Effect of standard penetration test corrections on the estimation of undrained shear strength
Abstract
This paper evaluated the influence of Standard Penetration Test (SPT) correction factors, namely the hammer energy efficiency, borehole diameter, drill rod length, and sampling method, on the correlations between SPT resistance (SPT-N) and undrained shear strength (Su). Comparisons were made between new equations (with and without SPT corrections), which were derived from soil data collected from Penang Island, Malaysia. The coefficient of determination, Absolute Average Relative Error, Standard Deviation, and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were employed as the basis for the assessments. Finally, a comprehensive analysis was carried out to evaluate the relationship between uncorrected ratio (Su/N) or corrected ratio (Su/N60) and Plasticity Index (PI)/Liquidity Index (LI). Based on the results, all correction factors recorded a significant impact on the estimated Su, as the ANOVA calculation suggested that the borehole diameter correction was the most statistically significant. Furthermore, the Su/N and Su/N60 exhibited increasing trends with increased PI and LI, which may be attributed to the soil’s state and behaviour. Additionally, cubic regression is the best-fit equation to correlate the parameters. In summary, this study provided new insights into the influence of correction factors, which can be used to improve the accuracy of the empirical correlations and engineering designs.
Keyword : fine-grained soils, standard penetration test correction, standard penetration test correlation, standard penetration test resistance, undrained shear strength
How to Cite
Tan, J. J., & Ramli, H. (2023). Effect of standard penetration test corrections on the estimation of undrained shear strength. Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 29(6), 501–515. https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2023.18441
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
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Chatterjee, S., & Hadi, A. S. (2012). Regression analysis by example (5th ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
Das, S. K. (2019). Confidence interval is more informative than p-value in research. International Journal of Engineering Applied Sciences and Technology, 4(6), 278–282. https://doi.org/10.33564/IJEAST.2019.v04i06.045
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Dolev, E., Bitterman, Y., & Meirowitz, A. (2019). Comparison of marginal fit between CAD-CAM and hot-press lithium disilicate crowns. The Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry, 121(1), 124–128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prosdent.2018.03.035
dos Santos, M. D., & Bicalho, K. V. (2017). Proposals of SPT-CPT and DPL-CPT correlations for sandy soils in Brazil. Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, 9(6), 1152–1158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrmge.2017.08.001
El-Sherbiny, R. M., & Salem, M. A. (2013). Evaluation of SPT energy for Donut and Safety hammers using CPT measurements in Egypt. Ain Shams Engineering Journal, 4(4), 701–708. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2013.04.001
Hara, A., Ohta, T., Niwa, M., Tanaka, S., & Banno, T. (1974). Shear modulus and shear strength of cohesive soils. Soils and Foundations, 14(3), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.3208/sandf1972.14.3_1
Hettiarachchi, H., & Brown, T. (2009). Use of SPT blow counts to estimate shear strength properties of soils: energy balance approach. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 135(6), 830–834. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0000016
Isik, H., & Cabalar, A. F. (2018). Sieve analysis and standard penetration test correlations using Microsoft Excel VBA and an iPhone app. Computer Applications in Engineering Education, 26(6), 2092–2101. https://doi.org/10.1002/cae.22002
Karkush, M. O., Ahmed, M. D., Sheikha, A. A. H., & Al-Rumaithi, A. (2020). Thematic maps for the variation of bearing capacity of soil using SPTs and MATLAB. Geosciences, 10(9), 329. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences10090329
Kayabaşı, A. (2020). Geotechnical properties of fine-grained soils in Ankara/Turkey: An assessment of the existing empirical equations. Environmental Earth Sciences, 79(12), 282. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-020-09025-z
Kovacs, W. D., & Salomone, L. A. (1982). SPT hammer energy measurement. Journal of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, 108(4), 599–620. https://doi.org/10.1061/AJGEB6.0001278
Kovacs, W. D., Yokel, F. Y., Salomone, L. A., & Holtz, R. D. (1984). Liquefaction potential and the international SPT. In Proceedings of the 8th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering (pp. 263–268). San Francisco, California: National Bureau of Standards.
