California bearing ratio

The California bearing ratio (CBR) is a penetration test for evaluation of the mechanical strength of natural ground, subgrades and base courses beneath new carriageway construction. It was developed by the California Department of Transportation before World War II.

The basic site test is performed by measuring the pressure required to penetrate soil or aggregate with a plunger of standard area. The measured pressure is then divided by the pressure required to achieve an equal penetration on a standard crushed rock material . The CBR test is described in ASTM Standards D1883-05 (for laboratory-prepared samples) and D4429 (for soils in place in field), and AASHTO T193. The CBR test is fully described in BS 1377 : Soils for civil engineering purposes : Part 4, Compaction related tests, and in Part 9: In-situ tests.

The CBR rating was developed for measuring the load-bearing capacity of soils used for building roads. The CBR can also be used for measuring the load-bearing capacity of unimproved airstrips or for soils under paved airstrips. The harder the surface, the higher the CBR rating. A CBR of 3 equates to tilled farmland, a CBR of 4.75 equates to turf or moist clay, while moist sand may have a CBR of 10. High quality crushed rock has a CBR over 80. The standard material for this test is crushed California limestone which has a value of 100, meaning that it is not unusual to see CBR values of over 100 in well-compacted areas.

$CBR={\frac {p}{p_{s}}}\cdot 100\quad$

$CBR\quad$	= CBR [%]
$p\quad$	= measured pressure for site soils [N/mm²]
$p_{s}\quad$	= pressure to achieve equal penetration on standard soil [N/mm²]