SOILS AND FOUNDATIONS Vol. 36, No.4, 1-9, Dec.

1996
Japanese Geotechnical Society

EMPIRICAL CORRELATION BETWEEN PENETRATION RESISTANCE

AND INTERNAL FRICTION ANGLE OF SANDY SOILS

MUNENORI HATANAKAi) and AKIHIKO UCHIDAii)

ABSTRACT
A series of drained triaxial compression tests were performed on high-quality undisturbed samples of sandy soils
for the determination of the angle of internal friction (cf>d). The high-quality undisturbed samples were recovered by
the in-situ freezing sampling method (FS sample). The angle of internal friction for the high-quality undisturbed sam-
ples (cf>d(Fs)) was compared with calculations from the empirical equations proposed by many investigators previously
using theN-value of the standard penetration test (SPT}. It was found that the angle of internal friction for the high
quality undisturbed sand samples was much higher than that estimated from the proposed empirical equations.
In order to take into account the effects of the confining stress on the SPT N-value, the measured N-value was nor-
malized at an effective overburden pressure of 98 kPa (1 kgf I cm2 ) using the equation proposed by Liao and Whitman
(1986). The normalized N-value, Nb was induced to relate the angle of internal friction for the high-quality un-
disturbed sand samples. A fairly good correlation between the N 1 value and the cf>d(FS) was established. Finally, based
on the test results, a simple equation (cf>d(Fs)=(20N}0·5 +20) was proposed to relate the N 1 value and cf>d(FS) of sandy
soils in the range of N 1 between 3.5 and 30, for this study.
The relationship between the angle of internal friction for the high-quality undisturbed gravel samples (cf>d(Gv)) and
the penetration resistance was also discussed. A new parameter of NL 1 was introduced in order to relate to cf>d(GV),
where NL 1 is the penetration resistance of the large scale penetration test (LPT} normalized at an effective overburden
pressure of 98 kPa (1 kgf/cm2 }, using a similar equation to that proposed by Liao and Whitman (1986). Although
data is limited, a correlation between NLI and cf>d(GV) similar to that proposed in this study for sandy soils was found.

Key words: fines content, freezing sampling, gravelly soils, internal friction angle, large-scale penetration test, N-
value, relative density, sand, sandy soils, standard penetration test (IGC: D6)

c/>d=(12N) 0 ·5 + 15
INTRODUCTION (Round and uniform-grained
One of the most important strength parameter of soil particles)
sandy soils, the angle of internal friction cf>d, is often esti- 05
c/>d= (0.3N) ·+ 27
mated from empirical equations using the SPT N-value (Peck et al, 1953) (4)
in practice. There are many empirical equations relating
the SPT N-value and cf>d as described in Eqs. (1) to (4). The common feature of these empirical equations is
that the angle of internal friction c/>d, is directly related to
c/>d=(20N)0·5 + 15 the SPT N-value, although some of them take into ac-
(Ohsaki et al, 1959) (1) count the effects of the shape of the soil grains on the
c/>d=(15N) · +15~45 0 5
(N>5) penetration resistance as described in Eq. (3). It is also
(Japan Road Association, 1990) (2) well-known, however, that the penetration resistance is
c/>d= (12N) · + 25
05 not only affected by the soil density but is also influenced
(Angular and well-grained by the confining stress as reported by Gibbs and Holtz
soil particles) (1957). Based on the test results shown by Gibbs and
05
Holtz (1957), the following empirical equation was
cf>d= (12N) · + 20 proposed by Meyerhoff (1957) to relate the SPT N-value,
(Round and well-grained N, effective overburden pressure, av' and the relative den-
(Dunham, 1954) (3)
or angular and uniform- sity of sandy soils, D, as described in Eq. (5), where, av'
grained soil particles) is in kPa.

i) Chief Research Engineer, Takenaka Research and Development Institute, 5-1, 1-chome, Ohtsuka, Inzai, Chiba 270-13.
ii) Research Engineer, ditto.
Manuscript was received for review on April 25, 1995.
Written discussions on this paper should be submitted before July 1, 1997 to the Japanese Geotechnical Society, Sugayama Bldg. 4F, Kanda
Awaji-cho 2-23, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101, Japan. Upon request the closing date may be extended one month.

This is an Open Access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license.

