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Static Cone Penetration Tests

Article · January 1979

DOI: 10.4224/20338200

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 STATIC CONE PENETRATION TESTS

by
J.H. Schmertmann

PREFACE

Professor John H. Schmertmann, Department of Civil Engineering,

University of Florida, was a visiting scientist with the Geotechnical
Section, Division of Building Research, from September 1971 to
August 1972. During part of his stay he conducted investigations on
three in situ test methods in sensitive clay: the static cone
penetrometer, the hydraulic fracture method and the Menard
pressuremeter.

His work on the hydraulic fracture method has subsequently been

incorporated in the publication, "Minor principal stress measurements
in marine clay with hydraulic fracture testsffby M. Bozozuk,
Proceedings, Conference on Subsurface Exploration for Underground
Excavation and Heavy Construction, Henniker, N.H., ASCE, 1974,
pp. 333-349. Work with the modified Menard pressuremeter and the
the static cone penetrometer is now presented in DBR Reports 450
and 451as a record for the benefit of ensuing work on these two test
methods.

Ottawa C .B. Crawford

May 1979 Director, DBR/NRC
 'I'he purpose of the study was to investigate further the possibility
of predicting undrained strengths from cone tests, i.e., determine the
Nc factor in the equation qc = Nc x s U . It was hoped that during
penetration testing the newly developed Fugro friction cone would
provide additional quantitative information on the friction ratio, or
ratio of local sleeve friction to bearing capacity of the cone tip.
The friction ratio might provide an indication of the sensitivity of the
clay and hence allow a more reliable determination of Nc.

A Fugro friction-cone tip with especially high sensitivity

000 kg tip, 750 kg sleeve) was obtained. The cone was calibrated and
.eld tests involving four continuous profiles within the research area
north of the DBR building were carried out. The cone bearing values for
these four tests and the friction ratios determined for one of them are
presented in this report.

METHODS AND RESULTS

Suuulemental Theoretical Study

Ladanyi (2) has shown that the shape of the undrained stress-strain
compression curve has a great influence on the theoretical derivation of
the value of the Nc factor, the calculated value of Nc varying from
1 to 10. He simplified the stress-strain curve into a sequence of three
straight-line portions, involving four unknowns. Thus, despite this
simplification, an investigator must obtain four independent undrained
strength parameters before Nc can be determined. Even the friction
cone offers only two parameters - end bearing and local friction
(or friction ratio). In principle, therefore, friction-cone data provide
insufficient information to determine Nc . If two of the four unknowns
are of minor importance, however, it may be possible to use friction cone
measurements to estimate Nc .
To investigate this possibility a parametric study of Ladanyi's
equation for Nc was carried out. The details of this study are
presented in Appendix A. Figures A-1 and A-2 in Appendix A present the
results in graphical form and show that within certain broad limits for
sensitivity (St) and the strain at complete rernoulding ( E ~ ) the Nc
factor depends almost entirely on the slopes of the first two increasing
and decreasing stress lines of Ladanyi's three-line approximation.
Figure A-2 expresses this as the ( E + / E m ) ratio.

Thus, perhaps in many cases the Nc factor can be adequately

estimated on the basis of only two unknowns. After the stress-strain
simplification to the Ladanyi three-line case, it remains to be seen
whether highly sensitive clays, such as the Leda clay, fall within the
St and cr limitations and thus allow a two-parameter estimate of Nc .
The results obtained in this study and reported in Internal Report 450
indicate that they do not.
Cone Bearine Loes

After appropriate calibration of the cone tip in the laboratory,

including calibrations in a humid room at lower temperatures,* a series
of four soundings, S1 to S4 were performed within the trial research area
north of Building M-2 at the Montreal Road Laboratories of the National
Research Council. For each sounding, continuous penetration loss of
end-bearing and friction-sleeve resistance were obtained on a two-pen
chart recorder. There was an interruption in the continuity of
penetration at 5-ft intervals to check the drill rods at the end of
thrust of the hydraulic feed of the drilling. By regulating the feed
valve to the hydraulic cylinder a nearly constant rate of penetration of
1.5 cm/s was achieved and used for soundings S1, S3 and S4. For S2,
a rate of 0.4 cm/s was used to indicate the influence of the rate of
penetration. A comparison plot of the depth dependence of the cone-bearing
values for these four tests is shown in Figure 1. In this figure, three
of the profiles show bearing values determined at 1-ft intervals, without
averaging over these intervals. The fourth log (sounding S4) shows bearing
values obtained by graphically averaging over each successive 1-ft interval.

It may be noted in Figure 1 that about a fourfold decrease in

penetration rate appeared to produce about an 8 per cent reduction in cone
bearing. This is based on only one test at the slower rate, however.

Figure 1 also shows the cone-bearing profile determined by Ladanyi (3)

using the 10 cm2 Borros electrical tip. The straight-sided Fugro tip
appears to yield qc values approximately 52 per cent greater than those
from the Borros tip. The shaft diameter of the Rorros tip reduces to
3.20 cm only 1.5 cm above the 3.57 cm diameter of the base of the cone.
It is suspected that the reduced diameter permits the escape of remoulded
clay "fluid" from under the cone, which relieves pressure and reduces q c .

