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Correlations between CPT, SPT and Soil Parameters for Khulna, Bangladesh

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 Journal of e-ISSN: 2581-9763
Geotechnical Studies Volume-5, Issue-1 (January-April, 2020)

www.matjournals.com http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3741371

Correlations between CPT, SPT and Soil Parameters for Khulna,

Bangladesh
Md. Monir. Hossain1, Nasima Sultana2, Ripon Chandro Malo*1
1
Research Assistant, Department of Civil Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology,
Dhaka, Bangladesh
2
Lecturer, Department of Civil Engineering, Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology (AUST),
Dhaka, Bangladesh

*Corresponding Author: Riponchandramalo@pg.ce.buet.ac.bd

ABSTRACT started in Bangladesh since last decade for the

Soil is naturally heterogeneous and non-uniform
materials because it is made up of different
types of matter. Understanding of soil
parameters is one of the most complex tasks in
geotechnical engineering. Several laboratory
tests of soil have to carry out for engineering
practices. Laboratory tests take too much time
to accomplish and extravagant also. There is
another alternative way to get soil parameters
direct from soil field investigation report to save
time and cost. The main objective of this study is
to investigate the relationships of soil
parameters with most commonly used soil
investigating tools SPT and CPT. In this
research, three pairs of CPT and SPT tests were
performed at the riverbank of the Rupsha
River, Khulna, Bangladesh. Different
correlations have been developed in this paper
among various field tests and laboratory tests.
Analysis demonstrate that qtc/N1-60 ratio as a
function of constant are better applicable to the
local soils instead of D50 or fc based correlations.
Finally, Internal angel of friction (ϕ) has been
carried out using the correlation of SPT, CPT
and compare with internal friction angle (ϕ)
from Direct Shear (DS), and Multi-Stage
Triaxial tests (MSTT) have been performed.
Keywords-- Angle of internal friction (ϕ), MST
test, SPT-CPT, soil parameters
INTRODUCTION
The Standard Penetration Test (SPT) is the
most commonly used field test to describe the
engineering properties of soils. Due to the easiest
way for soil sampling, SPT test is the most reliable
economic field test to investigate the subsoil
properties in many countries around the world [2].
Elsewhere, the cone penetration test (CPT) is day
by day going to be practicable in subsoil
investigation for its rapid and convenient way to
measure successive soil stratigraphy especially for
deltaic province [7]. The usage of CPT has been
design purpose and site exploration [1]. Most of the
time Cone Penetration test (CPT) performed is with
Standard Penetration Test (SPT) to reduce cost.
CPT is used to determine the details and qualities
of soils of the project, where SPT is used to
examine the preliminary investigation of soils [8].
Sometimes due to limitation of budgets, tight
schedules or lack of concern projects do not receive
proper laboratory recommendation. For subsoil
investigation SPT N value, CPT cone resistance
(qc) and sleeve friction (fs) along with soil type and
depth of water table are very important for soil
profiling and correlation between these values can
be used to estimate soil properties if laboratory data
are not available [3]. For practically use need to
examine more correlations for all type of soils such
as clay to gravelly- sand. The main objective of this
study is to explore the use of various existing CPT-
SPT correlations for local soils. In this study field
exploration, laboratory testing and comparative
analysis of resulting data was incorporated. Study
area was the bank of Rupsha River, Khulna.
Moreover, this is a little part of research work, it is
expected that this work will carry out a meaningful
contribution for further betterment of region
specific CPT-SPT correlations.
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Correlations of existing CPT, SPT with
soils parameter for internal friction angle (∅) are
established from the last few decades. A number of
researchers proposed a constant value of qc/N for
different soil types in a chart of corrected cone tip
resistance (qt) versus friction ratio (Rf).
Research by M. A. Ansary et al. (2017)
presented that, the applicability of various existing
correlations are between CPT and SPT for local
soils. In their study, observed that developed
correlations for q/N60 with d50 and Ic show good
applicability to local soils whereas, available
relationships between q/N60 and Fine content do
not fit them well. They proposed a correlation
ranges (qc/pa)/ (N) 60 =1.5d500.33 to 10d500.25.
They also suggested that CPT and SPT data used

