Evaluation of Cone Factors for a Marine Clay from Offshore East Africa

Abstract

Abstract Cone penetration test (CPT) measurements are commonly used in geotechnical practice to estimate undrained shear strength and preconsolidation stress. Their use requires cone factors which are typically derived through comparison of geotechnical laboratory test data and CPT measurements. Calibrations performed to estimate these cone factors are typically done independently from each other and render constant values for each cone factor, which are independent of vertical effective stress and depth below seafloor. This leads to constant cone factors which may be incompatible within the normalized shear strength framework. In this paper, a comprehensive database of high-quality CPT measurements and geotechnical laboratory test data from a marine clay from offshore East Africa was analyzed to develop cone factors using a normalized shear strength framework.