Estimation of modulus of elasticity of compacted loess soil and lateritic-loess soil from laboratory plate bearing test

In this paper, the moduli of elasticity of compacted loess and lateritic-loess soils on-site were estimated from the laboratory test. These were coarse grain soils used for the construction of base course and embankment of the railway line. The knowledge of the soil properties on-site such as the compacted elastic moduli is essential for the design and selection of materials. A total of 108 samples consisting of 36 samples of compacted soils on-site and 72 samples of compacted soils in laboratory were tested using plate bearing tests. The water contents of the compacted soil on-site were controlled to be within ± 2% of optimum water content. The water content and density of compacted soil on-site were determined and used for the compaction of soils in the laboratory. For the testing in laboratory, two loading types viz., point load and uniform load were performed using the compacted 15-cm diameter mold (California Bearing Ratio). The results showed that the point load test gave a slightly better estimation of elastic modulus with R2 of 0.977 than the uniform load test with R2 of 0.970. The experiment showed that the on-site elastic moduli of loess and lateritic-loess soils could be accurately estimated from the laboratory load tests.