An Assessment on Correlation between Dynamic Cone Penetration Blow Count and Liquid Limit of NSW Clays

The Dynamic Cone Penetration (DCP) test is one of the simple and economical geotechnical tests used in the field, and its results are commonly used for practical applications, such as checking consistency with the results from borehole loggings or roughly estimating soil bearing capacity. Even though the test is widely used in practice, particularly in Australia, its relationships with clay moisture limits, such as Liquid Limit (LL), have not been extensively studied. Hence, this paper describes the energy-based behaviour of DCP in relationship with LL via the theoretical model of pore collapse and empirical correlation. As a result, the method predicts well the plasticity behaviour of NSW clays from 8 DCP blows per 100mm. Discussion on the method, testing results and relevant limitations are also provided.