Lv, X., & Zhou, H. (2018). Soil–rock mixture shear strength measurement based on in situ borehole pressure-shear tests. Journal of Geophysics and Engineering, 15(5), 2221–2234. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-2140/aacaa8
Mahmoud, M. A. A. N. (2013). Reliability of using standard penetration test (SPT) in predicting properties of silty clay with sand soil. International Journal of Civil and Structural Engineering, 3(3), 545–556.
McShane, B. B., Gal, D., Gelman, A., Robert, C., & Tackett, J. L. (2019). Abandon statistical significance. The American Statistician, 73(Supl 1), 235–245. https://doi.org/10.1080/00031305.2018.1527253
Narepalem, S., & Godavarthi, V. R. S. R. (2019). Constitutive behaviour of fine grained soils of Vijayawada Region. KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering, 23(6), 2463–2470. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-019-0699-5
Nassaji, F., & Kalantari, B. (2011). SPT capability to estimate undrained shear strength of fine grained soils of Tehran, Iran. Electronic Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, 16, 1229–1238.
Nixon, I. K. (1982, May). Standard penetration test: State-of-the-art report. In Proceedings of the 2nd European Symposium on Penetration Testing (pp. 3–24). Amsterdam. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.1201/9780203743959-2
Sanglerat, G. (1972). The penetrometer and soil exploration. Interpretation of penetration diagrams – theory and practice (Vol. 1, 2nd ed.). Elsevier Publishing Company.
Schmertmann, J. H. (1975). Measurement of in-situ shear strength. In ASCE Specialty Conference on In Situ Measurement of Soil Properties (pp. 57–138). ASCE.
Schmertmann, J. H. (1979). Statics of SPT. Journal of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, 105(5), 655–670. https://doi.org/10.1061/AJGEB6.0000801
Seed, H. B., Tokimatsu, K., Harder, L. F., & Chung, R. M. (1985). Influence of SPT procedures in soil liquefaction resistance evaluations. ASCE Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, 111(12), 1425–1445. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9410(1985)111:12(1425)
Singh, N. B., Jibanchand, N., & Devi, K. R. (2017). Applicability of standard penetration tests to estimate undrained shear strength of soils of Imphal. International Journal of Engineering Technology Science and Research, 4(3), 250–255.
Sivrikaya, O. (2009). Comparison of artificial neural networks models with correlative works on undrained shear strength. Eurasian Soil Science, 42(13), 1487–1496. https://doi.org/10.1134/S1064229309130092
Sivrikaya, O., & Toğrol, E. (2002). Relations between SPT-N and qu. In Proceedings of 5th International Congress on Advances in Civil Engineering (pp. 943–952). Istanbul, Turkey.
Sivrikaya, O., & Toğrol, E. (2006). Determination of undrained strength of fine-grained soils by means of SPT and its application in Turkey. Engineering Geology, 86(1), 52–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2006.05.002
Skempton, A. W. (1986). Standard penetration test procedures and the effects in sands of overburden pressure, relative density, particle size, ageing and overconsolidation. Géotechnique, 36(3), 425–447. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.1986.36.3.425
Sowers, G. F. (1979). Introductory soil mechanics and foundations: Geotechnical engineering (4th ed.). Pearson College Div.
Stroud, M. A. (1974, June). The standard penetration test in insensitive clays and soft rock. In Proceedings of the 1st European Symposium on Penetration Testing (Vol. 2, pp. 367–375). Stockholm, Sweden.
