ABSTRACT
This paper presents a comparative study on the influence of some typical soil characteristics on the cone and ball factors (N kt and N ball). Experimental data from CPTU and ball penetration test (BPT) on Busan (two sites), Ariake, and Mihara clays were taken into analysis. In contrary to the conclusions from existing FE analysis and experimental results at limited sites that N ball is independent on rigidity index (I r) and normalized stress difference (Δ), N ball was found to clearly increase with the increase in I r and to increase or decrease with Δ. This disagreement is attributed to different inherent characteristics of natural clays. Both N kt and N ball decrease pronouncedly with the increase in normalized shear strength https://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> ( s uFV / s ′ v 0 ) https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780429505980/9bb794dc-fe16-42d3-855c-6dc928a7b8de/content/eq401.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> , however the factors expose to have no definite correlations with sensitivity (S tFV) and plasticity index (I p) at the investigated sites.
