The plate bearing test is essentially a model test of foundations which projects the stress and strain characteristics for evaluating the  ultimate bearing capacity of foundations. This technique is a standard one for estimating the bearing value of soil in-situ. The results  of  other  methods  are  always  compared  with  the  values obtained by the plate load test.  In this method, a steel plate of a certain dimension is subjected to gradually increasing loads and the corresponding settlement is noted. The ultimate bearing capacity is taken as the load at which the plate starts sinking continuously at a rapid rate.