Parameter approach from DPL test

Thomas Nilsson
B.Sc. Civil Engineering, M.Sc., Brazil
www.nilsson.com.br

ABSTRACT: The article presents approaches and collections of geotechnical parameters from the port-
able field test apparatus DPL NILSSON, manually operated by two persons. The raw parameters are ob-
tained by blows and torque test. Some of the obtained geotechnic parameters for dimensioning are tip resis-
tance, side friction, compacity and consistence. Significant vantages by this equipment is access to remote
sites, high production, transport, low cost and positive ecological aspects..

1 DPL OPERATION PRINCIPLE

1.1 Traditional DPL
A DPL apparatus operates with a 10 kg weight, drop
height 50 cm, generating the energy of 50 kJ to
drive rods and cone to 12 meter depth. The cone,
massive, of diameter d = 35.7 mm, tip angle 90º and
cross section 10 cm², admits to capture resistance in-
formation of the soil.

1.2 DPL NILSSON

The Brazilian modified DPL system, known as DPL
NILSSON is an upgraded modification of the tradi-
tional DPL, improved by torque measurements to
register lateral cone friction. After every meter of
penetration, before a new rod is connected, a torque
test is made. The DPL NILSSON apparatus is non-
motorized, easily dissembled in smaller parts, light
and easy to transport and operates with high effi-
ciency. One assembly staffed by 2 or 3 persons can
advance 50 to 60 meters per day.

1.3 Comparisons
Compared with other field tests, DPL is light and
easy to transport. The complete equipment weights
less than 100 kg and can be transported in a small
car. It is possible to install in small and narrow lo-
cals, and is environment friendly. A great vantage
obtained by the design is the clearly defined geome-
try and constant mass which qualifies the cone as a
discreet, measurable object. Different from a sam-
pler, the DPL cone is massive and cannot contain air, Figure 1. DPL NILSSON apparatus on campaign at Indaia-
water or soil, so objective resistant measure is possi- tuba/SP, Brazil.
ble.
 creased to 60cm², as the upper side of the cone has
some soil contact.

The lateral resistance is obtained by the equation.

M
f = (3)
A⋅ L
M = Moment, L = moment lever.
A = Cone surface area in contact with soil

The lever is d / 2 for the lateral section and d / √2

for the tip section. The resultant moment lever can
be approached to 16mm. Approach the product AL
to 100 (cm² x cm), f = 10M. moment in Nm, AL in
m x m² and f in kPa.
Figure 2. Comparison in proportional scale between The interface friction between the cone (steel to
SPT-sampler, DPL cone and CPT-cone. soil) is supposed to be less than the inner shear resis-
tance of the soil so the received value of f can be
used as a safe measure of soil shear resistance.
2 PRIMARY PARAMETERS
2.1 Obtained parameters

The prime raw parameter, obtained from any DPL

test is N10 = blows to advance 10 cm. The DPL
NILSSON test include torque on the assembled rods
and cone. Mmax is the maximal obtained moment,
captured instantly before soil rupture, and Mres is the
average residual moment on the continuous rotation
after rupture.

2.2 Tip resistance

The modified Hiley equation (Thomas Nilsson)
gives:
m1 ⋅ g ⋅ h m1 + e 2 ⋅ m2
Pf = k ⋅ a ⋅ ⋅ (1)
s pl + s el 2 m1 + m2
where Pf = tip force; k = correction factor to cover
energy deviation, a = hidraulic correction factor, m1
= weight of hammer; m2 = weight of rods, anvil
and cone; g = earth gravity; h = fall height of ham-
mer; spl = plastic soil displacement; sel = elastic
displacement of equipment and soil; e = coefficient
of impact.
Pf
qc = −f (2)
Ac
where qc = tip resistance of cone; Ac = cross section
area; f = lateral resistance.

