A Numerical Study of The Subgrade Reaction in Cohesive Soils Using Plate Loading Tests (PLTs)

A numerical simulation of plate loading test using finite element method (FEM) and Plaxis 2D in order to investigate the effective parameters on the modulus of subgrade reaction .Some real plate loading test are numerically modeled and calibrated using two types of material models: mohr-coulomb MC and hardening soil HS.The obtained results from MC are better than those obtained from HS, so material model MC is adopted to generate plate load settlement curves, for a group of soil classified by DIN –Code.The results shows that for the same soil parameters the modulus of subgrade reaction is decreased as the side dimension of plate is increased and as the plasticity of soil is increased then the modulus of subgrade reaction is decreased . Depending on the obtained results a relationship is suggested to calculate the modulus of subgrade reaction in cohesive soil. Then a comparison is made between the suggested relation and (Selvadurai, Meyerhof & baike, Klopple & Glock) relations ,which shows a good coincidence.