Terzaghi, K., & Peck, R. B. (1967). Soil mechanics in engineering practice (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
Thusyanthan, I., & Nawaz, B. A. (2017, April). Effect of SPT hammer energy efficiency in the bearing capacity evaluation in sands. In Proceedings of the 2nd World Congress on Civil, Structural, and Environmental Engineering (CSEE’17). Barcelona, Spain. https://doi.org/10.11159/icgre17.123
Weina, H., Yuhu, N., Christian, H., Birong, L., Feiyu, S., & Le, W. (2018). Liraglutide attenuates the depressive- and anxiety-like behaviour in the corticosterone induced depression model via improving hippocampal neural plasticity. Brain Research, 1694, 55–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2018.04.031
Yoshimi, Y., & Tokimatsu, K. (1983). SPT practice survey and comparative tests. Soils and Foundations, 23(3), 105–111. https://doi.org/10.3208/sandf1972.23.3_105
Yusof, N. Q. A. M., & Zabidi, H. (2018). Reliability of using standard penetration test (SPT) in predicting properties of soil. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1082(1), 012094. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1082/1/012094
Bartholomew, D. J., Steele, F., Steele, F., & Moustaki, I. (2008). Analysis of multivariate social science data (2nd ed.). Chapman and Hall/CRC. https://doi.org/10.1201/b15114
British Standards Institution. (2010). Code of practice for site investigations (BS 5930:1999+A2:2010). London, United Kingdom.
Chatterjee, S., & Hadi, A. S. (2012). Regression analysis by example (5th ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
Das, S. K. (2019). Confidence interval is more informative than p-value in research. International Journal of Engineering Applied Sciences and Technology, 4(6), 278–282. https://doi.org/10.33564/IJEAST.2019.v04i06.045
Décourt, L. (1989). The standard penetration test: state-of-the-art-report. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering. Rio De Janeiro.
Dolev, E., Bitterman, Y., & Meirowitz, A. (2019). Comparison of marginal fit between CAD-CAM and hot-press lithium disilicate crowns. The Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry, 121(1), 124–128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prosdent.2018.03.035
dos Santos, M. D., & Bicalho, K. V. (2017). Proposals of SPT-CPT and DPL-CPT correlations for sandy soils in Brazil. Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, 9(6), 1152–1158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrmge.2017.08.001
El-Sherbiny, R. M., & Salem, M. A. (2013). Evaluation of SPT energy for Donut and Safety hammers using CPT measurements in Egypt. Ain Shams Engineering Journal, 4(4), 701–708. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2013.04.001
Hara, A., Ohta, T., Niwa, M., Tanaka, S., & Banno, T. (1974). Shear modulus and shear strength of cohesive soils. Soils and Foundations, 14(3), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.3208/sandf1972.14.3_1
Hettiarachchi, H., & Brown, T. (2009). Use of SPT blow counts to estimate shear strength properties of soils: energy balance approach. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 135(6), 830–834. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0000016
Isik, H., & Cabalar, A. F. (2018). Sieve analysis and standard penetration test correlations using Microsoft Excel VBA and an iPhone app. Computer Applications in Engineering Education, 26(6), 2092–2101. https://doi.org/10.1002/cae.22002
Karkush, M. O., Ahmed, M. D., Sheikha, A. A. H., & Al-Rumaithi, A. (2020). Thematic maps for the variation of bearing capacity of soil using SPTs and MATLAB. Geosciences, 10(9), 329. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences10090329
Kayabaşı, A. (2020). Geotechnical properties of fine-grained soils in Ankara/Turkey: An assessment of the existing empirical equations. Environmental Earth Sciences, 79(12), 282. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-020-09025-z
Kovacs, W. D., & Salomone, L. A. (1982). SPT hammer energy measurement. Journal of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, 108(4), 599–620. https://doi.org/10.1061/AJGEB6.0001278
Kovacs, W. D., Yokel, F. Y., Salomone, L. A., & Holtz, R. D. (1984). Liquefaction potential and the international SPT. In Proceedings of the 8th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering (pp. 263–268). San Francisco, California: National Bureau of Standards.
Lv, X., & Zhou, H. (2018). Soil–rock mixture shear strength measurement based on in situ borehole pressure-shear tests. Journal of Geophysics and Engineering, 15(5), 2221–2234. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-2140/aacaa8
Mahmoud, M. A. A. N. (2013). Reliability of using standard penetration test (SPT) in predicting properties of silty clay with sand soil. International Journal of Civil and Structural Engineering, 3(3), 545–556.