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2 HATANAKA AND UCHIDA

each site are summarized in Table 1. In addition showr

Dr= 21(NI (av' I 98 + 0. 7)) 0 · 5 (5)
in Table 1 are the effective overburden stress levels at th~
By combining the test results, the angle of internal fric- sampling depth (av' ), SPT N-value (N), normalized SP1
tion is a function of the relative density and Eq. (5), it N-value at an effective overburden stress of 98 kPa (l
can also be seen that, the angle of internal friction cf>d, is kgfl cm2) (Nt) using Eq. (?)that was proposed by Liac
related to both the SPT N-value, N, and the effective over-
burden pressure, av'.
The object of the present study is to propose a simple
Soi I SPT Sa11pl ing
method to relate the SPT N-value and the angle of inter- Profile N-value Depth
nal friction c/>d, by taking into account the effects of the 10 ~so
overburden pressure on the SPT N-value, based on the In-situ
FroZEil
drained triaxial compression test results on high-quality Sa11ple
undisturbed sand samples.

SOIL PROFILE OF IN-SITU FREEZING SAMPLING ::: Clay

5 ::: -
SITE AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF FROZEN
SAND SAMPLES ,....., " ..
In order to determine the in-situ drained strength, c/>d, a
E
""'-.-' ...
•••

.t:::::
series of drained triaxial compression tests was made on .......
c. ...
CD • • •
high-quality undisturbed sand samples. The high-quality 0 .••

undisturbed sand samples were recovered by the in-situ 1•n"' Fine

•v Sand f-- r--
freezing sampling method from six sites (Site IK, NA,
NO, KY, KG, and KA). These samples were designated
FS samples, and the angle of internal friction designated ~ ... NA
c/>d(FS)· The soil profiles of these sites are shown in Figs. 1
to 6, respectively. As shown in Fig. 1, the upper soil layer
~
15 .•.
at Site IK is sand fill, while the lower part consists of
Holocene sand, whereas samples of Site NA and Site NO Fig. 2. Soil profile at site NA
were obtained from Pleistocene sand layers. Samples of
Site KY and Site KG consist of fill of volcanic soils, while
site KA is a Holocene deposit consisting of volcanic soil. SPT Sampling
Soil
These volcanic soils are locally called Shirasu in Japan. Profile N-value Depth
The angle of internal friction and the average value or the 0
10 30 50
range of the physical properties of the FS samples for In-situ
...5L Frozen
Fine :l Sample
Sand NG1
Soil SPT Sampling 1J IZZZZZJ
Profile N-value Depth 1
10 30 50
0 ...
... In-situ
5
...
...
I I
, I I
I
Sandy
...
... I I
I
I Frozen
Silt
...
... I I I Sample
...
... 1-:¥:- I
I I
I
I
I \
...
... Fine I I I NG2
IZZZZ:ZJ
...
... Sand I I I Medium :\
...
...
... (Fill)
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
E Sand i))t
...
5 ... ~1~...,f:=r.;o,;,;f----tf--v
~
1-- I I f--
...
... I I
... I I I
f:= Silty
e
:c: ...
...
... I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
O
<1>
f:= Clay
f:=
Q. ... ...... I
I
I
I
I
I
1--
Cl> ...
... I I I
0 ...
... I I I
...
...
I I I
IK2
10 ...
... Fine
I--
I
I
I
I
I
I
1-- ~
... Sand I
...
...
I I
NG5
~
I I
...
... I I r.:z:z::z:zzJ
...
...
I I

~·
... I
I
I

~ Sand&
I I

~ Silty SoR
I I

... I I Sandy
...
... Fine I
I
I
I Silt
15 ... Sand I I 20
Fig. 1. Soil profile at site IK . · Fig. 3. Soil profile at site NG

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 N-VALUE AND FRICTION ANGLE 3

Soil SPT Sampling Soil SPT Sa11p I i ng

Profile N-value Depth Profile N-va I ue Depth
10 30 60
0 ... 10 30 50
: In-situ ... : : : I In-situ
... Fine
~ Frozen I I I
... ~
Frozen
Sample ... Sand I I I

... .. I I
I Sa11ple
'-:¥:'~1 ...
....
I I I
I I I

Rne
Sand --zs
S!
...
...
...
...
lilediUI ~~
Sand

-
~
I

;:
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
r--
KG
~
KY1 I
~ c.. ... I
...