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for this study better suit with (qc1/N1, 60) ratio of
0.0569 instead of 0.45 proposed by Elbana (2011).
H.M. Mominul, M.A. Ansary and M. J. Abedin
(2014) have compared effective angle of internal
friction (∅) estimated from the CPT with those
determined from SPT N-values and laboratory
triaxial tests. Their study revealed that the internal
angle of friction (∅) obtained from laboratory
triaxial and direct shear test place within a narrow
rage and compared well with each other and
increased with increasing depth. The internal
friction angle (∅) value calculated from CPT and
SPT data shows no general trend and represents
higher value at smaller depth and lower value at
greater depth than those obtained from direct shear
and triaxial tests.
Summarization a few of literatures,
Robertson et.al (1983) collected several research
outputs and presented a relationship of qc/N60 as a
function of mean grain size (D50). Kasim et al.
(1986) and, Kulhawy and Mayne (1990), where
they have presented more updated databases to
correlate qc/N as a function of mean grain size
(D50) compared to the proposed relationship by
Robertson et.al (1983). These correlations provide
a very useful guideline to convert the CPT tip
resistance to the equivalent SPT N-value for soils
with D50 varying between 0.001 mm to 10 mm.
They also observed that the scatter in qc/N ratio
increase with increasing mean grain size and the
Figure 1: Depth with corrected cone tip resistance (qt), SPT-N, (N) 60 and (N1) 60 values for all boreholes.
Cone Penetration Test
Cone penetration testing is useful for
finding engineering properties of soil and
delineates soil stratigraphy. It was initially
developed in the (1950) at the Dutch laboratory for
soil mechanics in delft to investigate soft soils.
CPT method consist of pushing a downward
instrument cone to measure pore water pressure
(u), tip resistance(qc) and sleeve friction (fc). Rate
of pushing in this test was 20mm/sec. During the
28 Page 27-32 © MAT Journals 2020. All Rights Reserved
e-ISSN: 2581-9763
Volume-5, Issue-1 (January-April, 2020)
http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3741371
qc/N ratio increases with increasing mean grain
size. Robertson and Campanella (1985) suggested a
value qc/N60 ratio of 4.5-5.0 and 4.0 gradually for
medium and silty soils.
In other research studies, McNulty and
Harney (2010) presented a comparative
relationship with the effective angle of internal
friction (∅) from the CPT with SPT N-values and
laboratory Triaxial and Direct Shear tests. They
showed that the value of internal friction angle (∅)
of CPT-SPT is close to below the ground water
table but a significantly higher for above the
ground water level than the value of laboratory.
Elbanna et al. (2011) suggested that in the absence
of site specific CPT and SPT correlations, which is
suitable to use the general correlation proposed by
Robertson, et al (1983). In the absence of grain
size data, they have also proposed a new
correlation using the qt1/ (N1)60 ratio of 0.45.
METHODOLOGY
Field Investigations
The geological formations of the
Bangladesh are predominantly consisting of
alluvial sand and silty deposits (Alam et al. 1990).
Two field tests were performed named SPT and
CPT. Three sets of CPT and SPT were executed in
different locations which is not more than 10 m
horizontally. A soil profile is presented in Fig. 1:
test all necessary data are recorded from 28- 30 m
below the ground surface.
Standard Penetration Test (SPT)
Standard Penetration Test (SPT) is an in-
situ dynamic test it’s used to provide geotechnical
parameters of soils. According to “ASTM D1586”
the SPT test were carried out. Disturbed and
undisturbed samples were collected by using split
spoon sampler. These samples were preserved in
 Journal of
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polythene sheet for laboratory testing. Necessary
measures were taken to regain correct values. All
these steps were observed by expert researchers.
The split spoon sampling method was used to
obtain soil samples from boreholes and disturbed
and undisturbed representative samples were
collected. Samples recovered from boreholes were
stored in plastic bags that were used for laboratory
testing. An automatic type SPT hammer-release
was used for the SPT. Potential source of
uncertainty that may affect SPT N-values have
been carefully taken into account. Borehole
drilling, soil sampling and SPT N-value recording
procedures were observed by experienced geologist
during the entire test program and this individual
provided visual descriptions of the collected
samples. Sample collection was done in every 1.5
m intervals. Ground water table is located at 2.4-
2.9m below from EGL. There was considerable
variability in the measured SPT N-value indifferent
boreholes at different depths and maximum
corrected cone tip resistance (qc1) was close to 38
MPa. The corrected cone tip resistance (qt) in MPa
(top scale), measured SPT-N, N60 and (N1)60
values (bottom scale) are presented in Figure-1
Laboratory Investigations
Laboratory study was included with
Multi-Stage Triaxial (MST) tests, Direct Shear tests
and sieve analysis. The main objectives of the
laboratory investigations were to find out angle of
internal friction from the soil samples collected
through SPT tests.
Multi-Stage Triaxial Test
The Multi-Stage Triaxial (MST)
Compression test was first introduced by De Beer
(1950) as an alternative procedure for determining
the soils shear strength parameters by means of
testing a single soil specimen instead of
Conventional Triaxial Compression (CTC) tests
where usually three soil specimens are used.
Kenney and Watson (1961) were among the first
researchers who successfully applied the Multi-
Stage test to measure the effective soil cohesion (c)
and internal friction angle (ϕ) for fully saturated
soils. The Multi-Stage procedure uses one soil
specimen that is consolidated under different (Cell)
confining pressures and then axially loaded at each
confining pressure until a failure axial strain is
reached. Consolidated Undrained Triaxial
Compression tests are carried out on undisturbed
soil samples of a diameter 36 mm and height 76
mm. The tests are stopped when the soil samples
fail to achieved the value of 15% axial strain. The
deviator stress, shear stress, normal stress and pore
water pressure was recorded at every 10 sec
29 Page 27-32 © MAT Journals 2020. All Rights Reserved
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Volume-5, Issue-1 (January-April, 2020)
http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3741371
interval during the test. To obtain the angel of
internal friction (ϕ), Mohr’s circle was drawn for
each (two tests at each depth) test from every
selected borehole.
Direct Shear Test
The most widely used laboratory
equipment’ for investigating the strength and
deformation behavior of soils is Direct Shear
apparatus. The apparatus is versatile and can be
used for the measurement of many parameters,
including shear strength characteristics of soils.
According to ASTM standard D-3080, “Standard
Method for Direct Shear Test on Soils under
Consolidated Drained Conditions”, Direct Shear
test was performed [2]. A total of 27 direct shear
(DS) tests with three tests at each stress level were
carried out on reconstituted specimens at different
relative densities varying from 42% to 70% and
under different effective stresses. Specimen relative
densities were calculated from SPT N-values in
different boreholes at that depth by using N-value
versus relative density relationship which was
proposed by Meyerhof (1956). During the test, all
necessary data were collected until the soil samples
failed. Angle of internal friction was found from a
plot of maximum shear stress versus normal stress.
Sieve Analysis
This test was performed for soil
classification and distribution of soil sample
according to their particle size. Soil samples were
collected from various depths were individually
assessed and classified based on dry sieve analysis.
This test was performed according to ASTM D422-
63(2007)2 “Standard Test Method” for Particle-
Size Analysis of Soils. These soils contain
appreciable amounts of fines (fc) ranging from 8 to
57, fineness modulus (an empirical figure obtained
by adding the total percentage of the sample of an
aggregate retained on each of a specified series of
sieves and dividing the sum by 100) ranging from
0.01 to 2.43 and mean grain size (D50) ranging
from 0.17 to 0.9. Provided samples were classified
as SW and SP-SM respectively.
RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
Fig. 2, Mean grain size (D50) based
correlations with local soils by Robertson et al.
(1983) and Kulhawy and Mayne (1990). In this
scatter data shows that with a small change in D50
can cause significant change in qt1/(N1)60 ratio and
qt1/(N1) 60 ratio deceases with increasing D50,
which are incoherent for the existing correlations.
Moreover, D50 shows a poor relationship with local
soils. The correlations between fines content (fc)
 Journal of e-ISSN: 2581-9763
Geotechnical Studies Volume-5, Issue-1 (January-April, 2020)

