• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.1C
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• pp.29-38
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• 2011

The smaller diameter cone penetrometer has been widely used to estimate the characteristics of local area due to high vertical resolution. The half-bridge cirucits have been adopted to measure the mechnical strength of soil through the smaller diameter cone penetrometer due to the limitation of the areas for configuring the full-bridge circuit. The half-bridge circuit, however, is known as being easily affected to the temperature variation. The objective of this study suggests the temperature-compensated method in mini-cones. The diameter and length of the mini-cone is designed to 15mm and 56mm. The load cell of the mini-cone is extended about 54mm on the behind of the mini-cone to reflect the only temperature variation. The full-bridge circuit is installed to measure the temperature-compensated values in the mini-cone and the half-bridge circuit is also organized to compare the temperature compensated values with uncompensated values. The seasonal variation tests are performed to define the effect of temperature variation under summer and winter temperature condition. The densification tests are also carried out to investigate temperature effects during penetration. The measured mechanical resistances with temperature-compensated method show more reliable and reasonable values than those measured by thermal uncompensated system. This study suggests that the temperature-compensated method of the mini-cone may be a useful technique to obtain the more reliable resistances with minimizing the temperature effect.