소형콘관입시험(Miniature CPT)의 국내현장적용 사례분석

Case Studies on the Field Application of Miniature CPT's in South Korea

The cone penetration test(CPT) has been increasingly used for in situ site characterization. However, the use of CPT is often limited due to specific site conditions depending on the cone size, geometry, and capacity of the CPT system used. In South Korea, it has generally been considered that the CPT could be satisfactorily performed only in soft soils. Louisiana State University/ Louisiana Transportation Research Center has implemented a field-rugged continuous intrusion miniature cone penetration test (CIMCPT) system since the 1990s. The miniature cone penetrometer of the CIMCPT system has a cross-sectional cone area of $2cm^2$ allowing finer soil profiles compared to the standard $10cm^2$. The reduced cross-sectional area also enables a system capacity reduction leading to cost saving and ease in maintenance. In addition, the continuous intrusion mechanism allows fast and economic site investigations. Samsung C&T Corporation has recently implemented a similar CIMCPT system. In this study, case studies on the field application of Samsung CIMCPT system for the last 2 years are presented to illustrate its performance investigation and its usefulness and limitation. Results of the case studies show that the CIMCPT system can be applied to soils with cone tip resistance($q_c$) values up to about 30MPa and allows a reliable and useful way to characterize soft soils. The results also show that the rod buckling limits the investigation depth by the system and the large contact pressure of the CIMCPT truck prevents the use of the system at sites with soft surface soils. According to the results of the case studies, the Samsung CIMCPT system has been being upgraded with a miniature cone with a longer rod, a crawler-type transportation system, a pre-boring system, and so on.