State-Based Overburden Normalization of Cone Penetration Resistance in Clean Sand

Abstract

AbstractInterpretation of experimental and field cone penetration test (CPT) data from across a broad range of stress conditions requires defining the dependence of the measurements on overburden stress and other influencing factors. This paper examines three possible methods for overburden normalization of CPT tip resistance in sand at the same state parameter or same relative state parameter. The three methods for determining state-based normalized tip resistance at a reference overburden stress of 101.3 kPa (1 atm) are evaluated against calibration chamber test data for four well-studied clean sands. The CPT data from the calibration chamber tests are corrected for chamber boundary effects using two different methods to illustrate the effect this step has on derived relationships. The CPT data are further normalized to a common lateral earth pressure coefficient to illustrate the effect of this step. The three methods for state-based overburden normalization were evaluated for bias and dispersion again...