This paper is to investigate the undrained failure modes around an advancing cone.

What is it about?

The strain field of the soil obtained by the strain path method shows that the principal strain conditions of the soil around an advancing cone can be simplified into the following zones: the spherical expansion strain zone, the plane strain shearing zone, the cylindrical expansion shearing zone, the cylindrical expansion zone, and the transition zone. The mobilized undrained shear strength of clay in various strain states can be determined by employing the anisotropic strength criterion and the associated flow rule.

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Why is it important?

The result shows that the ratio of the equivalent undrained strength mobilized in the vicinity of cone tip over the undrained shear strength obtained from a Ko-consolidated undrained compression triaxial test is found to range from 0.88 to 1.07 when the strength anisotropy ratio ranges from 0.4 to 0.9.