DEM analysis of inclined cone penetration test in structured sand ground

Abstract

The effects of inclination and soil structure on tip resistance in a cone penetration test (CPT) have been studied separately before in the literature. It is not clear how the test result would be affected if the two factors are combined. This paper studied the tip resistance and bond breakage in an inclined CPT by the Distinct Element Method (DEM). A unbonded sand ground consisting of 300,000 particles was prepared under the condition of 10 g and then a bond contact model was implemented to form a structured sand ground. A penetrometer then was moved downward at a rate of 0.5 m/s to simulate the penetration process. The results show that the total tip resistance increases with penetration until a peak value was reached, and the left-side tip resistance is always larger than the right-side resistance. With penetration, the bond breakage mainly occurs near the penetrometer.