Development and performance testing of in-flight miniature CPTu equipment on ZJU-400 centrifuge

The piezocone penetration test (CPTu) is an important in-situ soil testing method widely used in conventional 1g condition in engineering practices. Due to the highly scaled model ground, high centrifugal acceleration and rotation-induced vibration during centrifuge model tests, the in-flight testing of CPTu in model ground remains a challenging task. A miniature CPTu equipment is developed in Zhejiang University based on ZJU-400 centrifuge apparatus, which is capable of moving horizontally to locate the penetration spot, and then measuring the cone tip resistance, sleeve friction resistance and pore water pressure during penetration under centrifugal hypergravity condition. The testing performance of this CPTu equipment is preliminarily checked by the centrifugal model tests on saturated sandy soils under centrifugal acceleration of 30g, and the depth variation of penetration parameters are observed and analyzed.