A numerical study of cone penetration in fine-grained soils allowing for consolidation effects

Abstract

This paper presents results from a numerical study performed to examine cone penetration response that spans fully undrained to fully drained conditions. Coupled-consolidation finite-element analyses, which accounted for large deformation and finite sliding effects, were carried out using Abaqus/Standard v6.6 at various rates of cone penetration. The model assumed a smooth soil/cone interface, with the soil idealised as a homogeneous elastic-perfectly plastic material obeying a non-dilatant Drucker–Prager yield criterion. The results for the limiting undrained and drained conditions are compared with published strain path and cone factor solutions. The significant advance of this work is the establishment of the theoretical backbone curves arising from the effects of partial consolidation during cone penetration. The factors affecting the backbone curves are examined, and a simplified procedure for deriving these curves is proposed using a hyperbolic fit. An example is then presented to illustrate how the data from measured field cone tests performed at different penetration rates may be used to estimate the strength, deformation and consolidation characteristics of a soil.

Application of a Coupled Eulerian–Lagrangian approach on pile installation problems under partially drained conditions

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“…(24) depends significantly on the soil stiffness. For a given modulus ratio G=p 0 ¼ 35, the numerical results of Yi et al [33] can be fitted by [-] Fig. 7.…”

“…An implicit integration scheme is applied to calculate the pile jacking process in Grabe and König [6], Sheng et al [27] and Yi et al [33]. The numerical results were validated by comparison with the measured pile resistance.…”

Simple Numerical Model to Simulate Penetration Testing in Unsaturated Soils

“…Several attempts have been made by different researchers to overcome the challenges involved in solution schemes and mesh generation [13][14][15][16]. Recently, Nazem et al, Sheng et al, and Yi et al [17][18][19] used ALE method to avoid mesh distortion problem in soil. Thus far, this technique combined with adaptive remeshing showed the most stable responses.…”

Determination of Hydraulic Conductivity Using a Modified Cylindrical-Half-Spherical Piezocone Model

“…Fitting curve between the initial pore water pressures with negative exponent distribution (modified from Wang et al[24]) Distribution of excess pore pressures: a Yi et al[40]; b…”