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3-23 Failure Mechanism and Interpretation
3-23 Failure Mechanism and Interpretation
ABSTRACT: The application of the NTH interpretation model for cone penetration data in silts is evalu-
ated in view of experimental results regarding the study of the cone penetration test with x-ray micro to-
mography and 3D Digital Image Correlation. Both failure patterns, theoretical and experimental, are
compared and analyzed by Finite Element simulations to study the mechanism controlling the drainage
during penetration and its influence on the interpretation of results.
1 INTRODUCTION
Intermediate soils such as silts are believed to behave partially drained during cone penetration test
(CPT/CPTU) at the standard rate of 2.0 cm/sec (Lunne et al. 1997). Conventional interpretation methods
commonly based on fully drained or undrained conditions can be difficult to apply. Change in the penetra-
tion rate is suggested to modify drainage conditions around the advancing cone. By increasing the penetra-
tion rate fully undrained conditions will be approached, while decreasing the penetration rate sufficiently a
drained behavior may be expected. The application of this approach in silts is discussed by DeJong et al.
(2013). However, the challenge is to make a reliable interpretation of effective stress parameters (friction
angle and cohesion) from the partially drained CPTU.
Senneset et al. (1988) suggested the application of the NTH (Norwegian University of Science and
Technology, formerly Norwegian Institute of Technology) interpretation model (NTH-model) as interpre-
tation guideline for CPTU in silts. Mayne (2012) recommended the application of the NTH-model for
evaluation of effective stress friction angle.
The NTH-model is evaluated by Sandven (1990) and recently Bradshaw et al. (2012). Bradshaw et al.
(2012) state that the NTH-model makes use of the excess pore pressure during cone penetration in inter-
preting a friction angle; however, Sandven (1990) comments on the challenge related to what reference
pore pressure should be used in the model.
Paniagua et al. (2013) present an experimental campaign where x-ray micro tomography (x-ray micro
CT) and 3D Digital Image Correlation (3D-DIC) were combined for studying CPT in silt. A non-plastic
uniform dilative silt (Vassfjellet silt) with 94% of its grains smaller than 74 µm smaller and a clay content
of 2.5% was used in the experiments. The samples were stepwise penetrated in 5 mm and 1 mm at a rate
of 6 mm/s. Penetration was stopped at defined intervals for x-ray micro CT scanning. The spatial defor-
mation was mapped and analyzed by applying 3D-DIC. The observation of the failure pattern during cone
penetration by x-ray micro CT and posterior analysis with 3D-DIC allowed the identification of a compac-
tion zone under the tip and a dilating zone below. Distinct zones of shear along the shaft, partly develop-
ing into tension cracks could be seen. These observations shed light on improving the understanding of the
drainage condition during penetration in silts.
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In this paper, the NTH-model is reviewed and evaluated based on the information from Paniagua et al.
(2013a, b), taking into consideration pore pressure generation and drainage around the cone.
Lunne et al. (2007) state that for CPT interpretation in silty soils, the drainage conditions expected in the
design problem must be identified. If the design problem faces undrained conditions and the CPT data is
undrained, clay relationships can be used. On the other hand, if the design problem is drained and the re-
sults from CPT are drained then an interpretation method similar to sand can be applied. However, when
drained conditions dominate the design problem and the CPT is undrained or partially drained, effective
stress strength parameters are needed for design.
where qn = Nm (σvo’ + a) = net cone resistance with Nm = (Nq - 1) / (1 + Nu Bq) = cone resistance number;
σvo’ is the effective overburden pressure; a = c / tan ' = the attraction term and c the cohesion; Nq = tan²
(45 + ’/2) exp [(π-2β) tan’] = bearing capacity factor depending on friction angle ’ and plastification
angle β; and Bq = u/qn is a pore pressure ratio relating u = excess pore pressure around the cone to the
total stress increase in tip resistance.
