FILE NOTE : INTERPRETATION OF CONE PENTRATION TESTING

Cone Penetration Testing has been used at Colombo South Harbour to obtain a more accurate
measurement of soil properties with depth. The tests have shown the majority of the below
seabed deposits to comprise sands, but with some interbedded clay layers.
Normally, CPT results are compared with standard chartstables to obtain values of the angle
of internal friction !". However, these chartstables have often been derived from e#uating
the CPT with SPT and using the correlation for the latter, as indicated below.
Cone
$esistance
%ensity SPT
!N"
$elative
%ensity !%r"

&'
' to (
( to )'
)' to '*
+'*
,ery loose
-oose
.edium %ense
%ense
,ery %ense
&(
( to )*
)* to /*
/* to 0*
+0*
&'*
'* to (*
(* to 1*
1* to 2*
2* to )**
&/*
/* to /0
/0 to (*
(* to (0
+(0
The limiting values may be drawn as below3
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
0 5 10 15 20 25
Qc (MPa)
R
e
l
a
t
i
v
e

D
e
n
s
i
t
y

(
D
r
)
/
P
h
i

(
d
e
g
)
This seems overly simplistic. 4lso, much of the strata having the most significant effect on
the engineering of the South Harbour is of relatively low depths !sea bed to between five and
ten metres". Hence, the effective vertical stress is relatively low. Several authors have shown
that measured penetration resistance at small confining pressures is indicative of higher
degrees of relative density. 4n allowance for this effect should be ta5en into account.
The prime source of information is Cone Penetration Testing in Geotechnical Practice by
-unne, $obertson and Powell !)667".
4 relationship is given correcting relative %ensity !%r" with overburden pressure as below.
Care has to be ta5en that corrections made using this graph are used in subse#uent graphs
without 8double accounting9.
-ittle data is presented at the very low vertical effective stresses that are of interest at South
Harbour. However, the trend of increased %r with confining stress at constant :c is clear.
The upper left rectangle has been e;trapolated within calculations to obtain trends suitable for
use at South harbour.
Having obtained corrected %r, it is then possible to obtain values of using the table given
above. 4n alternative is to use the chart below which allows a further correction for grading3
4 further chart relating %r to is given below. However, it is assumed that the %r used on the
;<a;is should be the uncorrected value as the graph itself provides the correction.
4n alternative to deriving a corrected %r is to use the chart below which provides a direct
value of with a relationship to vertical effective stress. These results were obtained from
tria;ial tests on samples of the sand used in calibration chambers prior to CPT being carried
out. The results have not therefore been obtained by any correlation with %r.