SIGNIFICANCE OF TWO-POINT STRAIN MEASUREMENT IN SPT

Abstract

This paper is concerned with dynamics of the standard penetration test (SPT). The usefulness of mounting strain gages at two different stations along a driven rod is described, together with a workable procedure of analysis. The analysis procedure makes use of the traveling time between the two gage points and enables one to identify the particle velocity, the displacement and the stress at any station of the rod, as well as the energy actually transmitted from a hammer to the rod. Particular attention is called for the consequence of inevitable, small errors in strain data upon such identifications. A pertinent procedure of error-correction is proposed and its validity is substantiated against the performance of well instrumented SPTs performed by the authors.