Abstract

This study characterizes the dynamic responses of hammer weight and drop height in dynamic penetration tests. The tests were conducted using an instrumented dynamic cone penetrometer (IDCP) to obtain the dynamic responses during penetration. Various hammer weight and drop height types were used at a fixed potential energy of 45.1 N∙m. The measured compression stresses and transferred energies into the rod head and cone tip were analyzed for hammer weight and drop height. The compression stress at the rod head varied with the hammer weight and drop height, whereas the compression stress at the cone tip is irrelevant to the hammer weight or drop height. In addition, the transferred energies into the rod head and cone tip increased as the hammer weight increased but decreased as the drop height increased. This study demonstrates that hammer weight and drop height should be considered when the characteristic of subsurface is profiled using dynamic penetrometer.