Correlation of Elastic Constants with Penetration Resistance in Sandy Soils

Abstract

In this note, we investigate some existing correlations between soil modulii and penetration resistance using a direct approach. We make use of settlement data from case histories for both shallow and deep foundations over sandy soils. Knowledge of foundation dimensions, loads, and measured settlements permits us, using elasticity theory, to calculate the theoretical soil modulus. We can then directly compare the calculated modulus with measured penetration resistance. A total of 276 case histories are considered. The resulting data set is used to assess the efficacy of two well-known correlations between soil modulii and penetration resistance. We find that both correlations provide reasonably good representations of the data, but have a conservative bias in the sense that the predicted modulus values are smaller than the best-fit results. From an engineering standpoint, both correlations represent reasonable solutions and our results should lend comfort to future users of either correlation.