Senneset et al. (1982) proposed the expression Nu 6 tan’ (1 + tan’) to represent the effect of the ex-
cess pore pressures along the shear surface of the bearing capacity of the cone. Kirkebø (1986) presents a
more comprehensive solution (Appendix A) as a function of the friction angle ’ and Janbu’s dilatancy
parameter D (Janbu 1985). D is defined under undrained triaxial shearing to be D = p’/q where p’ is
the change in effective mean stresses and q is the change in deviatoric stresses, for the different zones 1
and 3 (Fig. 1). The main assumption for the pore pressures variation along the failure surface is uzone3 <
uzone1, where uzone3 is average excess pore pressure in zone 3 and uzone1 is average excess pore pressure
in zone 1. Sandven (1990) and Senneset et al. (1989) point out that the approximation for Nu gives
satisfactory values for ’ = 17-35°, which is a typical range of friction values for clays and silts, when the
parameters D1 = D3 = 0 are used in the Kirkebø (1986) solution.
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where qT is the corrected cone resistance, u2 is the pore pressure measured behind the cone shoulder (u2
position) and uo is the hydrostatic pore pressure. Senneset et al. (1988) propose β-values for Norwegian
silts varying between -20° to -10° for overconsolidated silts – silty sands, -5° to +5° for medium silts
(lightly overconsolidated), +10° to +20° for loose (normally overconsolidated) silts.
The attraction value, a, applied in Equation 2 can be obtained by theoretical interpretation methods
(Senneset & Janbu 1985) or by results from triaxial tests (Senneset et al. 1988). In the same reference, typ-
ical values of attraction varying from 0-30 kPa and friction angles from 27°-35° are suggested for Norwe-
gian silts.
Figure 2. Interpretation diagrams for (a) β = 0°; (b) β = -15° and (c) β = +15° (Senneset et al., 1989)
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Long (2007) applied the NTH-model for interpretation of CPTU in estuarine Irish silts finding values
normally expected for loose silty material. Long et al. (2010) found consistent values with triaxial test re-
sults for friction angles in Os silt (Norwegian silt). Recently Bradshaw et al. (2012) applied the NTH-
model to Rhode Island silt and found good agreement with the laboratory data, especially in zones where
high positive excess pore pressures were generated, suggesting that the NTH-model accurately accounts
for the effects of pore pressure generation during penetration leading to more accurate estimates of ’. It
must be noted that in all these cases, the silty soil gave triaxial test results with a consistent dilative re-
sponse.
Figure 3. Failure pattern during CPT in terms of incremental volumetric strains (v) and incremental shear strains
(s) studied by x-ray micro CT and 3D-DIC, shown as a cut through the middle of the volume. (Paniagua et al.
2013b). (C = Compaction and D = Dilation)
Figure 4. Comparison between failure surface for the NTH interpretation model (Senneset et al., 1982) and the fail-
ure surface from 3D-DIC (Paniagua et al. 2013a, b)
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3.2 Failure mechanism observed by Paniagua et al. (2013a, b)
Paniagua et al. (2013a, b) present laboratory scale cone penetration test with x-ray micro CT further ana-
lyzed with 3D-DIC. The Vassfjellet silt tested is a non-plastic uniform silt with highly dilatant behavior in
undrained conditions. Shear structures along the shaft were identified as well as two main bulb shaped
zones of incremental compaction and incremental dilation under and around the tip (Fig. 3).
Paniagua et al. (2013b) concluded that the laboratory observations from x-ray micro CT and 3D-DIC
shed light on observed field conditions for CPTU in silts. Taking the case of a saturated soil, water may
simply move locally from a compressive to a neighboring dilative zone creating a short drainage path.
This suggests that due to the closeness between compressive and a dilative zones, it might be necessary to
penetrate with an extremely high rate to obtain a purely undrained condition for CPTU in silts.
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Figure 5. New NTH interpretation diagrams for (a) β = 0°; (b) β = -15° and (c) β = +15°, accounting for dilative soil
materials. Most silty soils fit into the area marked in red
Long et al. (2010) applied the NTH-model for Os silt. For β = 0°, Nm = 7.5 and Bq = 0.2, they found a tan
’ = 0.62 (’ = 32°). Introducing the same values in the new derived curves from Figure 5, tan ’ = 0.65
(’ = 33°); which does not show strong variations from the original result.
4.2 Stress state around the CPTU in a dilating silt: numerical approach
Numerical simulations of the cone penetration laboratory test from Paniagua et al. (2013a, b) were per-
formed with the Finite Element (FE) Method software Plaxis 2011.02 following the Press-Replace tech-
nique (Engin 2013). The axisymmetric model is shown in Figure 6 where 7076 15-noded elements are
used. The effective stress based Hardening Soil model (Schanz et al. 1999) is applied with material pa-
rameters calibrated to soil data of Vassfjellet silt (Appendix B) and to curves for penetration resistance
measured during the experiments (Fig. 6). The simulations were performed in drained and undrained con-
ditions.
