A new dynamic cone penetrometer to predict CBR for fine-grained subgrade soils in the laboratory and field conditions

Since originally developed in 1959 by Scala in Australia, the Dynamic Cone Penetrometer (DCP) has been extensively used to characterise the strength of pavement materials. The literature review reveals that DCP is mainly used as an in situ device and laboratory application of DCP, in a mould, was rarely reported, due to the confining effect. In this study a lightweight DCP that can be used in a CBR mould in the laboratory as well as in the field with similar results was developed and the results show that the influence of the confinement on the DCP can be eliminated when the hammer mass is 2.25 kg. And a strong correlation was found between CBR and the new light dynamic penetrometer index for six fine-grained soil samples, with different moisture contents, used in this study.