBU, Ne ond SENNESET, K. [1979] ‘Field Compressoneter - Principles ond Applicotions", proceedings, Eighth Internationol Conference on Earl Mechanics ond Foundation Engineering, Moscow, Vor. 1-1, pp. 191-198. KAY, JN. ond AVALLE, D.L, (1982) "Application of the’ Screw Plate to Stiff Cloys". Journal _of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, American Society SP CiaT engineers, Vol= 108, No. CT!, Jon, pp- 48-154, KAY, J.N. and CAVAGNARO, R-L. (1983) Settlement of Roft Foundations”, Journal of the Geotechnical Division, American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. TO?, No. GTll. KAY, JN. ond NITCHELL, P-W. (1980) ‘A Down-hole Plote Load Test for In-situ Properties of Stiff Cloys", proceedings, Third Australig-New Zealond ‘on Geonechanics, Wellington, Vol. 1, kay Teste in a Stiff Clay", 15, No. 6, pp. 22-30. J.N. ond PARRY, R.H.G. (1982) Screw Plote: Ground Engineering, Vol. LADD, C.C., FOOT, Rey ISHIHARA, K., SCHLOSSER, F. fond POULOS, H.G. (1977) "Stress Deformation ond Strength Characteristics", proceadings, International Conference on Soil Mechanics ond Foundetion Engineoring, Vol. 2, pp. 21-474. — SOMERTNANN, JH. (1970) Static Settlement over Send", Journal _of the Soil Nechonics ond Foundotions Division, anerTean Society oF Civil Engineers, Vol. ¥6, No. SM3, pp. 1011-1083. “Static Cone to Compute