The Practice and Development of T-Bar Penetrometer Tests in Offshore Engineering Investigation: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

In recent years, the development of marine hydrocarbon resources has led to an increased demand for research on the marine soil bearing capacity and cyclic loading effect in marine engineering design. Because of the difficulties and high costs involved in obtaining high-quality soil samples from offshore sites, in situ testing techniques have become the preferred method of determining design parameters in offshore geotechnical engineering projects. This paper provides a review of the current state of marine penetrometer deployment technology used in offshore engineering investigations and presents a summary of the T-bar penetrometer test for measuring marine soft clay. The existing literature research on penetration mechanisms, numerical simulations, laboratory experiments, and field tests of the T-bar penetrometer in the field of marine geotechnical engineering are analyzed. Finally, the potential difficulties, challenges, and prospects of the T-bar penetrometer tests are discussed.

Influence of Penetration Rate on Full-Flow Penetrometer Resistance in Underconsolidated Clay

“…Recently, the full-flow penetration testing technique has gained popularity as a novel in situ testing method for onshore and offshore engineering projects. It is commonly employed to measure undrained soft clay sediments, both onshore and offshore, using instruments like Ball and T-bar penetrometers [16]. In comparison to conventional piezocone penetration testing, full-flow penetration testing offers several benefits.…”

A Novel Method for Estimating the Undrained Shear Strength of Marine Soil Based on CPTU Tests

“…The utilization of offshore wind energy resources is a crucial driver for economic development [1,2] and an essential pathway towards achieving net-zero carbon goals. In recent years, offshore wind power construction has been gradually expanded from offshore areas to deeper parts of the sea, which further causes more difficulties and costs in soil sampling of marine geotechnical surveys [3]. As a result, in situ testing techniques, such as standard penetration tests (SPT) [4], cone penetration tests (CPT) [5], and piezocone penetration tests (CPTU) [6], have been applied in marine soil investigations.…”