Theory and application of free fall penetration testing technique

The development of marine engineering highly requires the accurate acquisition of parameters for marine geotechnical engineering. The free fall penetration (FFP) testing technique can accurately obtain the in-situ characteristic parameters of shallow seabed soils and the parameters after soil disturbance, which can effectively shorten the survey time and reduce the survey costs. In this study, the FFP equipment is firstly designed. Then, based on the Newton's second law, the mechanical model and theoretical system for penetration process of FFP are established, and the processing process of test data is established. The penetration mechanism of FFP is also studied using the laboratory model tests. Finally, focusing on the typical lacustrine mucky soft soil in the Taihu Lake Tunnel Project of Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou Southern Expressway, the evaluation method for undrained shear strength of soft soils is established based on FFP. The results show that the developed FFP equipment has good accuracy and reliability. The release height, the quality of the penetration probe and the shape of the tip can all affect the penetration depth. The FFP testing technique can be used as an effective supplement to the CPTU tests or the full flow penetration tests in the evaluation of shallow super soft soils.