Abstract: The red clay and gravel mixed soils in Guilin area have the unique geotechnical properties and these soils attract the attentions from both researchers and practitioners. Currently, there are no code established for the red clay and gravel mixed soils in Guilin, it is necessary to perform bearing capacity studies for these soils form the engineering application point f view. This paper presents a case study of plate loading test results on red clay and gravel mixed soils in Guilin. There are differences in between the dimension of the plate in the static loading tests and the actual footing widths, the bearing capacity of the actual foundation should be empirically adjusted from the static loading test results. A numerical simulation using a commercial finite element software FLAC^3D on the plate static loading tests was performed. The numerical analysis results are consistent with the loading test results.

Key words: red clay and gravel mixed soils, bearing capacity of soils, static plate loading tests, loadsettlement curves, FLAC^3D analysis