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.

Keywords

• offshore geotechnical investigations
• soft clay
• full-flow penetrometer
• undrained shear strength