A PLASTICITY MODEL

FOR SWEDISH WEIGHT SOUNDING TEST

Naoaki SUEMASA, Keiko SHINKAI, Tomohiro SUZAWA,

and Masahiro TAMURA

ABSTRACT: This paper proposes a new interpretation of the results from the Swedish weight
sounding. A series of the Swedish weight sounding tests using a miniature screw point was
conducted for model grounds of clay, loam and sand. Based on the test results, a plasticity
theory analogy model was proposed. In the model, the elliptical yield locus was adopted with
the elliptical plastic potential. The analytical procedure gave the SWS a new interpretation of
the results, in which soils can be classified by using the relationship among Nsw, a measured
torque and an applied vertical load.

KEYWORDS: Swedish weight sounding test, plasticity theory analogy model, combined
loading, field test, model test

1. INTRODUCTION

The Swedish weight sounding test is one of the oldest and the most commonly used
soundings to investigate shallow soil strata. In Japan, since the Housing Quality Assurance
Act was enacted in 2000, the Swedish weight sounding has been widely used to examine
performance levels of housing lots. The Swedish weight sounding apparatus consists of a
screw point, sounding rods, a rotating handle and 6 pieces of weights making a total of 100 kg.
In this test, the screw point jointed by the rods is stepwise loaded until the screw point
penetrates into a soil stratum. If the screw point can’t penetrate under the maximum load of
100 kg, it is rotated by using the handle. Penetration resistance of a soil stratum is estimated
by either a load required to penetrate, Wsw, or the number of half turns at which the screw
point was rotated to penetrate to a planned depth. In the present Japanese Industrial Standards,
the number of half turns is converted into a value required for 1m penetration as Nsw.
The Swedish weight sounding test has advantages of simpler system, faster
procedure and better cost efficiency in comparison with any other soundings. There is,
however, an inevitable disadvantage on the interpretation of the test results, which is derived
from using these two different indicators Wsw and Nsw in the test. The load Wsw with a
dimension of force can be easily corresponded to strength or bearing capacity of the
penetrated soil layer. The half turns number Nsw is, however, difficult to be related with Wsw
as well as strength of the layer, except for using any empirical relationship.
This paper tackled to grasp the relationship between Wsw and Nsw by using the
concept of the plasticity theory analogy because the Swedish weight sounding test using both
a vertical load and a torque is typically one of the combined loading problems.

Torque
2. MODEL TEST measuring
wrench
2.1 Test procedure
A series of the tests using a miniature of the Swedish Rod

weight sounding apparatus was conducted to study

Weight
fundamentally the interactive relationships among an applied
load, a measured torque and Nsw. The miniature screw point
reduced to the scale of 1/5 was used, which was made of
sintering silver for making silver rings with a maximum Screw point
6.7mm
diameter of 6.6mm and a length of 4cm. The tests were Screw

30cm
point
conducted in the same way as the prototype test, in which the

40mm
screw point was rotated by hand after it was stepwise loaded
Model
by weights to a planned maximum load. This procedure was
ground
repeated at every 5cm penetration. A torque was measured by
a torque measuring wrench and a penetration depth Fig. 1 Test apparatus
was measured by a ruler. In addition, numbers of Wsw(N) Nsw(ht/m)
half turns and applied loads were recorded. An 0 50 100 150
100
illustration of the test apparatus is shown in Fig.1. 0
In the tests, four kinds of soils were used,
including Fujinomori clay, Kanto loam and 5
Toyoura sand. The clay layer was consolidated by
Depth(cm)

the seepage consolidation method with a surcharge 10

of 24kPa, thus having a profile of the strength
increasing with depth. The loam ground was made 15
by compacting each loam layer of 5cm thickness
with a static pressure of 24kPa and filling them up 20

to 30cm. Two kinds of sand layers were made by

25
the air pluviation method with relative densities of
60% for medium and 90% for dense, respectively. Fig.2 The results for medium sand
To study the interaction between torque
and applied load, various kinds of maximum loads were adopted in addition to the standard
load of 4kg corresponding to 100kg of the maximum weight used in the prototype test.
2.2 Test results
An example of the test results is shown in Fig.2. For the medium sand shown in Fig.2,
the weight was stepwise increased at every 5 N until 100 N of the planned maximum load was
applied at the depth of 15cm, and it caused the corresponding settlement. As the screw point
was rotated at the depth of 15cm, it was penetrated into the ground. After the applied load was
removed in every 5cm of penetration, it was loaded again for the next penetration of 5cm.

