Physical and numerical modeling of cone penetration to support critical state line-based CPTu interpretation
Physical and numerical modeling of cone penetration to support critical state line-based CPTu interpretation
Current cone penetration test (CPTu) interpretation methods rely heavily on empirical correlations to estimate soil parameters such as relative density, over-consolidation ratio, and initial state. While effective for standard soils such as quartz and silica-based sands, these correlations tend to be less reliable when applied to non-standard soils that fall outside the range of the datasets used to develop the correlations. This study leverages centrifuge modeling to support numerical modeling and explore how CPTu measurements relate to fundamental soil behavior. Using centrifuge modeling, CPTu tests were performed in Ottawa F-65 sand to examine cone tip resistance (qt), normalized tip resistance (qt1N), and sleeve friction (fs) for relative density of 40% and 80%. Direct penetration numerical modeling of these centrifuge tests is used to simulate the soils stress path from its initial state to the cone tip and friction sleeve in relation to the soils critical state line. This supports development of a CSL-based interpretation for CPTu data and provides a first step towards its application to non-standard soils in future work.
Salvador Beltran; D. M. Moug; Brandon Auyeung
11th International Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics (ICPMG2026)
Session 1: New facilities, new equipment, and measuring techniques
https://doi.org/10.53243/ICPMG2026-369