Simulation and Analysis of the Cone Penetrometer test

This section provides instructions for running an EDEM simulation of the Cone Penetrometer test and automatically computing the pressure vs penetration depth curve and other relevant results.

Introduction

The Cone Penetrometer test measures the resistance to a cone penetrating a static particle bed as shown in Figure 1. The measured evolution of pressure vs depth is typically used to characterize the strength of the soil.

Figure 1. DEM simulation of the Cone Penetrometer and corresponding cone pressure vs penetration depth curve

EDEM simulation decks are provided for the standard ASAE S313.3. test method, but the analysis methodology is applicable to any cone penetration simulation where the motion of the cone is along the global Z axis.

Prerequisites

All the requisite files are located at: <Altair installation folder>\EDEM <version>\examples\Calibration Kits\Cone penetrometer.

Using the kit

The simulation deck provided can be run directly in EDEM, and the results can be automatically obtained via the provided Python script which uses the EDEMpy library of functions to find all EDEM decks in its folder tree and generate plots and results reports per simulation deck, as well as a summary results report for all decks. The analysis settings for the script are defined in the provided text file and listed in Table 1 as follows:

Table 1. Python script settings
Parameter	Description
Penetration start time (s)	Specifies the simulation time at which the cone pressure starts to be recorded (in seconds). The nearest saved Time Step is used for the analysis. Alternatively, you can specify ‘auto’ as a string, in which case the time at which a non-zero cone pressure first occurs is used.
Penetration depth (m)	Specifies the total cone travel distance after the penetration start time over which the cone pressure is recorded (in meters). Alternatively, you can specify ‘auto’ as a string, in which case the pressure is recorded over all the saved Time Steps after the penetration start time.
Averaging resolution (m)	Specifies whether, in addition to the raw cone pressure vs penetration depth curve, the results will be reported according to the ASAE S313.3. standard, and the averaging resolution (in meters) is used for this purpose.
Create results report (yes/no)?	Specifies whether an individual results report is written out for every simulation deck and stored in its folder in `.csv` format.
Summary report? (yes/no)	Specifies whether a summary report with the key results for all simulation decks is produced. The results are written out in the `Summary.csv` file in the Python script folder.
Plot figures? (yes/no)	Specifies whether a plot of the raw cone pressure vs penetration depth is created per simulation deck and stored in its folder in `.png` format.

A settings text file is required for each folder containing EDEM simulation decks, and the settings are used to post-process all simulation decks in that folder.

The provided Python script can be executed from EDEM Analyst > File > Run EDEMpy Script, or from the command line. To run the script from the command line, you must ensure that EDEMpy is installed in the relevant Python distribution. For more information about installing EDEMpy, see Install EDEMpy.