Excess Pore Water Pressure along the Friction Sleeve of a Piezocone Penetrating in Clay: Numerical Study
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 20, Issue 7
Abstract
Excess pore water pressure (EPWP) measurements taken at different positions on a penetrating piezocone into a clayey soil are believed to play an important role in correlating to its characteristics. On this subject, many correlations were proposed by several researchers, mainly empirically and mostly with EPWPs measured at the cone shoulder (u2). The use of EPWP measurements at other positions, for example, behind the friction sleeve (u3) has not been evaluated, possibly because of the lack of u3 measuring elements for most penetrometers on the market. In this study, the piezocone penetration test in saturated intact clays was numerically modeled using finite element formulation. The EPWP distribution generated along the friction sleeve was investigated and it was found that the previously mentioned distribution closely followed an exponential trend which was mainly affected by the overconsolidation ratio (OCR) and the rigidity index (Ir) of the soil. Further investigations led this study to propose an innovative relationship to estimate u3 values from measurements of common piezocone tests on the market (u2-type) and pertinent soil characteristics. The well-predicting capability of numerical modeling procedures and the proposed relationship was compared with and validated with available experimental and field piezocone test measurements.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Notation
The following symbols are used in this paper:
- cm
- soil adhesion;
- cv
- coefficient of consolidation;
- Dc
- piezocone diameter;
- e
- current void ratio;
- eN
- void ratio at p′ 1 kPa on normal compression line;
- fs
- unit sleeve friction;
- G
- shear modulus;
- Ir
- rigidity index;
- Ko
- coefficient of in situ lateral earth pressure;
- k
- coefficient of permeability;
- ls
- length of friction sleeve;
- M
- slope of CSL;
- m
- adhesion factor;
- Nkt
- cone factor relating the cone tip resistance to the undrained shear strength;
- p′
- mean effective stress;
- Pa
- atmospheric pressure;
- PI
- plasticity index;
- Q
- normalized cone tip resistance;
- qc
- measured cone tip resistance;
- qt
- corrected cone tip resistance;
- R
- isotropic OCR;
- R2
- r-square;
- r
- piezocone radius;
- su
- undrained shear strength;
- t
- time;
- u
- PWP;
- uo
- hydrostatic PWP;
- u1
- PWP at the middle of piezocone conical face;
- u2
- PWP at the cone shoulder;
- u3
- PWP behind the piezocone friction sleeve;
- V
- normalized velocity;
- v
- piezocone penetration velocity;
- z
- upward distance from u2 position along the friction sleeve;
- Δu
- EPWP (u–uo);
- α
- nondimensional constant parameter affecting the magnitude of EPWP at u3 position;
- β
- nondimensional constant parameter affecting the trend of the EPWP generated along the friction sleeve;
- κ
- slope of swelling line;
- λ
- slope of normal compression line;
- horizontal effective stress;
- σvo
- vertical total stress;
- vertical effective stress;
- υ
- Poisson's ratio; and
- ϕ′
- effective friction angle.
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Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 20 • Issue 7 • July 2020
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 4, 2019
Accepted: Dec 9, 2019
Published online: May 4, 2020
Published in print: Jul 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Oct 4, 2020
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