2.2 Lateral resistance

The vertical aligned surface of the cone has the same
height as diameter, the nominal contact area with
soil = 5πD2/4. For DPL NILSSON, the theoretic ob-
tained area of soil contact, 50cm² should be in-
Figure 3. Raw parameters from DPL NILSSON test: Table
and graph of blows N10, graph of lateral resistance f, and graph
of tip resistance qc.
 For DPL of standard dimension, this equation can be
expressed as a second degree equation, with rd given
as a function of the penetration of the driven rods:
rd = (0,003 ⋅ s 2 − 0,06 ⋅ s + 0,44) N 10 (MPa) (7)
3 PROJECT PARAMETERS
3.1 Source Table 1. Obtained values, applying the Dutch equation down
The parameters are acquired from necessary number to 5m.
_________________
of blows to penetrate a given distance, from neces- z rd
sary moment to rotate the cone and from soil and m MPa
_________________
water print on extracted rods . 1 0.35N10
2 0.29N10
3 0.25N10
3.2 Cohesion and friction angle by DPL NILSSON 4 0.22N10
5 0.20N
_________________
The shear resistance can be estimated by DPL side 10

friction, as earlier shown. As expressed by Mohr, it

is composed by cohesion and friction angle. In “Procedimentos de Sondeos”, Jesus Puy Huarte,
τ fu = c + σ '⋅ tan φ (4) recommend the allowable load, for footings:

If the soil contains > 40 % clay, it can be considered rd

σ adm = (8)
as a cohesive soil. If > 75 % sand, it should be con- 20
sidered as a friction soil.
For piles:
Joseph Bowles relates the interface friction angle be- rd r
tween metallic surface and soil δ = 14° to 22° for < σ adm < d (9)
12 6
fine to coarse sand, and δ = 11° for silt. That is ap-
proximately 15° less than the ordinary interior fric-
tion angle of the soil.
4 APPROACHES FROM BLOWS N10
Suppose a torque test in clay, the shear resistance is
mastered by cohesion. The cohesion of the soil The blows of DPL NILSSON are presented in a
should be higher than the measured lateral friction graph with the horizontal x-axis graded up to 100
between the smooth cone surface and the surround- blows N10 , designed as function of depth. The end
ing soil, so consider c > f. of DPL penetration, limited to 12 m, is also gov-
erned by a maximum soil resistance corresponding
DPL test in sand is governed by the friction angle. to some 25-30 N of blows of SPT.
Approaching cohesion to zero, the estimated friction
angle can be expressed by the formulae: 4.1 Blows vs. compacity
f To evaluate the compacity of friction soils, the fol-
ϕ> (5)
0.019 ⋅ ο ' lowing table gives an idea how to direct interpret
DPL values:
where σ is the soil tension and f is the measured side
friction. Table 2. Compacity of granular
soils evaluated from DPL
___________________________
3.3 Allowable load Blows Compacity
N10
___________________________
The resistance value derived from pile driving for-
<1 Very loose
mulas by Bolomey, 1974, gives the Dutch equation: <7 Loose
7 - 83 Medium
M2 ⋅H > 83 Dense
rd = (6) ___________________________
(S ⋅ s + M ) ⋅ A ⋅ e