Local Friction and Friction Ratios

With the use of the new Fugro friction-cone tip it soon became obvious,
despite the special increased sensitivity of the sleeve, that local friction
was of very small magnitude and near the limit of what could be sensed with
precision. Thus, the zero position of the chart line for local friction
became of special importance. It was found that this position drifted
significantly and somewhat unpredictably as a result of ground temperature
effects, the radial pressures on the tip due to insertion and perhaps the
interaction between the cone and sleeve transducers. To avoid this problem,
a procedure was devised of temporarily reversing the direction of movement
at convenient depth intervals and then determining the zero friction
position by averaging the before and after downward movement values with the

*Calibration data are not included because the cone tip has been dismantled
for new strain gauges and will require new calibrations.
 i n t e r m e d i a t e upward movement v a l u e s . The upward movement was conducted a t
t h e same r a t e a s t h e downward. T h i s p r o c e d u r e was u s e d f o r sounding S4.
'I'he method a p p e a r s t o be s u c c e s s f u l i n t h a t i t gave r e a s o n a b l y w e l l
d e f i n e d p o s i t i o n s f o r z e r o f r i c t i o n which were c o n s i s t e n t w i t h d e p t h .

A small c o r r e c t i o n f o r t h e e f f e c t o f t h e cone r e a d i n g on t h e s l e e v e
r e s i s t a n c e r e a d i n g was a l s o made. T h i s e f f e c t was p a r t o f t h e i n i t i a l
c a l i b r a t i o n and had t o be i n c l u d e d t o e s t a b l i s h t h e z e r o s l e e v e f r i c t i o n
position.

A f t e r making t h e above c o r r e c t i o n s , it was p o s s i b l e t o compute l o c a l

f r i c t i o n w i t h some p r e c i s i o n , d e s p i t e i t s v e r y s m a l l magnitude. D i v i d i n g
t h e a v e r a g e l o c a l f r i c t i o n o v e r some d e p t h i n t e r v a l by t h e a v e r a g e cone
b e a r i n g o v e r t h e same i n t e r v a l g i v e s t h e f r i c t i o n r a t i o (FR) f o r t h a t
i n t e r v a l . F i g u r e 1 i n c l u d e s a p r o f i l e o f t h i s r a t i o a s d e t e r m i n e d from
t h e s i n g l e r e c o r d a v a i l a b l e , S4, u s i n g computation d e p t h i n t e r v a l s o f
1.0 f t .

The f r i c t i o n r a t i o p r o f i l e i n F i g u r e 1 shows a c o n t i n u o u s d e c r e a s e
with d e p t h o v e r t h e d e p t h i n t e r v a l i n v e s t i g a t e d , r a n g i n g from about
1 . 0 p e r c e n t a t 20 f t t o about 0.20 p e r c e n t a t 45 f t . I t i s known from
p r e v i o u s e x p e r i e n c e t h a t i f t h e c l a y were i n s e n s i t i v e t h e f r i c t i o n r a t i o
would be about 5 t o 8 p e r c e n t . Thus, t h e s e n s i t i v i t y o f t h i s c l a y
d e f i n i t e l y caused a d r a m a t i c r e d u c t i o n i n t h e o t h e r w i s e e x p e c t e d f r i c t i o n
r a t i o . Furthermore, t h e r e i s a f i v e f o l d d e c r e a s e i n f r i c t i o n r a t i o w i t h
d e p t h which c o r r e s p o n d s t o t h e known s i g n i f i c a n t i n c r e a s e o f s e n s i t i v i t y
with d e p t h f o r t h e c l a y a t t h e s i t e . Thus, a t t h i s s t a g e o f t h e r e s e a r c h
t h e r e i s every reason t o believe t h a t t h e f r i c t i o n r a t i o w i l l c o r r e l a t e
w i t h s e n s i t i v i t y . S e n s i t i v i t i e s a t t h e s i t e , a s d e t e r m i n e d by t h e f i e l d
vane, v a r i e d from about 30 a t 26 f t (FR = 0.73 p e r c e n t ) t o 50 a t 44 f t
(FR = 0.20 p e r c e n t ) . The r a t i o o f ( s l e e v e f r i c t i o n ) / ( r e m o u l d e d vane
s t r e n g t h ) v a r i e d from about 2 . 5 t o 4 .

There i s now some q u e s t i o n o f t h e importance o f s e n s i t i v i t y a s a s o i l

p a r a m e t e r f o r t h e s e c l a y s . S e n s i t i v i t y i n t h e s e c l a y s h a s always been
d i f f i c u l t t o measure and d e f i n e . With L a d a n y i ' s r e c e n t work ( 3 ) , t o g e t h e r
w i t h t h e p r e s s u r e m e t e r r e s e a r c h r e p o r t e d i n a companion r e p o r t ( 4 ) , it
a p p e a r s t h a t t h e immediate p o s t - p e a k b e h a v i o u r i s o f more importance t h a n
t h e c o m p l e t e l y remoulded s t r e n g t h a t v e r y h i g h s t r a i n s .

