Numerical investigations on cone penetration test based on MPDEM
WANG Junhao1, XU Wenjie1*, FU Jianbao2, LI Bin3
(1. State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; 2. Key Laboratory of Port Geotechnical Engineering of Tianjin, Tianjin Port Engineering Institute Ltd., of CCCC First Harbor Engineering Company, Ltd., Tianjin 300222, China; 3. Key Laboratory of Tianjin Port Geotechnical Engineering of Tianjin, CCCC First Harbor Engineering Company Ltd., Tianjin 300461, China)
Abstract：The cone penetration test (CPT) is widely used in in-situ soil testing due to its operational simplicity and high reliability. To investigate the deformation and failure process of the soil and the interaction mechanism between the soil and probe during penetration, the advantages of the material point method (MPM) in simulating large deformation problems of geomaterials and the discrete element method (DEM) in contact calculations are fully combined in this study, which overcomes the limitations of traditional single numerical methods. Using the self-developed GPU-parallelized MPM-DEM coupling software CoSim-MPDEM, the entire process of CPT is analyzed. Based on Jardine?s laboratory tests, the contact parameters between the probe and soil are inverted, and their influence on cone tip resistance is explored. By comparing the variation of tip resistance with depth obtained from numerical and physical tests, the feasibility and advantages of MPDEM in numerical analysis of CPT are validated. Through the numerical tests, the deformation and failure mechanism of the surrounding soil during the penetration process is systematically investigated. The evolution of the displacement and stress fields inside the soil, as well as the distribution of contact forces and plastic zones are explored, which reveals the penetration mechanism of CPT. The results show that the contact forces between the probe and soil exhibit a non-uniform distribution, with significant stress concentration and plastic failure zones around the probe, where the plastic zones extend to 3 times the probe diameter. It is demonstrated that the proposed MPDEM algorithm achieves accurate contact calculations between large-deformation soil and structures, which provides valuable insights for soil-structure interaction analysis.
王君豪1，徐文杰1*，付建宝2，李 斌3. 基于MPDEM的静力触探数值试验研究[J]. 岩石力学与工程学报, 2026, 45(S1): 504-514.
WANG Junhao1, XU Wenjie1*, FU Jianbao2, LI Bin3. Numerical investigations on cone penetration test based on MPDEM. , 2026, 45(S1): 504-514.
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2026, Vol. 45 
