9531782 Accurate and speedy field testing to evaluate soil characteristics and behavior is needed to support society's need for continued investment in infrastructure development and rehabilitation. The piezocone penetrometer (PCP) is the increasingly chosen investigation tool to meet this demand. The proposed research aims to develop an anisotropic, rate- dependent constitutive model and an Arbitrary-Lagrangean-Eularean (ALE) finite element code to predict for the first time, cone resistance and excess pore water pressures at various rates of cone penetration. The capability of the model will be verified and validated by state-of-the-art calibration chamber tests that will focus on penetration rate, lateral stress coefficient, overconsolidation ratio, and scale effects on cone data. Interpretation of non-standard pore water pressure dissipation curves arising from initial excess pore pressure drop due to normal stress reduction and its initial variation with respect to redistribution and stress history effects will be investigated. This research will formulate accurate simplified methods and charts to evaluate engineering soil parameters, ground improvement effectiveness, and performance of deep foundations (i.e. increase in pile capacity with time) from PCP test data. ***
