STATIC AND DYNAMIC PLATE-BEARING TESTS ON DRY SAND WITH OVERBURDEN.

Six static and 53 dynamic soil-bearing tests were made under simulated overburden pressures of zero to 15 psi to determine the load-displacement characteristics of buried footings. The static bearing modulus increased as overburden pressure increased up to an overburden pressure of approximately 6 psi. The dynamic bearing modulus increased exponentially with overburden pressure to an overburden pressure of 15 psi. Up to 3 psi overburden pressure, dynamic modulus was larger than static but the difference was less at 3 psi overburden than at zero. The relationship between static and dynamic moduli was not firmly established for overburden pressures greater than 3 psi. These tests were made on a 15-inch-diameter bearing plate in dry sand using the NCEL atomic blast simulator. Author