l
CD
KY2 c ...
...
I
I
I
I
~ ... I I

gg ~ ... Fine
... I I

<><> Med'
KY3 ...
... Sand
I
I
I
I
gg ~. . ; ·~2!,
()() ~nd V!IUI ... I I
...
...
I I
88 Gravel I I I
10 ~~~ 10 I I I I

Fig. 4. Soil profile at site KY Fig. 5. Soil profile at site KG

Soil SPT Sa11pl ing and Whitman (1986), relative density (D,) and the c/>d(FS>·
Profi Ia N-value Depth
10 ~0 50 N1 =N/ (av-/98)0·5 (6)
0 '(5(5'
In-situ
00
00 I, Frozen
where, av' is in kPa.
00
00
00
~iu•tt
Wit ~
Sample All of the standard penetration tests used in this study
were performed by the trip monkey (tonbi in Japanese)
i

00
00
Gravel .51...

--
22
... method by the same company. The specification of instru-
e ...
... ~ ments used in this method is shown in Table 2. Accord-
.s::...
...
b_S r-- r-- ing to the report presented by Yoshimi (1994), the energy
CD ...
... efficiency of this type of SPT method is 78%.
c . .. ~
...
... The maximum and minimum dry densities of the sam-
... Fine
...
. . . Sand
ples for the calculation of relative density were deter-
KA1
.....
....
10
... (. IZZZZl
p~~f.,
mined using the JSSMFE Standard Method of the Test
for the Maximum and Minimum Densities of Sand, JSF
standard T-26-81T (JSSMFE, 1979).
Fig. 6. Soil profile at site KA

Table 1. Physical properties of FS samples tested

Sample Ps Dso Pd O'v· rPd

No. Fe% Uc e Dr% N-value N 1-value
name g/cm3 mm g/cm3 kPa degree
1) IK1 2.73 0.29 1.3-2.4 1.6 1.36 1.00-1.01 34 9.0 68.6 11 36.0
2) IK2 2.67 0.38-0.40 2.1-4.6 2.2-2.5 1.32 0.99-1.06 57 17 98.0 17 38.2
3) NA 2.64 0.16-0.21 4.1-5.7 1.6-2.8 1.33 0.89-0.97 81 10 127.4 8.8 32.7
4) NG1 2.67 0.33-0.45 4.3-9.4 2.8-5.1 1.47 0.74-0.90 74 18 39.2 28 43.4
5) NG2 2.64 0.43-0.49 7.0-10.4 2.2-6.7 1.39 0.86-0.93 81 15 68.6 18 37.8
6) NG5 2.72 0.43-0.51 13.0-16.2 2.7-6.0 1.46 0.86-0.89 79 10 137.2 8.5 35.1
7) KY1 2.47 0.34-0.48 3.6-11.0 4.0-9.3 1.13 0.89-0.99 72 5.7 58.8 7.4 39.0
8) KY2 2.65 0.41-0.45 1.8-2.9 3.0-3.2 1.37 0.79-0.85 59 5.4 68.6 6.5 31.0
9) KY3 2.59 0.37-0.47 1.4-2.3 2.7-3.0 1.35 1.12-1.37 59 6.4 78.4 7.2 35.0
10) KG 2.43 0.19-0.24 3.6-9.6 2.4-2.9 0.92 1.57-1.78 70 11 49.0 16 40.4
11) KAl 2.48 0.45-0.75 13.5-15.5 14.1-22.3 0.83 1.12-1.28 81 4.5 78.4 5.0 28.0
12) KA2 2.42 0.15-0.45 9.1-30.4 6.5-13.2 0.89 1.55-1.69 78 4.0 88.2 4.2 30.0

