AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF THE CONE PENETRATION TEST by cee-Ing Te! A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Oxtord Hertford College inity Term, 1987ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I like to thank Dr Guy Houlsby who has been an extremely able and conscientious supervisor of my work. His guidance and thoughtful suggestions have been invaluable throughout the course of this study. His advice and comments during the preparation of this thesis are also very much appreciated. I am indebted to Dr Harvey Burd for the many helpful discussions on the various aspects of large displacement finite element analysis, and for the use of his frontal solving routine. T am grateful to Professor Cesar Sagaseta of the University of Cantabria, Santander, vho provided me with detailed explanations of his solutions to the cavity expansion and cone tip problems referred to in this thesis. I must also thank my friend Tack Weng vho painstakingly proof read the final draft of this thesis. It is a privilege to be a member of the Oxford University Soil Mechanics Group under the able leadership of Professor Peter Wroth. The friendly atmosphere he engenders in the group has made it a particularly stimulating place to work in. And to all fellow members in the group vho have contributed in variou: ways tovards this vork, I vould like to express my thanks. I am particularly grateful to Kuok Foundation, Malaysia, for the scholarship and the generous financial support, without which all these would not have been possible. Above everything else, it is the kindness of everyone at the Foundation that I shall alvays remember. Last but not the least, I vould like to express my sincere gratitude to my parents, brothers and sisters for their continuing support and encouragement, and to Meei Fang vhose love and understanding have been a constant source of motivation.ABSTRACT An Analytical Study of the Cone Penetration Test Teh, Cee Ing Hertford College, University of Oxford A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Trinity Term, 1987 The quasi-static penetration of a cone penetrometer into clay cait be formilated as a steady state problen by considering a steady flow of soil past a stationary cone. The soil velocities are estimated from the flow field of an inviscid fluid, and the inconpressibility condition is achieved by adopting a strean fonction formulation. Emphasis is placed on obtaining an acclirate velocity estinate and this is accomplished by a solution of the Navier-Stokes equations. The strain rates are evaluated from the flow field using a finite difference scheme. The clay is modelled as a homogeneous incompressible elastic-perfectly plastic material and the soil stresses are computed by integrating along streanlines from some initial stress state in the upstream region, These stresses do not in general obey the equilibrium equations, although one of the two equations can be satisfied by an appropriate choice of the mean stress. Several attempts have been made to use the remaining equilibrium equation to vitain an improved velocity estimate and three plausible iterative methods are detailed in this thesis In a second study, a series of finite clement calculations on the cone penetration ptoblen is performed. In modelling the penetration process, the cone is introduced in a pte-formed hole and some initial stresses assumed in the soil, incremental displacements are then applied to the cone until a failure condition is reached. Although the equilibrium condition is satisfied very closely in the finite element calculations, it is extremely difficult to achieve a steady state solution. Th a third series of computations, the stresses evaluated by the strain path method are used as the starting condition for the finite element analysis. This is believed to give the most realistic solution of the cone penetration problem because both the steady state and equilibrium conditions are approximately satisfied. Numerically derived cone factors are presented and these are found to depend on the rigidity index of the soil and the in situ stresses. The pore pressure distribution in the soil around the penetrometer is estimated using Henkel’s empivical equation. The dissipation analysis is based on Terzaghi’s uncoupled consolidation theory. The governing equation is formulated in the Alternating-Direction-Implicit finite difference schene. This formulation is unconditionally stable and variable time steps are used to optimise the solution procedure. The dissipation curves are found to be significantly affected by the rigidity index of the soil and a dimensionless time factor is proposed to account for this effect.