where M = weight of the hammer; S = weight of the
extension rods; s = length of the extension rods; H =
height of fall; A = cone cross section area; e = aver-
age penetration/blow.
4.2 Blows vs. consistence
For classification of consistence in cohesive, unsatu-
rated soils, with Plastic Index under medium value,
the following table is extracted from the German
standard DIN 4094.
Table 3. Consistence of fine
soils evaluated from DPL
___________________________
Blows Consistence
N10
___________________________
<3 Very soft
3-6 Soft
6 - 12 Medium
13 - 22 Stiff
23 - 45 Very stiff
> 45 Hard
___________________________
A soil of N10 < 7 blows needs a special attention in
the project, such as bypass with piles, reinforcement
of the soil or other kind of geotechnical engineering
solutions. Soils with N10 over 80 blows do generally
have medium to high resistance.. Soils with N10 from
3 to 25 are normally easy to excavate.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The number of blows N10 of DPL allows quick ap-
proaches of some soil characteristics like resistance,
consistence and compacity. From torque tests in the
apparatus DPL NILSSON, parameters as friction
angle and cohesion can be roughly estimated.
In the choice between expensive and simple tech-
nology, some equipments of simple technology gives
a positive cost-benefit rate by low operation costs,
high test velocity, easy transportation, access to dif-
ficult locals and fast interpretation. The technical
quality is rather a function of project, raw material
and manufacturing than of complexity and hi-tech.
The service quality depends on compatibility with
available labor, access, environment and control.
Field campaigns are subjected to rude conditions and
depend a lot on logistics. A portable equipment like
DPL equipment fits good under such conditions.
6 REFERENCES
Bergdahl U., Ottoson E. 1988. Soil Characteristics
from penetration test results, Proc ISOPT-1, Or-
lando, USA.
Bolomey, H 1974. Dynamic Penetration – Resis-
tance Formulae. Proc European Symposium on
Penetration Testing Vol 2:2, Stockholm 7p.
Bolton,M 1979, A guide to soil mechanics,
Macmillan Press, London, UK.
Bowles, J.1986. Engineering Properties of Soils and
Their Measurement
Cunha, R, Nilsson. T. 2004. Advantages and
equations for pile design in Brazil via DPL tests, ICS
2004, Porto/ Portugal, 20-25 de Setembro de 2004,
7p.
DIN – Taschenbuch.1991. Erkundung und Unter-
suchung des Baugrunds. Beuth
Ireland, H.O. , Moretto, O and Vargas. M. The Dy-
namic Penetration Test: A Standard that is not stan-
dardized. Geotechnique, Vol 20, 7p
ISSMFE 1989. International reference test proce-
dures for dynamic probing (DP). Report of the ISS-
MFE Technical Committee on Penetration Testing
of Soils –TC 16 with Reference Test Procedures.
Swedish Geotechnical Society, 49p.
Jesus Puy Huarte. 1977. Procedimentos de Sondeos,
teoría, práctica y aplicaciones. Publicaciones cienti-
ficas de la Junta de Energia Nuclear, Madrid. 549p.
Massarsch, R. , Lindholm, P, Mårtensson, O. 1976 .
Ny lätt sonderingsmetod. (New Light Penetration
testing Method). Royal Institute of Technology, JOB.
Rep. No 3, Stockholm
Moss, R.E.S., R.B. Seed and R.S. Olsen, "Normaliz-
ing the CPT for Overburden Stress," Journal of Geo-
technical and Geoenvironmental Engineering,
American Society of Civil Engineers,
doi:10.1061/(ASCE)1090-0241(2006)132:3(378),
March 2006, Vol. 32, No. 3, 10p.
Nilsson. T. 2000. Os ”Módulos” de Mecânica dos
Solos, 32.d Pavement reunion, Brasilia/ DF. 4p.
Nilsson. T. 2000. Ensaios para obtenção de ”Módu-
los de Elasticidade”, 32.d Pavement reunion, Brasi-
lia/ DF, 6p.
Nilsson. T. 2003. Initial Experiences of DPL NILS-
SON, I Central Brazilian Plateau Seminar. CD-
ROM, 7p.
Nilsson. T. 2004. Comparações entre DPL
NILSSON e SPT, Geosul 2004, Curitiba/ PR, 20-23
de Maio de 2004, 6p.
Nilsson. T. 2004. O penetrômetro portátil DPL
NILSSON, SEFE V / BIC II 2004, São Paulo/ SP,
6p.
Triggs Jr. J.F., Liang R.Y.K. 1988. Development
of and experiences from a light-weight, portable
Penetrometer able to combine dynamic and static
cone tests. Proc ISOPT-1, Orlando, USA.
Walter Rodatz. 1992. Grundbau, Bodenmechanik
Unterirdisches Bauen. Institut für Grundbau und
Bodenmechanik, Braunschweig, Germany. 345 p.