Undrained Shear Strength of Marine Clays of Shihwa Region Obtained from CPTu

Estimation of undrained shear strength $(S_u)$ of clayey soils from piezocone penetration test (CPTu), which has widely been known as one of very promising in situ test methods, requires piezocone factors. Empirical correlations are generally utilized to derive piezocone factors, but previous studies on the empirical piezocone factors are site-specific and in some cases need engineering characteristics, which should be obtained from additional laboratory tests. In this study, empirical cone factors were evaluated by comparing 6 CPTu results at Shihwa region in Korea with reference $S_u$ values obtained from field vane test (FVT). From previous CPTu results of other regions in Korea as well as the results herein, the correlations between piezocone factor, $N_{kT}$ and CPTu results were investigated and three simplified evaluation methods of $S_u$ using only CPTu results were presented. The $S_u$ values estimated by $(q_T-{\sigma}_v)/{\sigma}'_v$ method shows better matches with those obtained from laboratory tests for marine clays at Shihwa region.