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4 HATANAKA AND UCHIDA

Table 2. Specifications of SPT and LPT
Parts Item LPT
Hammer Weight (kgf) 100
Drop height (em) 150
Rod Outer diam. (mm) 60
Sampler Outer diam. (mm) 73
Inner diam. (mm) 50
LPT: Large-scale penetration test
SPT: Standard penetration test
HIGH-QUALITY UNDISTURBED SAMPLING OF
SATURATED SANDS
High-quality undisturbed sand samples were recovered
by the in-situ freezing technique. Figure 7 shows a typical
sampling procedure of the in-situ freezing technique. The
details of the procedure are described below.
CD A hole about 800 mm in diameter was excavated to a
depth about one hole diameter or two above the top of
the soil stratum to be sampled. A steel casing is placed in
the hole to prevent the hole from collapsing. The weight
of the steel casing and the soil mass above the soil stra-
tum is intended to serve as a confining stress to maintain
the quality of the soil sample during freezing.
®A 76 mm bore hole was drilled with extreme care to a
depth slightly lower than the sampling depth. An outer
pipe 73 mm in diameter for freezing with a poly vinyl
chloride (PVC) rod at the tip was carefully installed in
the 76 mm hole. A series of thermocouples were fastened
to the PVC rod for monitoring the ground temperature
during freezing.
®A 22 mm diameter inner pipe with an open-end was
placed in the 73mm pipe with about 100 mm clearance at
the bottom. Liquid nitrogen was fed into the inner pipe
to freeze the surrounding soil. About 800 mm diameter
SPT
frozen sand column can be obtained with about 30 hours
supply of liquid nitrogen.
63.5 @ The undisturbed sand samples were recovered from
75
the area about one diameter outside the cylindrical sur-
40.5 face of the outer pipe. The sand in the area within one di-
51 ameter of the outer pipe distant from the outer pipe has a
35 high potential of sample disturbance due to the drilling
of a hole for installation of the outer freezing pipe
(Yoshimi et al., 1978). A chilled mud is used in coring the
frozen sand in order to maintain the frozen sample from
thawing during coring.
@ The frozen sand column was cut at the lower end of
the sampler in one or two m long sections by pulling the
double tube core barrel using a boring machine.
® The frozen sand column was removed from the dou-
ble tube core barrel after the tube was lifted up to the
ground surface.
DRAINED TRIAXIAL COMPRESSION TESTS FOR
THE DETERMINATION OF THE INTERNAL
FRICTION ANGLE
Triaxial Test Apparatus and Testing Method
A conventional triaxial test apparatus was used in the
drained triaxial compression tests for the determination
of the angle of internal friction for high-quality un-
disturbed sand samples. The load cell was placed inside
the cell in order to determine the axial load accurately.
The procedure for the drained triaxial compression
test performed on high quality undisturbed sand samples
was as follows:
1) A test sample, 5 em in diameter and 10 em in height,
was prepared from a frozen sand block obtained by the
in-situ freezing technique, using a trimmer and a straight
edge.
2) The frozen test sample was placed on the pedestal,

Double
-tube
core
barrel

Frozen
soil
column

Inner
Thermo- freezing
couples pipe
CD Coring the ® Installing a ~ Freezing the ~ Coring the @ Removing the
ground outer freezing ~round frozen ground frozen sample
pipe
Fig. 7. A typical procedure for in-situ freezing sampling

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 N~VALUE AND FRICTION ANGLE 5

and was then covered with a rubber membrane and
sealed from the pedestal to the top cap using o-rings.
3) The frozen sample was then allowed to thaw in a
drainable state under a confining stress of 19.6 kPa (0.2
kgf/ cm2 ). The frozen sample thaws in about one hour at
room temperature.
4) After the sample has thawed completely, it was then
saturated with the aid of C02 gas, the deaired water and
a back pressure of about 196 kPa (2.0 kgf I cm2 }, until the
pore pressure coefficient B-value reaches 0.95 or more.
After saturation, the sample was consolidated at a
specified confining pressure.
5) The deviator stress was applied to the sample at an
axial strain rate of 0.1% or 0.2% per minute in the
sand samples, the variations of the void ratio of the in-
dividual sample from each Shirasu sample (the data from
7) to 12)) are also larger than that of other sand samples.
In spite of the larger variations of the void ratio found in
individual Shirasu samples compared with those of other
sand samples, however, the fitness of the envelops to the
Mohr's circles for failure of the Shirasu sample is nearly
10~--------------------------------~~------------·
NA Sample
¢d=32.7"
8
"'o 6
X

drained state, after the consolidation. The deviator stress ~4

.::.:
is applied until the axial strain reached about 15%. The
initial effective confining stress used in the drained triaxi-
al compression tests was 0.5, 1, 2, or 3 times that of the
12 20
effective overburden stress at the sampling depth. Three
or four high-quality undisturbed samples were tested for
the determination of the angle of internal friction. Fig. 9. Mohr's circles at the failure of FS samples from site NA

