Interpretation of pressuremeter tests in sand using advanced soil model

This paper describes a numerical study of drained pressuremeter tests in sand using a one-dimensional finite-element method in conjunction with an advanced soil model MIT-S1, and input parameters corresponding to Toyoura sand. This soil model is capable of describing realistically the transitions in peak shear strength parameters of cohesionless soils that occur due to changes in void ratio and confining pressure. The predicted peak shear strengths can be normalized, at least approximately, by introducing a state parameter that references the initial (preshear) void ratio to the value occurring at large strain critical state conditions at the same mean effective stress. The numerical analyses idealize the pressuremeter test as the expansion of a cylindrical cavity and ignore disturbance effects caused by probe insertion. This idealization is relevant to self-boring pressuremeter tests. Results confirm that there is a linear correlation between the in situ (i.e., preshear) state parameter of the soil and the gradient of the log pressure-cavity strain expansion, as first suggested by Yu in 1994 using a much simpler soil model. Indeed, the linear coefficients derived for Toyoura sand differ only slightly from those obtained previously by Yu for six other sands.