Compaction control of sand by cone penetration tests has been applied in The Netherlands for many years. During the last decennium in particular the use of the hand-pushed, shallow cone penetration test with small diameter cones increased considerably; it was recognised to be a simple, fast and cheap mean to check the quality of extensive compacted sand layers. ever the interpretation of the sounding results, measured by these hand-pushed penetration tests appeared to be problematic. In several series of full-scale experiments in small and large laboratory set-ups shallow CPT's were carried out in saturated, partly saturated and dry sands in order to get a clear insight into the parameters governing the CPT-diagram obtained by small size equipment. Apart from the soil parameters and the penetration and registration method in particular the dimensions of the cone turned out to have a significant influence on the results. Simultaneously shallow CPT's were carried out in test sections on different sites. With results of both laboratory and field experiments a new Dutch specification on compaction control in sand subbases will be established. For the covering abstract see ITRD E135448.
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