TEST RESULTS 5r---------------~--------------~

NG1 Sample
The typical Mohr's circles at failure and their envelops ¢d=43.4"
obtained in the drained triaxial compression tests on the 4 (a)

FS samples are shown in Figs. 8 to 13. The test results of "':: 3

X
c/>d(FS) are summarized in Table 1.
Figure 14 illustrates the relationship between the angle ~2
.::.:
of internal friction and the relative density of the FS sam- \->

ples.
As shown in Table 1, because the grain size distribu-
tion of the individual samples from each Shirasu sample , 6 8 10
indicated more variations compared with that of other a (kPa) X 10 2

5 s~------------------------------~---------------------,
IK1 Sample NG2 Sample
¢d=36.0" ¢d=37 .a·
4 4
(a) (b)
"'o
X 3
-;a
~ 2
\->

00 I0 4 6 8
a(kPa)X10 2 a(kPa)X10 2

10 10~--------------------------------------------~----------~
IK2 Sample NG5 Sample
¢d=38 2" ¢d=35.1"
8 8
(c)
(b)

6 "'o 6
X
4 :24
.::.:

00 16 20 20
a (kPa) X 10 2
Fig. 8. Mohr's circles at the failure of FS samples from site IK Fig. 10. Mohr's circles at the failure of FS samples from site NG

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6 HATANAKA AND UCHIDA

5 5~------------------~--------------~
KA1 Samp Ie KG Sample
f/>d=27.7' ¢> d=40 .4'
4 4
(a) N
0
"'o
x 3
~
~ 2
..
00 6 8 10 10
2
q (kPa) X 10

5 Fig. 13. Mohr's circles at the failure of FS samples from site KG

KA2 SamPle
f/>d=3o.o·
4
(b)
"'o 50 I
x3 1) IKl 2)1K2 3)NA 4)NG1
........
IU 5)NG2 6)NG5 7)KY1 8)KY2
~2 9)KY3 10)KG 11 )KA1 12)KA2
.. 13)after lai and Kurata(1991)
14)after Uchida et al(1990) 14) 0
14)

4)0 0
0 ~0~~--~--~~4~----~6----~~8------~10 t:
/ "
2
0...-.. I
I "
u (kPa) X 10 10)
..... ::::: / "
Fig. 11. Mohr's circles at the failure of FS samples from site KA ucn
·- u.. 40- 0/ -
14) 6b
...__, 2) 0"0
lo-"0 7),.. • 14)
'+- -s.. .. / 0 0 5)
~ 1) 14)/ 14)
5 ~(/,)
KYl Sample ca.>
,_- 0 /

" 9) 6)
f/>d=38.7' Q.)a.
/0 0
~/
4 ...,.e
(a) 03)
"'~ 3
·-cctl (/,)
Toyoura sand B)
after Yoshimi et al 0·
"'-V)
X
au.. 12)
:22 30~
( 1978) 0 -
.:.tl. a.>5
.. -
C)
s::::
'4-
0 011)
13)
<
00 4 6 8 10
q (kPa) X T02
5
KY2 Sample FS sample
4
f/>d=31.0'
(b)
20 o~-----=s~o
1
______,loo
"'o
x 3
Relative density,Dr(%)
~ Fig. 14. Relationship between the angle of internal friction and the rel-
~2 ative density of FS samples
..
in the same degree as those for other sand samples as indi-
00 10
8 cated in Figs. 8 to 13. Based on these results, in Fig. 14,
the average value of the relative density both for Shirasu
5 samples and other sand samples were plotted for discus-
KY3 Sample
f/>d=35.0' sion purposes.
4
(c) Also shown in Fig. 14 are the data from other investiga-
"'~ 3
tors (Iai and Kurata, 1991; Uchida et al., 1990) on the FS
X samples and the test results of the reconstituted samples
:22 made from Toyoura sand presented by Yoshimi et al.
~
.. (1978). As indicated in Fig. 14, in spite of the satisfactory
correlation between the angle of internal friction and the
relative density for Toyoura sand (a dotted line), there is
00 4 6 8 10 no satisfactory common relationship between the angle
2
u(kPa)X10 of internal friction and the relative density for all types
Fig. 12. Mohr's circles at the failure of FS samples from site KY of undisturbed sand samples.