3. CONSTITUTION OF A PLASTICITY MODEL

3.1 A plasticity theory analogy model

The plasticity analogy model, originally proposed by Nova & Montrasio (1991), has
been applied for many problems, as seen in Gottardi and Butterfield (1993), Bransby and
Randolph (1998), Martin and Houlsby (2001), Suemasa (2001), Zhang et al. (2002) and Guo
(2005) and so on. In the model, the interactive relationship between the combined loads and
the corresponding displacements can be described as constitutive equations like constitutive
models for soil behavior. Especially, it has a great advantage on constituting a model for a
structure having a regular shape. The Swedish weight sounding with the regular shape of
screw point is, therefore, one of the most appropriate problems for the plasticity analogy
model.
In this research, to clarify the interaction between the torque and the vertical force, a
plasticity theory analogy model for the Swedish weight sounding was proposed.

3.2 Frame work of the plasticity model

A incremental work done by torque and vertical force is represented as,
δE = πTδnht + Wδst (1)
where T is a torque for rotation of the screw point, W is a weighted load, δnht is a incremental
number of half turns and δst is a increment of settlement caused by the load. When a
penetration load Wp is defined as a load at which the screw point penetrates into ground
without rotation, the incremental work is normalized by using the penetration load,
δE πT W δst δs
= δnht + = Tnδn ht + Wn t (2)
Wp D Wp D Wp D D
where D is a diameter of the screw point, Tn and Wn are normalized T and W, respectively.
From the observations of the test results, the elliptical yield locus with its center in
the origin was assumed in this model. That is,

c y Tn2 + Wn2 = 1 (3)

where cy is a coefficient of yield locus. By substituting the definitions of the normalized

forces into the equation, another form of the yield locus is given as,
  πT 
[ ]
2
1
 D  = c W p − W
2 2
(4)
y

A function of plastic displacement potential is also assumed as the elliptical,

c p Tn2 + Wn2 = 1 (5)

where cp is a coefficient of plastic potential. If the associate flow rule is adopted, cp will equal
to cy. Differentiating this plastic potential function gives a displacement incremental vector,
δnht πT
N sw D = = cp (6)
δst D WD
where Nsw is the same parameter as Nsw
20000
used in the Swedish weight sounding and 15cm
the number of half turns per 1m of (πT/D) (N ) 15000 20cm
2

penetration. NswD represented in eq. (6) is 25cm

2

10000
a normalized parameter giving the
relationship between the rotation and the 5000
settlement of the screw point.
0
0 1000 2000 3000
3.3 Analytical results and discussions W2 (N 2)

From the view of the plasticity Fig.3 The relationship between T and W
model described above, all of the test 3
5cm
results were reconstituted. The elliptical 2.5
10cm
yield locus being supposed, the penetration 2 15cm
πT/W p D

load Wp can be obtained as a intercept with 1.5 20cm

24cm
the abscissa by using eq. (4). Fig. 3 shows 1

the penetration loads for the clay ground. 0.5

0
The relationship between the torque and
0 0.5 1 1.5
the vertical load normalized by the W/Wp

penetration loads obtained above is

Fig.4 Yield locus for clay
represented in Fig. 4. Although there is a 2
scatter in the data, it can be seen that there 5cm
1.5 10cm
exists the yield locus shown in the solid 15cm
NswD

line, where the coefficient of this yield 1 20cm

24cm
locus cy was 0.4. The coefficient of the
0.5
plastic potential cp can be obtained from
the relationship between NswD and πT/WD 0
as shown in eq. (6). As shown in Fig. 5, it 0 5 10 15 20 25
πT/WD
was observed that NswD linearly increased
Fig.5 The coefficient of plastic potential
 2
2
5cm
5cm
1.5 10cm
1.5 10cm
15cm
πT/W p D

15cm
20cm

Nsw D
1 20cm
1
25cm
25cm
0.5
0.5

0
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
0 2 4 6 8 10
W/Wp
πT/WD

Fig.6 Yield locus for loam Fig. 7 The plastic potential for loam

80000 1.8
1.6 5cm
60000 1.4 10cm
(πT/D) (N )

1.2
2

20cm πT/W p D
15cm
1
2

40000 20cm
25cm
0.8
25cm
0.6
20000
0.4
0.2
0 0
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
W2 (N 2)
W/Wp

Fig.8 The penetration load for med. sand Fig. 9 Yield locus for med. sand

with increasing πT/WD with a slope of 0.1.

