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Estimating soil resistance at unsampled locations based on limited CPT data

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Abstract

An assessment of soil properties at unsampled locations is a common requirement during the design of a geotechnical structure/system. Such an assessment is challenging due to inherent soil variability and the limited number of in situ tests currently available. Here we present a three-dimensional conditioned random field approach for the estimation of anisotropic soil resistance at unsampled locations based only on data from a limited number of cone penetration tests (CPT). The novelty of this work is that the measured CPT data at arbitrary locations can be combined with random field theory to update the estimated soil properties in three dimensions. The accuracy of the estimation can be improved significantly using the proposed method. A case study in Australia is conducted to illustrate the procedure and to assess the capability of the method. The results indicate that the mean values of the conditioned random fields are good estimates of the soil resistance at unsampled locations. The prediction error of the normalized cone penetration resistance is about 0.08 when there are only six CPT tests. A unique feature of this method is its ability to obtain high-resolution results of soil properties in three-dimensional space using a limited number of CPT tests.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51679060). This study represents part of the activities of the Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems of the University of Western Australia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China

    Yongmin Cai & Jinhui Li

  2. Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems and ARC CoE for Geotechnical Science and Engineering, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia

    Yongmin Cai & Jinhui Li

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China

    Xueyou Li & Limin Zhang

  4. State Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Science, Key Laboratory of Rock Mechanics in Hydraulic structural Engineering (Ministry of Education), Wuhan University, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China

    Dianqing Li

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  1. Yongmin Cai
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  2. Jinhui Li
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  3. Xueyou Li
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  4. Dianqing Li
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  5. Limin Zhang
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Correspondence to Jinhui Li.

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Cai, Y., Li, J., Li, X. et al. Estimating soil resistance at unsampled locations based on limited CPT data. Bull Eng Geol Environ 78, 3637–3648 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-018-1318-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-018-1318-2

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