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 N-VALUE AND FRICTION ANGLE 7

It is widely known that the relative density of sandy
soils is greatly influenced by the fines content. If the sand
samples having a large potion of fines content, the maxi-
mum dry densities determined by the method of JSF stand-
ard T-26-81T (JSSMFE, 1979) is likely to be lower than
that having a small portion. of fines content. As a result,
the relative density of the sand samples is likely to be
higher. In order to take this effect on the cf>d-Dr relation
into account, and considering only the data whose fines
content is less than 10% (excluding data 6), 11) and 12)),
then the scattering of the whole data appears to be much
less as shown in Fig. 14. It is still very difficult, however,
to estimate the cf>d from D, because the in-situ density is
very sensitive to disturbance during sampling and trans-
portation as pointed out by Hatanaka et al. (1995).
Figure 15 shows the correlation between the angle of in-
ternal friction obtained in the present study (c/>d(Fs>) and
the SPT N-value at the sampling depth. In Fig. 15, the
data from 7) to 12) (the solid circles) are the test results of
Shirasu samples. Among these data, data from 7) to 10)
were recovered from man-made fills of Shirasu, while the
data from 11) and 12) were obtained from Holocene soil
layers of Shirasu. Because the soil particles of Shirasu are
very collapsible, the penetration resistance is in most
cases very low, as indicated in Fig. 15.
It can be seen in Fig. 15, excluding data No. 10), that
the c/>d(Fs> of Shirasu sample from the man-made fill is
much larger than that of Holocene Shirasu though the
difference of the N-values between them is not so large.
The larger values of the c/>d(FS) of the man-made fill may
be caused by the smaller portion of fines content and the
larger dry densities compared with those of the Holocene
Shirasu samples as indicated in Table 1.
In Fig. 15, the data from other investigators on the FS
samples are also indicated with two empirical equations
(Eq. (1) and Eq. (2)) widely used in geotechnical practice
for estimating the angle of internal friction from the SPT
N-value in Japan. As indicated in Fig. 15, as proposed
previously, the two empirical equations underestimate
the angle of internal friction for FS samples, c/>d(FS>· The
lower boundary of the c/>d(FS) for each SPT N-value shown
in Fig. 15 can be approximated by Eq. (7) which is also
shown in Fig. 15.
(7)
As described before, the SPT N-value is fundamentally
influenced by the effective overburden stress. Even
though the kind and density of the sand is the same, the
N-value will increase with the increase of the depth.
Here, the SPT N-value normalized at an effective overbur-
den pressure of 98 kPa (1 kgf I cm2), Nt, using Eq. (5) is
adopted to relate the angle of internal friction.
A fairly good correlation between N1 and the angle of
internal friction can be seen in the range of the test
results from Fig. 16. The angle of internal friction shows
a trend of increase with the increasing Nt as indicated in
Fig. 16. Some of the man-made fill Shirasu samples (the
solid circles) show larger values of cf>d compared with
those of other sand samples for the same N1-values, may
also be influenced by the weakness of soil particles for
Shirasu.
In Fig. 17, the angle of internal friction for FS samples
is replotted with (Nt) 0 ·5 • As indicated by Fig. 17, a
straight line relationship can be seen between the cf>d<Fs)
and the (Nt) 0 ·5 , although there is some scattering of the
data. The middle of the data range (the solid line) can be
expressed using Eq. (8), while almost all of the data falls
within the range of Eq. (8) ± 3 °.
c/>d={20Nt)0·5 +20 (8)
The effects of the low SPT N-values of the man-made
fill Shirasu samples (the solid circles) on the cf>d-Nt rela-
tion can also be seen in Fig. 17.
Recently, corresponding to the increasing needs for sit-
ing nuclear power plants on Quaternary deposits, the
mechanical properties of gravelly soils are a necessary fac-