The results in the case of loam ground were shown in Figs. 6 and 7. In the yield locus
shown in Fig. 6, it was noted that there was a line of πT/WD increasing with Wn, connected
by the elliptical yield locus. Although this line was guessed to be caused by a screw effect of
the screw point, it should be examined further. In spite of the different shape of the yield locus,
the linear relationship between NswD and πT/WD was obtained for the loam ground as well as
the clay, as shown in Fig. 7.
In the case of 25cm depth for the medium sand as shown in Fig. 8, the penetration
load Wp couldn’t be derived from the results of the applied loads. These penetration loads
were, therefore, estimated by using a linear relationship between the penetration load and the
depth. Although there was a large scatter seen in the data shown in Fig. 9, the yield locus for
medium sand showed the same tendency as that for the loam, having the termed screw effect
line. For dense sand, all of the penetration loads except for the case of 5cm depth weren’t
obtained from the test results. In the case of the dense sand, the penetration loads were
estimated by using the penetration load in the case of 5cm depth and the assumption that the
penetration load was proportional to the torque without load, which is shown as the intercept
with the ordinate in Fig 10. As a result, most of the data were plotted on not the yield locus
but the line for the screw effect in Fig. 11. NswD was, however, proportional to πT/WD as
shown in Fig. 12.
 1.5 1.2
5cm 1 5cm
10cm 10cm
1 0.8
15cm

πT/W p D
T (Nm)

15cm
20cm 0.6
20cm
0.5 0.4

0.2
0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
W (N) W/Wp

Fig. 10 T – W relationship for dense sand Fig. 11 Yield locus for dense sand

14
Table 1 Cy and Cp for the soils 12 5cm
10cm
Soil type cy cp 10
15cm
Clay 0.2 0.1 8
Nsw D
20cm
6
Loam 0.3 0.23 4
25cm

Medium sand 0.4 0.33 2

0
Dense sand 0.8 0.4
0 10 20 30 40
πT/WD

Fig. 12 The plastic potential for dense sand

The coefficients of yield locus and plastic potential are summarized in Table 2. As a
kind of soil was varied from clay to sand, both the coefficients were increasing. Because the
coefficient of plastic potential is not equal to the coefficient of yield locus for each soil, it was
concluded that the non associate flow rule should be adopted in this problem.

3.4 New interpretation of test result for the Swedish weight sounding
For the Swedish weight sounding, soil classification is one of unsolved problems.
From the test results, the coefficient of the plastic potential was confirmed to vary in soil type.
Fig. 13 shows the summarized results of NswD - πT/WD relationship. It shows that the soil
type can be clearly classified by the value of cp if the torque is measured in the test. Recently,
automatic testing machines for the Swedish weight sounding have been used. In such
machines, the torque data can be measured as a optional function. The use of cp for soil
classification is thought to be feasible for the Swedish weight sounding test.
Using the coefficient of yield locus is the alternative to classify the soil type. Fig.14
indicates the yield loci for four kinds of the soils used. If the soil layer is soft enough not to lie
on the screw effect line, which means the applied load is close to the penetration load, the
classification of the soil by this method has the same accuracy as that by using cy.
Although the Swedish weight sounding has a disadvantage derived from using two
parameters, predicting the penetration load with using eq.6 might solve this problem. In the
case, the rotation test should be done under the load lighter than that applied at the same depth.
 5
Sand clay
4 Loam
M. Sand
3

Nsw D
D. Sand
2

1
Clay

0
0 5 10 15 20 25
πT/WD

Fig. 13 The plastic potential for the soils used

2.5
Clay Clay
2 Loam
M. Sand
πT/W p D

1.5 D. Sand

0.5
Sand

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
W/Wp

Fig. 14 The yield loci for the soils used

For dense to medium sand layer, however, the use of this method should be taken care,
because the loads applied in practice might be plotted on the screw effect line and the
penetration load couldn’t be estimated.

4. CONCLUSIONS

Although there still remain the problems to be solved including rod friction and the
conclusions should be examined by the field data, the fundamental experiments conducted
and the plasticity model proposed gave the following conclusions,
1) The combination of the torque and the vertical load applied in the Swedish weight
sounding test formed the yield locus represented by the elliptical shape.
2) The relationship between these applied forces and the corresponding displacement and
rotation was also represented by the elliptical plastic potential.
3) The coefficient of plastic potential obtained with additional measure of the torque has the
possibility to classify the soil type.
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Naoaki SUEMASA: Dr. Eng., Associate professor, Dept. of Civil Engng., Musashi Institute of
Technology, 1-28-1, Tamazutsumi, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 158-8557, Japan, Fax/Phone:
+81-3-5707-2202, E-mail: nsuemasa@sc.musashi-tech.ac.jp
Keiko SHINKAI: 2nd year of Graduate student, Dept. of Civil Engng., Musashi Institute of
Technology
Tomohiro SUZAWA: Undergraduate Student, Dept. of Civil Engng., Musashi Institute of
Technology
Masahiro TAMURA: Dr. Eng., Chief Research Engineer, International Institute of
Seismology and Earthquake Engineering, Building Research Institute