www.matjournals.com http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3741371

and qt1/ (N1) 60 ratio also presented that with slightly increased which is contradictory to the
increasing fines content, qt1/(N1) 60 ratio also existing correlations for this soils. Fig. 3.

Figure 2: Variation of the ratio qt1/ (N1)60 with mean grain size (D50) comparison.

Figure 3: Variation of the ratio qt1/(N1)60 with fines content (fc) comparison.

Fig. 4 The qt1/ (N1) 60 ratio of 0.45, and
0.0569 suggested by Elbanna et al. (2011), M. A.
Ansary, Zinan A. Urmi. (2017) respectively for
sands presented a better relationship. The
correlation between cone tip resistance (qt1) and
SPT (N1) 60 can serve as a better relationship for
these sandy soils. Therefore, a comparative
analysis has been performed for the angle of
internal friction using the correlations suggested by
Robertson and Campanella (1983) and Meyerhof
(1956) for CPT and SPT tests.

Figure 4: Variation of cone tip resistance (qt1) with SPT blow count (N1) 60 comparison.

The values of internal friction angle (∅) Triaxial and Direct Shear tests values are almost
also carried out through Multi-Stage Triaxial and close to each other but the ∅ value from the
Direct Shear test at laboratory. The Multi-Stage correlations of CPT and SPT presented that smaller

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value with increasing depth for correlations of
Robertson and Campanella. Comparative analysis
Figure 5: Comparative analysis of internal friction angle from SPT, CPT, DS and MST tests.
CONCLUSION
This paper examined the results of a study
that was conducted to assess the use of CPT, SPT
relation with local soils to develop a better
correlation with negligible deviation. The study
shows that the CPT and SPT data used for this
study with better suit (qt1/N1-60) ratio of 0.45 in
place of D50 or fc. Then it could be a reliable
relationship for locally available soils. A
comparative analysis of laboratory obtained shear
strength parameter (ɸ) and parameters obtained
from existing correlations have been done in this
study. Although it is true that nothing but selected
data sets took place from a narrow range to develop
most of the leading correlations. This analysis is
based on a small part of soil profiles from our
riverine embankment of coastal area of Khulna. It
also needs to study more for further research to
established better relationship with field test of
CPT, SPT and local soils from clay to course sand.
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31 Page 27-32 © MAT Journals 2020. All Rights Reserved
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Volume-5, Issue-1 (January-April, 2020)
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Cite as:
Md. Monir. Hossain, Nasima Sultana, &
Ripon Chandro Malo. (2020). Correlations
between CPT, SPT and Soil Parameters for
Khulna, Bangladesh. Journal of Geotechnical
Studies (e-issn: 2581-9763), 5(1), 27–32.
http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3741371