Abstract

A plate bearing test has been conducted for studying the effects of heavy trucks on the additional settlement of footings on soft soil. A new technique of measuring the settlement of footings was applied using both automatically recording transducers and conventional devices such as dial gauges and rulers. The results indicated that besides the settlements determined statically, the additional settlements depended on the contact pressure of footings, on the distance, on the ratio of dynamical pressure to statical pressure, and on the intensity of vibration. Time domain recordings of settlements at several different contact pressures indicated that, the smaller the values of contact pressures, the higher were the average ratios of additional settlements to statical settlements. There was also a development of the excessive water pore pressure at the depth of about ten times the width of footings. This account for the raise of piezometer head due to dynamic effects. After dissipation, settlement might be developped as a consolidation process under overburden pressure.