In-Situ Evaluation of Strength and Dilatancy of Sands Based on CPT Results

Abstract

ABSTRACT In-situ tests have been increasingly used to estimate the shear strength of soils. In this paper, we propose methods to evaluate in-situ strength and dilatancy of sandy soils based on cone penetration test (CPT) results. It takes into account the silt content, relative density and stress state of the sand. A series of laboratory test results from fundamental property tests and triaxial tests are analyzed to develop methods for in-situ evaluation of strength and dilatancy for sands. Based on test results, modified and simplified dilatancy equations, in terms of the cone penetration resistance qc and intrinsic soil variables, are proposed. Results from proposed and original dilatancy indexes show close agreements for various soil conditions. Values of intrinsic variables for the proposed dilatancy relationships were proposed as a function of silt content. Based on TX test results, a direct CPT-based correlation, applicable to both clean and silty sands, is proposed as well. In order to verify the proposed methods, calibration chamber CPT results obtained in this study and collected from the literature are adopted. It is observed that the results from the proposed methods show good agreement with the measured results.