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Effect of Cone Diameter on Determination of Penetration Resistance Using a FCV

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Abstract

The cone penetration test (CPT) and dynamic cone penetration test (DCPT) are the most two efficient in-situ tests in geotechnical practice. Due to experimental test limitations, it is sometimes impossible to use cone penetrometer (CP) with standard dimensions via physical modeling, and the use of smaller size of CP is needed. The objective of this study has been to investigate the size effect of CPT on penetration resistance. The sand material collected from a coastal area of the Caspian Sea in Babolsar city. Frustum confining vessel (FCV) was used due to its ability in high stress physical modeling and forming approximately linear distributed stress in depth, which makes it one of the most suitable physical modeling apparatus for investigating DCP and CPT. In this research, two different CPs, a standard dimension (35.7 mm) and a smaller size (24 mm in diameter), and one standard DCP were employed to be tested in Babolsar sand. Results demonstrate that the cone resistance (qc) and sleeve friction (fs) values are greater in the miniCP compared to the standard cone. This trend goes more notable when either of relative density or vertical effective stress increases. However, the ratio of cone resistance or sleeve friction, for MiniCPT to standard CPT is constant with various values of vertical effective stress or relative density. Accordingly, the cone resistance and sleeve friction ratio for MiniCPT in comparison to CPT are greater almost 1.23 and 1.18, respectively. Also, the correlation values between qc with sand parameters, obtained from laboratory tests, relative density (Dr), porosity (e), and with dynamic cone penetration index (DPI) have been investigated and presented.

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Abbreviations

CPT:

Cone penetration test

DCP:

Dynamic cone penetration

FCV:

Frustum confining vessel

CP:

Cone penetrometer (diameter is 35.7 mm)

MiniCP:

Minicone penetrometer (diameter is 24 mm)

d c :

Diameter of the cones

q c :

Cone resistance for CP

q c, min i :

Cone resistance for miniCP

f s :

Sleeve friction for CP

f s, min i :

Sleeve friction for miniCP

DPI:

DCP index

NCR:

Normalized cone resistance for CP

NCRmin i :

Normalized cone resistance for miniCP

F r :

Normalized friction ratio for CP

F r, min i :

Normalized friction ratio for miniCP

σv :

Total vertical stress

\(\sigma^{\prime}_{v}\) :

Effective vertical stress

D 50 :

Diameter for 50% finer by weight

e max :

Maximum void ratio

e min :

Minimum void ratio

γ d ,max :

Maximum dry density

γ d ,min :

Minimum dry density

G s :

Specific gravity

C u :

Coefficient of uniformity

C c :

Coefficient of curvature

ω opt :

Optimum water content

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran, Iran

    Mohammad Esmailzade, Abolfazl Eslami & Esmail Aflaki

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University (SRU), Tehran, Iran

    Ali Nabizadeh

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  1. Mohammad Esmailzade
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  2. Abolfazl Eslami
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Correspondence to Abolfazl Eslami.

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Esmailzade, M., Eslami, A., Nabizadeh, A. et al. Effect of Cone Diameter on Determination of Penetration Resistance Using a FCV. Int J Civ Eng 20, 223–236 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40999-021-00685-x

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