Contribuição ao estudo do recalque de placas com base em ensaios de penetração

Abstract

The main purpose of this research was to review methods to estimate the settlement of plates in drained conditions based on penetration tests, and atempt to select those which are capable of producing good predictions for Brazilian soils. With this purpose, the various methods were applied to five series of load tests performed on plates at the surface. A comparison between settlements predicted by the various methods and observed in the tests allowed to separate methods capable of better predictions, as well as the limitations of the methods, especialy regarding the consolidation history of the soils. In order to help in a critical review of the methods, a parametric study of the behaviour of surface plates was carried out with the Finite Element Method. The parametric study examined the influence of the plate/soil adhesion, the non-linearity in soil properties and the initial state of stress. This critical review was limited by the semi-empirical nature of the methods.