A critical review on soil penetration tests

Abstract

The purpose of a subsurface exploration program is to investigate those underlying features suggested by office research and field reconnaissance so as to confirm, modify, or deny the assumed conditions existing below ground surface. The program of exploration should provide a reasonable idea as to the underlying geologic structure and geomorphic factors shaping a site. The variety in geological conditions and range of design and construction problems make the subject complex. This has led to the development of a considerable number of different in situ test techniques. This dissertation offers a critical review on the most commonly used, in civil engineering practice, soil penetration tests, namely, the Standard Penetration Test (SPT) and Cone Penetrometer Test (CPT). Both procedures have evolved over a period of 100 and 70 years, respectively, and have been adopted as ASTM and EN standards. Each procedure has certain advantages over the other, but both can elicit incorrect data under particular subsurface conditions that are often overlooked, depending on the experience of field personnel operating or logging the tes.