Replication of fall cone test in marine clay with a Generalized Interpolation Material Point Method simulation

Abstract

The paper shows a numerical simulation of a fall cone test done on a soft and sensitive marine clay sample collected from the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea. The simulation involves large deformations and takes into account the destructuration of clay, strain rate effects, and non-linear material behaviour. First, the analysed fall cone test was captured with a high-speed camera (1000 frames/sec). MATLAB image processing tools helped to quantify the cone displacement, velocity, and acceleration during the indentation process. Further, we simulate the process of indentation of the cone into the soils using the Generalized Interpolation Material Point Method (GIMP). In the simulation, the undrained shear strength of soil (𝑠𝑢) is taken as a function of strain rate to consider the effect of strain rate on cone indentation, as well as a function of destructuration. The presented numerical simulation replicates well the shown experiment. The simulation results indicate that the present material framework, along with GIMP, can be used to simulate the dynamic penetration process on soft and sensitive clay.