Use of the Cone Penetration Test to derive parameters for shallow foundation design

Abstract

Given the problems associated with sampling cohesionless soils there is movement towards the use of high quality in-situ tests either to derive soil parameters for use in conventional design me-thods or through the use of empirical design correlations. This paper describes a field test of a model vertically loaded footing tested at a dense sand test site. The ultimate capacity and load-displacement response at working stresses are shown to be predicted reasonably accurately using simple tech-niques which use the Cone Penetration Test (CPT) cone resistance qc as an input parameter.