THE FUGRO TIP

From t h i s s t u d y it a p p e a r s t h a t a s t r a i g h t - s i d e d e l e c t r i c p e n e t r o m e t e r ,
without diameter reduction n e a r t h e t i p , i s r e q u i r e d t o e v a l u a t e bearing
c a p a c i t y f a c t o r s o r u n d r a i n e d s h e a r s t r e n g t h from s t a t i c cone p e n e t r a t i o n
t e s t s . The Fugro t i p p r e s e n t s some problems t h a t need t o be r e s o l v e d ,
however. The i n t e r a c t i o n o f t h e cone w i t h t h e s l e e v e and t h e e f f e c t o f
a l l - a r o u n d p r e s s u r e on t h e s l e e v e r e a d i n g s need f u r t h e r s t u d y . The w a t e r
s e a l a p p e a r s t o be i n e f f e c t i v e and t h e method o f bonding t h e s t r a i n gauges
a p p e a r s s e n s i t i v e t o t h e p r e s e n c e o f w a t e r . Recent i n f o r m a t i o n r e c e i v e d
from people associated with the aerospace industry suggests that Fugro's
present method of selecting strain gauges and bonding them is quite
old fashioned and could be greatly improved. An alternative is to
purchase the Fugro cones and select and mount improved gauges.

It is convenient to have a cable connection above the tip but the

design of the present Fugro connection makes it very difficult to
waterproof adequately. After some electrical problems it was decided to
remove this connection from the system rather than use it in its present
form .

REFERENCES

(1) Ladanyi, B. and Eden, W.J. Use of the deep penetration test in
sensitive clays. Proceedings, Seventh International Conference on
Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Mexico, Vol. 1, 1969,
pp. 225-230.

(2) Ladanyi, B. Deep punching of sensitive clays. Proceedings, Third

Panamerican Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering,
Caracas, Vol. 1, 1967, pp. 533-546.
(3) Ladanyi, B. A study of deep penetration tests in sensitive clays.
National Research Council of Canada,'Division of Building Research,
Internal Report 360, 1968, Figure 14.
(4) Schmertmann, J.H. Pressuremeter tests in Leda clay. National
Research Council of Canada, Division of Building Research, Internal
Report 450, 1979.
 FIGURE 1
CONE BEARING AND FRICTION RATIO PROFILES FROM
FOUR PRELIMINARY SOUNDINGS BEHIND DBR BUILDING
 A P P E N D I X A

Additional Theoretical Studies

from Ladanyi's Equations for Nc

 6d - P f - f ' * h : %, GP)5
e p )
$9 3 -- s, 20, roo
% 5 a, 10, 5 0

€Ip
-- 8.02, 0 . a 0 , 1.00

The key question is whether the set of two measurements obtained by the friction
cone has the theoretical potential to be an indicator of (correlate with) N
C
.
If so, under what limitations of soil types or soil characteristics? This key
question can be investigated by making a parametric study of the factors in
eq. (15).
 Conclusions
(assuming equation valid)
1. For St 2 10, the Nc factor is practically
independent of St.
2. At any given St > 10, the Nc factor is
practically independent of the E, strain,
for E~ 2 10%.
3. The factor of overwhelming importance in
predicting Nc for clays with St 2 10 is the
ratio (Er/cP) .

Significance:
For a clay with known St 2 10 and cr 2 10% (most sensitive clays), predicting
Nc involves predicting the ratio of the two unknowns (cr/cP). The static cone
also determines a ratio, f/q = FRY and therefore has the potential to correlate

with (E~/E~,),determine Nc, and then obtain su =

qc - PA
Nc

FIGURE A-1

RESULTS OF FIRST PARAMETRIC STUDY OF LADANYI'S EQUATION FOR Nc

then
 [gl [logl0 s c a l e 1
Appears one can u s e approximate e q u a t i o n

with e r r o r -
< l o % , compared t o Ladanyi (15)

if: [g] -4

Comments :

1. The s l o p e r a t i o ( E + / E - ) a l s o a p p e a r s t o b e a good index o f N c , a s a

substitute f o r (EJE ) .
P
2. The s l o p e r a t i o may even be s u p e r i o r t o t h e s t r a i n r a t i o i n t h a t :
a. somewhat l e s s s e n s i t i v e t o o t h e r v a r i a b l e s i n t h e Nc prediction;
h. p e r h a p s e a s i e r t o g e t s l o p e r a t i o b e c a u s e n o t n e c e s s a r y t o go t o
t h e Er strain.

FIGURE A-2
RESULTS OF SECOND PARAPIETRIC STUDY OF LADANYI'S EQUATION FOR Nc
 Implications of Previous Study

For certain clays, perhaps most sensitive ones, a single ratio of 2

parameters determines Nc ,

The friction cone determines 2 parameters, qc and fS

f
S
Their ratio - - FR should depend on
c "
stress-strain curve, or
[F] 1

Should be possible to obtain correlations:

&a
rod &;st

This method (cone) will not permit getting St , unless

E
-+

and St somehow related.

E-
E increases?
Would expect that St increase as
+

-
E-

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