50~--------~--------~--------~--,
50~--------~--------~.----------~
1)1K1 2)1K2 3)NA 4)NG1
1)1K1 2)1K2 3)NA 4)NG1 5)NG2 6)NG5 7)KY1 8)KY2
5)NG2 6)NG5 7)KY1 8)KY2 9)KY3 10)KG 11 )KAl 12)KA2
9)KY3 10)KG 11 )KA1 12)KA2 14) / 14)
s:: 13)after lai and Kurata(1991) .... 4) 0
0~ 13)after lai and Kurata(1991)
0 0 14)after Uchida et al(1990)
...,.:.....- 14)after Uchida et ·al(1990)
4) 14)
c::
0 0
0 0 14)

,..
(..)<1)
· - u.. 10) ,./
l..-:0 10)
.... ....
-s. 40 7) • 40-
•
'+-
.7) ....-- 2) 14) ,...-'O
«SCI) ,...-" 14) ~ ................ 14)
S::(l) 1)
l....-
9) or.-. s> 9) ; "" 0 I) 5) ... / ...
(l)Q.
+-'e
S::«$
• v . . •o 6)
· - Cl) 0 ,./8) 03) .........
'+- (/,)
ou..
// e ,. ,. ,.
(1) l.... 30 so~ / • 12) ,_,." -
- o
O')'f- / oe,/"
s:: ,' 13) / 11)
< I
I
I

FS sample FS sample
10 20 30 20 / I I
0 10 20 30
SPT N...:value Norma I i zed N-va I ue, N1
Fig. 15. Relationship between the angle of internal friction for FS Fig. 16. Relationship between the angle of internal friction for FS ·~
samples and SPT N-value samples and the normalized SPT N-value, N 1

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8 HATANAKA AND UCHIDA

marized in Table 2 with that of the SPT.

1)1K1 2)1K2 3)NA 4)NG1 Figute 18 shows the correlation between the cf>d of the
5)NG2 6)NG5 7)KY1 8)KY2
9)KY3 10)KG 11)KA1 12)KA2 FS samples for gravelly soils and the normalized penetra-
13)after lai and Kurata(1991)
14)after Uchida et al (1990) tion resistance obtained in the LPT, NLl. NL 1 is a normal-
s::
0~ ized LPT N-value NL at an effective overburden pressure
+':_.,
uc;;
·;: ~ 40
of 98 kPa (1 kgfl cm2) as shown in Eq. (9). Data of the
'~--s. high-quality undisturbed gravel samples is recovered by
(iiu) the in-situ freezing sampling method, and quoted from
S::(l.)
1...-
(I.)Q.
+'E
the paper presented by Suzuki et al. (1993).
S::ctl
·-(I)

'+- (/)
ou...
NLl = NL I (av' I 98) 0 ·5 (9)
(1.) 1... 30
-o
0>'1-
Where, av' is in kPa. As illustrated in Fig. 18, the angle
s::
< of internal friction for gravelly soils (c/>d(Gv>) is not so
large compared with that of the sandy soils. Although
data is quite limited, instead of Nt value being used for
sandy soils, NL1 is a useful parameter to roughly estimate
FS sample
the c/>d of gravelly soils.

0 5 10 20 30 40 50 CONCLUSIONS
Normalized N-value, N1
A series of drained triaxial compression tests was per-
Fig. 17. Relationship between the angle of internal friction for FS
samples and (N1 ) 0·s
formed on high-quality undisturbed sand samples reco-
vered by in-situ freezing sampling (FS sample) for the de-
termination of the internal friction angle, c/>d(FS)· Based
on the test results, a useful correlation between the c/>d(FS)
50.--------r--------~------~------~
and N1 as described in Eq. (8), was proposed in this
Data of high-quality
(I)
(1.)
gravel IY samples quoted study, in the range of N1 being between 3.5 and 30. N 1 is
0.
E from Suzuki et al(1993) /
/
a value of the SPT N-value normalized at an effective
<tl /

overburden pressure of 98 kPa (1 kgfl cm2) by Eq. (6).

