Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
20, 1983
Modulus of elasticity of a very dense glacial till determined by plate load tests
WILLIAM
R. FISHER
Jordan Gorrill Associates, 562 Congress Street, P.O. Box 7050, Downtown Station, Portland, ME 04112, U.S.A.
Received April 29, 1982
Accepted September 2, 1982
The modulus of elasticity of a very dense glacial till deposit located in central Maine has been determined by in-situ plate
load tests. The results of these tests are presented and the values of modulus of elasticity evaluated.
Le module d'ClasticitC d'un dCpBt de moraine glaciaire tr2s dense dans le centre du Maine a CtC dCterminC partir d'essais de
chargement de plaques in situ. Les rksultats de ces essais sont prCsentCs et les valeurs du module d'Clasticit6 sont haluCes.
[Traduit par la revue]
Introduction
Settlements of structures supported by shallow foundations bearing on dense glacial till are generally small
and consist mainly of elastic compression of the till as a
result of the imposed loads. Typically, this elastic
compression results in settlements sufficiently small that
their influence on the performance of most structures is
negligible. However, facilities such as paper machines
are sensitive to small total and differential settlements,
and settlements related to elastic compression of even a
dense glacial till can significantly influence their operation. The purpose of this note is to present the results of
three in-situ plate load tests done on a very dense glacial
till deposit located at the site of a proposed paper mill in
Skowhegan, Maine. The in-situ modulus of elasticity,
E,, of the till determined from these tests was used to
design and evaluate the performance of shallow spread
footings and mat foundations for the proposed paper
machine.
Soil conditions
The subsurface conditions encountered at the site
consist of silty clay, glacial till, and phyllitic schist
(bedrock). A plan view and an interpretive subsurface
profile along the alignment of the paper machine
building are shown in Fig. 1. The silty clay, a late
glacio-marine deposit, is brown, stiff to hard, and
contains traces of coarse sand and fine gravel.
The glacial till is an unsorted mixture of clay, silt,
sand, gravel, cobbles, and boulders. The surficial l-2 m
of the till is brown in color and the remaining underlying
till is gray. Grain-size analyses of samples of the till
taken at plate load test locations are plotted in Fig. 2.
Values of N, determined by the standard penetration
test, ranged from 50 to 70 blows per 30 cm, indicating
that the till is very dense. In view of its very dense
condition, the till is considered to be basal, deposited
during the last glacial advance about 10 000 years ago.
The paper machine building was designed to be supported by shallow foundations bearing on the dense
glacial till, as shown in Fig. 1. The groundwater table
sloped downward from el. 53.0 m at the south end of the
building to el. 49.5 m at the north end. Generally the
groundwater table was within 3.5m of the ground
surface.
Previous studies
Published values of E, for glacial till could only be
located for projects and studies done in Canada. These
values varied widely and were largely dependent on the
apparent denseness of the till and method of determination. Table 1 presents a summary of published values of
In-situ plate load tests
E, for glacial till, the related degree of stiffness or
denseness, and the method of testing. The data indicate Testing program
Three plate load tests were done at the locations
that higher values of E, result from in-situ tests such as
plate load and pressuremeter tests than from laboratory shown in Fig. 1. A summary of elevations and soils
tests. Published values of E, determined from plate load encountered immediately beneath each test location is
tests on very dense, overconsolidated, glacial tills presented in Table 2.
ranged from 97 to 69 1 MPa (14- 100 ksi) and, in dense,
The general procedure used for the plate load tests
apparently normally consolidated, glacial till, from 38 was as follows.
to 69 MPa (5.5-10 ksi). The plate load test was selected
1. The test area was excavated to within about 0.3 m
as the most appropriate method of determining E, for the (1 ft) of proposed foundation grade el. 51.8 m (el.
glacial till at the project site.
168.5 ft) using a Caterpillar D-8 Dozer.
0008-3674183/010181-06$01 .OO/O
01983 National Research Council of Canada/Conseil national de recherches du Canada
Reference
Project
location
Undrained compressive
strength, q, MPa (ksi) or
penetration resistance,
NZ,blows/30 cm
Klohn (1965)
Northern Sask.
q = 1 (22)
DeJong and
Harris (197 1)
Edmonton, Alta.
N
q
Eisenstein and
Morrison (1973)
Radhakrishna and
Klym (1974)
Edmonton, Alta.
N = 111
q = 0.8 (16)
N > 200
q = 1.3-2.9 (28-60)
Toronto, Ont.
Southern Ont.
=
=
111
0.8 (16)
q = 0.05 (1.0)
Method of
determination
ANCILLARY
FACILITIES
A
A'
PLT-I
PLT-2
PLT-3
WAREHOUSE
25
50
75 FEET
I
I
L
1
6 0 1k
-F
'
2
Ia
>
'j
- - - - -- - - - - - -
50C=--~ELEVATION
OF
P L A T E LOAD TEST
40-
L I M I T S OF
WAREHOUSE
-
- -- AVERACC
'An r&nP%hY
IUL r u u t u u n I ION
GRADEI EL. 52
GLACIAL T I L L
/&
30
//A\
P H Y L L l T l C SCHIST BEDROCK
FIG. 2. Grain size distribution curves, brown and gray glacial till (PLT = plate load test).
NOTES
TABLE2. Summary of elevations and shallow subsurface soil at plate load test locations
Elevation (m)
Plate load
test No.
Ground
surface
Test
level
Groundwater
Depth
(m)
54.9
51.7
53.0
2
3
53.5
53.3
51.2
51.0
51.1
51.8
0-0.6
0.6-1.5
0-1.5
0.6-1.5
Test results
Load-settlement curves for the plate load tests are
presented in Fig. 4. The modulus of elasticity for each
test was determined by assuming that the circular plate
was rigid and the till was a semi-infinite elastic solid.
The relationship of elastic settlement of a rigid loaded
circular area bearing on a semi-infinite solid is (Bowles
1968):
A V E R A G E P L A T E C O N T A C T PRESSURE
- kPa
P L A T E LOAD TEST- 2
I
I
1
I
E, = -
(kpa)
PLT-1
PLT-2
PLT-3
103 (15.0)
112 (16.2)
130 (18.8)
Conclusions
The purpose of this note has been to present the
apparent in-situ modulus of elasticity of a very dense
glacial till in the State of Maine as determined by plate
load tests.
The results of the three tests indicate that the apparent
E, of the glacial till at the site ranges from 103 (15.0 ksi)
NOTES
191