McShane, B. B., Gal, D., Gelman, A., Robert, C., & Tackett, J. L. (2019). Abandon statistical significance. The American Statistician, 73(Supl 1), 235–245. https://doi.org/10.1080/00031305.2018.1527253
Narepalem, S., & Godavarthi, V. R. S. R. (2019). Constitutive behaviour of fine grained soils of Vijayawada Region. KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering, 23(6), 2463–2470. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-019-0699-5
Nassaji, F., & Kalantari, B. (2011). SPT capability to estimate undrained shear strength of fine grained soils of Tehran, Iran. Electronic Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, 16, 1229–1238.
Nixon, I. K. (1982, May). Standard penetration test: State-of-the-art report. In Proceedings of the 2nd European Symposium on Penetration Testing (pp. 3–24). Amsterdam. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.1201/9780203743959-2
Sanglerat, G. (1972). The penetrometer and soil exploration. Interpretation of penetration diagrams – theory and practice (Vol. 1, 2nd ed.). Elsevier Publishing Company.
Schmertmann, J. H. (1975). Measurement of in-situ shear strength. In ASCE Specialty Conference on In Situ Measurement of Soil Properties (pp. 57–138). ASCE.
Schmertmann, J. H. (1979). Statics of SPT. Journal of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, 105(5), 655–670. https://doi.org/10.1061/AJGEB6.0000801
Seed, H. B., Tokimatsu, K., Harder, L. F., & Chung, R. M. (1985). Influence of SPT procedures in soil liquefaction resistance evaluations. ASCE Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, 111(12), 1425–1445. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9410(1985)111:12(1425)
Singh, N. B., Jibanchand, N., & Devi, K. R. (2017). Applicability of standard penetration tests to estimate undrained shear strength of soils of Imphal. International Journal of Engineering Technology Science and Research, 4(3), 250–255.
Sivrikaya, O. (2009). Comparison of artificial neural networks models with correlative works on undrained shear strength. Eurasian Soil Science, 42(13), 1487–1496. https://doi.org/10.1134/S1064229309130092
Sivrikaya, O., & Toğrol, E. (2002). Relations between SPT-N and qu. In Proceedings of 5th International Congress on Advances in Civil Engineering (pp. 943–952). Istanbul, Turkey.
Sivrikaya, O., & Toğrol, E. (2006). Determination of undrained strength of fine-grained soils by means of SPT and its application in Turkey. Engineering Geology, 86(1), 52–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2006.05.002
Skempton, A. W. (1986). Standard penetration test procedures and the effects in sands of overburden pressure, relative density, particle size, ageing and overconsolidation. Géotechnique, 36(3), 425–447. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.1986.36.3.425
Sowers, G. F. (1979). Introductory soil mechanics and foundations: Geotechnical engineering (4th ed.). Pearson College Div.
Stroud, M. A. (1974, June). The standard penetration test in insensitive clays and soft rock. In Proceedings of the 1st European Symposium on Penetration Testing (Vol. 2, pp. 367–375). Stockholm, Sweden.
Terzaghi, K., & Peck, R. B. (1967). Soil mechanics in engineering practice (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
Thusyanthan, I., & Nawaz, B. A. (2017, April). Effect of SPT hammer energy efficiency in the bearing capacity evaluation in sands. In Proceedings of the 2nd World Congress on Civil, Structural, and Environmental Engineering (CSEE’17). Barcelona, Spain. https://doi.org/10.11159/icgre17.123
Weina, H., Yuhu, N., Christian, H., Birong, L., Feiyu, S., & Le, W. (2018). Liraglutide attenuates the depressive- and anxiety-like behaviour in the corticosterone induced depression model via improving hippocampal neural plasticity. Brain Research, 1694, 55–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2018.04.031
Yoshimi, Y., & Tokimatsu, K. (1983). SPT practice survey and comparative tests. Soils and Foundations, 23(3), 105–111. https://doi.org/10.3208/sandf1972.23.3_105
Yusof, N. Q. A. M., & Zabidi, H. (2018). Reliability of using standard penetration test (SPT) in predicting properties of soil. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1082(1), 012094. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1082/1/012094