Soil Bearing Test
Soil Bearing Test
(OP)
Hello All,
I am starting my career as an EIT (mostly structural) but I worked as a carpenter for 10 years. I know when I used to pour wall footings, a testing agency would send a guy out with a steel rod and like a 35-45 pound weight which impacted that rod from a very specific height. He counted the number of blows and that was then used to determine the allowable soil bearing capacity. What is the name of that test? I thought the guys in the field called it a niece-bar test (spelling?), but I can't find any such test on the internet.
Thanks for your help!
I am starting my career as an EIT (mostly structural) but I worked as a carpenter for 10 years. I know when I used to pour wall footings, a testing agency would send a guy out with a steel rod and like a 35-45 pound weight which impacted that rod from a very specific height. He counted the number of blows and that was then used to determine the allowable soil bearing capacity. What is the name of that test? I thought the guys in the field called it a niece-bar test (spelling?), but I can't find any such test on the internet.
Thanks for your help!





RE: Soil Bearing Test
There is a cone penetrometer test, done about like you describe, but I have never used that. Again takes some general rough interpretation of results.
RE: Soil Bearing Test
Mike Lambert
RE: Soil Bearing Test
RE: Soil Bearing Test
RE: Soil Bearing Test
So, sure it's a tool, just like a number 5 rebar. It's not some, "Certifying" agent to confirm bearing capacity though. At least not for me. . .
f-d
ípapß gordo ainÆt no madre flaca!
RE: Soil Bearing Test
I agree what you are saying however, the designer like to stick note to the construction drawing like "qualified geotechnical engineer to verify the allowable bearing pressure at the foundation".
What we do in such situation is to ask the client to provide us geotechnical report previously carried out for the site. Then we inspect the prepared foundation visually for any anomaly with respect to the report. Then carry out number of DCPs as far as we can go. We carry out proof rolling test if possible to identify any soft spots immediately under the proposed footing slab. Then based on these observations we will verify or fail the prepared foundation. The DCP is not the reliable tool but at least it will tell you roughly what the ground is like. At the end of the day the ground will not change significantly under in the deeper depth compare to the geotechnical report. The only changes can happen in top couple of metres due to possible cut and fill or disturbances and DCP can give you some indications of the top 1 o 2m of soil.
So, rather than doing nothing, DCP can be helpful in such situations.
Looking forward to see some comments
Regards
Newa
RE: Soil Bearing Test
RE: Soil Bearing Test