Figure 7a shows the magnitude of incremental displacements (in a penetration increment of 0.5 cm) for
the penetration phase at a tip depth in the sample of 6 cm, for the cases of drained and undrained penetra-
tion. The failure surface proposed by Senneset et al. (1982) and the one observed by Paniagua et al.
(2013a, b) are superposed. Points in the failure surfaces were selected to study the relation between p
and q at the final increment (Fig. 7b).
Silva & Bolton (2005) state that soil failure during CPTU combines large physical displacement of soil
and fluid as well as shearing of soil along the piezocone shaft. In Figure 7a it is possible to observe that in
the undrained FE calculation, the soil displacements caused by the penetration influence a larger area than
the area influenced in the drained FE calculation. This coincides with the reasoning that due to less time
(or no time) for drainage during undrained penetration, the disturbed surrounding soil is greater and there-
fore, the induced excess pore pressures will be greater (Silva & Bolton 2005). Figure 7b agrees with this
since in undrained penetration the change in total mean stress (p) is higher than the change in deviatoric
stress (q ) which will give u > 0 (following Janbu’s definition). On the other hand, in a drained case (u
= 0) the disturbed zone around the cone is smaller.
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In a partially drained condition we should expect a condition between these two extremes. If in addition
the soil is dilative (like the silt studied), the large strains from CPTU mobilize the dilatant tendency of the
silt and cause negative pore pressures as observed by Silva & Bolton (2005). The effect will depend on the
penetration rate that could define which mechanism dominates the pore pressure: the generation due to
penetration and compaction or the dissipation due to shear driven dilation. In this direction, additional
numerical simulations that include partial drainage behavior are currently underway by the authors and
further discussion will be published in the future.
Figure 7. (a)
Magnitude of displacements |u| in a 0.5 cm penetration increment for drained and undrained penetration and (b)
p/q ratio for the points located in the failure zone at the same penetration stage
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5 CONCLUSIONS
The application of the NTH-model for CPTU in dilative silts has been studied based on the laboratory re-
sults from x-ray micro CT and 3D-DIC analysis of the cone penetration test. By fitting the assumed theo-
retical and the observed experimental failure surfaces, it was found that both coincide in the assumption
regarding pore pressure generation and drainage around the cone during penetration.
In spite of the NTH-model assumes no dilatancy (D = 0), the inclusion of the dilatancy parameter in the
solution surprisingly does not affect the interpretation of effective stress friction angle for the silty soil
range. Numerical results are presented to confirm that the generation of pore pressures is more affected by
the relative amount of increments in the mean total stresses and the deviatoric stresses inside the failure
zone depending in which sub-zone the soil is. The results indicate that somehow the u2 pore pressure can
be used in the NTH-model. The pore pressure along the failure surface may not always be the same as u2;
however it is the measurement we get from standard CPTU. The NTH-model accounts for the excess of
pore pressure around the cone (u = u2 – uo) which involves the zone below the cone and the zone along
the shaft. Burns & Mayne (1998) defined that in an undrained case the pore pressure generated in the zone
below the cone (uoct) is due to changes in the octahedral normal stress and the pore pressure generated in
the zone along the shaft (ushear) is caused by the octahedral shear stress change. Both uoct and ushear are
included (in addition to uo) in the measured pore pressure during CPTU. The NTH-model then takes that
uoct comes from the combination of uzone1 and uzone3, or according to Paniagua et al. (2013) the combi-
nation between uzoneC and uzoneD.
Further analysis have been performed (and are under analysis) in saturated samples following the same
set-up from x-ray micro CT tests (see Paniagua et al., 2013b for set-up details) in order to complete the
findings with real measurements of pore pressures.
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7 APPENDIX A
Nu solution from Kirkebø (1986) for vertical load (r = 0) which applies for the case of cone penetration test
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∗
1 2
3
2 2
3
1 2
1 2
1
1 ′
1
1 2
45
2
0.67 ′
90
90
tan 45
2
tan 45
1 for 0
8 APPENDIX B
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