Correlations Between Electrical Resistivity and Geotechnical Parameters for Jiangsu Marine Clay Using Spearman’s Coefficient Test

Abstract

The correlations and relationships between electrical resistivity and geotechnical parameters of soils have become very important for site investigation. However, there is a lack of understanding about the relationships between electrical resistivity and geotechnical parameter values. The resistivity piezocone penetration tests and laboratory tests have been conducted for geotechnical investigations of marine clay in Jiangsu province of China to establish quantitative relationships between electrical and geotechnical data. The geotechnical investigation reveals that electrical resistivity values are very low for marine clay in Jiangsu, ranging from 5 to 10 Ω m. The correlations between electrical resistivity and geotechnical parameters are examined using Spearman’s rank correlation test that is a rank-based test for correlation between two variables without any assumption about the data distribution. It was shown that the electrical resistivity has strong bonds with the moisture content, void ratio, salt content and plasticity index. In terms of quantitative relationships, good fitting relationships between electrical resistivity and selected geotechnical parameters are observed. The statistical analysis indicates that the electrical resistivity is a good indirect predictor of selected geotechnical parameters. The data studied demonstrates the usefulness of the in situ resistivity method in geotechnical investigations, which have an advantage over other geotechnical methods in cost performance.