Practice and development of the piezocone penetration test (CPTu) in geotechnical engineering of China

The cone penetration test (CPT) technique is widely used in field site investigation due to its fast, repeatable, and costeffective advantages. It can provide near-continuous information of soil properties and has a strong theoretical background. In this paper, the history and current development status of CPT, particular the cone penetration test with pore pressure measurement (CPTu) in China practice is systematically introduced. The relationship between international standardized CPTu and China CPT is proposed based on a great number of soils. The paper then presents the review and comparison of the soil characterization methods based on CPTu tests results in China, including stress history, deformation, consolidation and permeability characteristics.