//.
(I) /
/
(/)~ /
U...:_, /
/
/
Although data is quite limited, a similar empirical equa-
5 '§
'1-"'0
40
/
/
/
/
tion can be used for roughly estimating the c/>d of gravelly
/
s::'S. I
0
·-(I)
•
/
soils c/>d(GV) from NL1-value. NL1 is a normalized LPT NL-
+'- /
u·-
·- 0
/
/ value at an effective overburden pressure of 98 kPa (1
kgfl cm2) obtained from Eq. (9).
1...(/) /
'+- / I
>. 11
N20NL1+23---;"//
:ga; 1/ I/:_ N20NL1+17
a;~ 30 / I
+'I... /
s::O'l /
/

/
/ REFERENCES
'1-
'1-0
0 1) Dunham, J. W. (1954): "Pile foundations for buildings," Proc.
~ ASCE, Soil Mechanics and Foundation Division.
O'l r-J20N L1+20
s:: 2) Gibbs, H. J. and Holtz, W. G. (1957): "Research on determining
<
FS sample the density of sand by spoon penetration test," Proc. 4th ICSMFE,
20 ~0--------~2--------~4--------~6~----~8
Vol. 1, pp. 35-39.
3) Hatanaka, M., Uchida, A. and Oh-oka, H. (1995): "Correlation
~ between the liquefaction strength of saturated sands obtained by
0 5 10 20 30 40 50 · in-situ freezing method and rotary-type triple tube method,'' Soils
Normalized NL-value, NL1 and Foundations, Vol. 35, No.2, pp. 67-75.
4) Hatanaka, M., Sugimoto, M. and Suzuki, Y. (1985): "Liquefac-
Fig. 18. Relationship between the ~d of FS samples of gravelly soils tion resistance of two alluvial volcanic soils sampled by in situ freez-
and the normalized large-scale penetration resistance, (NLI)0•5 ing," Soils and Foundations, Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 49-63.
5) Iai, S. and Kurata, E. (1991): "Pore water pressures and ground
motions measured during the 1987 Chiba-Toho-Oki earthquake,"
tor for study. In the conventional design method, the Note of the Port and Harbour Research Institute No. 718, pp. 1-18
bearing capacity of the gravelly soils is evaluated based (in Japanese).
6) Japan Road Association (1990): "Specifications for highway
on the SPT N-value as that for the sandy soils. As dis- bridges, Part IV".
cussed by Suzuki et al. (1993), however, due to the large 7) Kitazawa, G., Takeyama, K., Suzuki, K., Oh-kawara, H. and
size of the gravel particles, it is likely to overestimate the Oh-saki, Y. (1959): Tokyo Ground Map, Gihodo.
penetration resistance. In recent years, the large-scale 8) Liao, S. S.C. and Whitman, R. V. (1986): "Overburden correction
penetration test (LPT) is sometimes used for gravelly factors for SPT in sand," Jour. of Geotechnical Engineering,
ASCE, Vol. 112, No. 3, pp. 373-377.
soils in Japan in order to reduce the effect of the large size 9) Meyerhoff, G. G. (1957): "Discussion for session 1," Proc. 4th
gravel particles on the penetration resistance. The ICSMFE, Vol. 3, pp. 110
specifications for the large-scale penetration test are sum- 10) Yoshimi, Y. (1994): "Relationship among liquefaction resistance,

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 N-VALUEAND FRICTION ANGLE
SPT N-value and relative density for undisturbed samples of
sands," Tsuchi-to-Kiso, JSSMFE, Ser. No. 435, Vol. 42, No. 4,
pp. 63-67 (in Japanese).
11) Peck, R. B., Hanson, W. E. and Thornburn, T. H. (1953): Founda-
tion Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., pp. 222.
12) Suzuki, Y., Goto, S., Hatanaka, M. and Tokimatsu, K. (1993):
"Correlation between strengths and penetration resistances for
gravelly soils," Soils and Foundations, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 92-101.
13) Uchida, A., Kano, H. and Tokimatsu K. (1990): "Correlation be-
9
tween dynamic properties and static properties of sands obtained
by in-situ freezing," 25th Annual Meeting of JSSMFE, Vol. 1, pp.
767-768 (in Japanese).
14) Yoshimi, Y., Hatanaka, M. and Oh-oka, H. (1978): ''Undisturbed
sampling of saturated sand by freezing," Soils and Foundations,
Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 59-73.
15) Yoshimi, Y., Tokimatsu, K., Kaneko 0. and Makihara, Y. (1984):
"Undrained cyclic shear strength of a dense Niigata sand," Soils
and Foundations, Vol. 24, No. 4, pp. 131-145.
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