Standard Penetration Testing in a virtual calibration chamber

TY - JOUR

T1 - Standard Penetration Testing in a virtual calibration chamber

AU - Zhang, Ningning

AU - Arroyo, Marcos

AU - Ciantia, Matteo

AU - Gens, Antonio

AU - Butlanska, Joanna

N1 - The first author was supported by a CSC grant. This work was partly supported by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain through the research grant BIA2017-84752-R and the EU H2020 RISE programme “Geo-ramp” (grant 645665).

PY - 2019/7

Y1 - 2019/7

N2 - The virtual calibration chamber technique, based on the discrete element method, is here applied to study the standard penetration test (SPT). A macro-element approach is used to represent a rod driven with an impact like those applied to perform SPT. The rod is driven into a chamber filled with a scaled discrete analogue of a quartz sand. The contact properties of the discrete analogue are calibrated simulating two low-pressure triaxial tests. The rod is driven changing input energy and controlling initial density and confinement stress. Energy-based blowcount normalization is shown to be effective. Results obtained are in good quantitative agreement with well-accepted experimentally-based relations between blowcount, density and overburden. It is also shown that the tip resistance measured under impact dynamic penetration conditions is close to that under constant velocity conditions, hence supporting recent proposals to relate CPT and SPT results.

AB - The virtual calibration chamber technique, based on the discrete element method, is here applied to study the standard penetration test (SPT). A macro-element approach is used to represent a rod driven with an impact like those applied to perform SPT. The rod is driven into a chamber filled with a scaled discrete analogue of a quartz sand. The contact properties of the discrete analogue are calibrated simulating two low-pressure triaxial tests. The rod is driven changing input energy and controlling initial density and confinement stress. Energy-based blowcount normalization is shown to be effective. Results obtained are in good quantitative agreement with well-accepted experimentally-based relations between blowcount, density and overburden. It is also shown that the tip resistance measured under impact dynamic penetration conditions is close to that under constant velocity conditions, hence supporting recent proposals to relate CPT and SPT results.

KW - Blowcount

KW - Discrete element method

KW - Energy

KW - Fontainebleau sand

KW - Standard penetration test

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85063939796

U2 - 10.1016/j.compgeo.2019.03.021

DO - 10.1016/j.compgeo.2019.03.021

M3 - Article

SN - 0266-352X

VL - 111

SP - 277

EP - 289

JO - Computers and Geotechnics

JF - Computers and Geotechnics

ER -