Simulation and Analysis of the Cone Penetrometer test

This section provides instructions for running an EDEM simulation of the Cone Penetrometer test and automatically extracting the results using EDEMpy.

The Cone Penetrometer test measures the resistance to a cone that is penetrating a cylindrical bed of consolidated granular material at a constant rate. The measurement is used to characterize the strength of the soil ASAE S313.3.. The Geometry of the cone in the model conforms to ASAE S313.3.



Figure 1. DEM simulation of the Cone Penetrometer
Field Units
Cone Area m2
Resistance kPa
Depth mm

Running Simulations and Extracting the Results

You can run the simulations directly in EDEM. Run the deck provided in EDEM and do the following:
  1. Run the simulation till the end.
  2. Open the deck and setup the simulation parameters (Particle and Geometry properties, Kinematics and so on..).
    Note: The piston needs to be virtual to allow the particles to settle into the bed, and then physical for compaction (after t=1s).


    Figure 2. File configuration for post-processing simulations using the Cone Penetrometer script

Automatic post-processing of results with EDEMpy

You can automatically obtain the responses of interest in the Cone Penetrometer test such as the Conditioned Bulk Density, Pressure and Displacement on the cone, simulation input parameters, and test operation parameters obtained from the EDEM simulation data using the Cone_penetrometer.py script. provided

The post-processing script utilizes the EDEMpy library to locate all EDEM decks in the folder containing the script and subfolders. Finally, it generates reports and figures with all the relevant data.

The analysis settings for the script are defined in the CPT_Analyst.txt file, as shown in Figure 3. The settings files for all standard tests are provided along with the EDEM decks. If you have used a custom test procedure, the timings must be adjusted accordingly. If you have omitted a stage from a custom simulation, the relevant times can be set to zero, but the format of the file must remain the same.



Figure 3. Contents of the CPT_Analyst file
To run the Cone_penetrometer.py script:
  1. Arrange the files as shown in Figure 2.
  2. Open the EDEM deck file.
  3. go to EDEM Analyst > Run > EDEMpy Script.
  4. Go to Select File > Run Script and then select the Cone_penetrometer.py script.
  5. Execute the script as shown in Figure 4.


    Figure 4. Executing the Cone Penetrometer Analyst EDEMpy script

    Reports and graphs will be generated in the master folder. Individual reports will contain all the relevant data and the summary report will contain only time-averaged results.

    Only complete simulations with corresponding settings files will be post-processed. Otherwise the script will produce error messages as shown in Figure 5 and move to the next simulation in the folder tree.
    Note: All simulation files must have unique folder names and simulation names. If the simulation names are identical, the results report will be overwritten.


    Figure 5. Possible error messages