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Correlations Between Electrical Resistivity and Geotechnical Parameters for Jiangsu Marine Clay Using Spearman’s Coefficient Test

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Abstract

The correlations and relationships between electrical resistivity and geotechnical parameters of soils have become very important for site investigation. However, there is a lack of understanding about the relationships between electrical resistivity and geotechnical parameter values. The resistivity piezocone penetration tests and laboratory tests have been conducted for geotechnical investigations of marine clay in Jiangsu province of China to establish quantitative relationships between electrical and geotechnical data. The geotechnical investigation reveals that electrical resistivity values are very low for marine clay in Jiangsu, ranging from 5 to 10 Ω m. The correlations between electrical resistivity and geotechnical parameters are examined using Spearman’s rank correlation test that is a rank-based test for correlation between two variables without any assumption about the data distribution. It was shown that the electrical resistivity has strong bonds with the moisture content, void ratio, salt content and plasticity index. In terms of quantitative relationships, good fitting relationships between electrical resistivity and selected geotechnical parameters are observed. The statistical analysis indicates that the electrical resistivity is a good indirect predictor of selected geotechnical parameters. The data studied demonstrates the usefulness of the in situ resistivity method in geotechnical investigations, which have an advantage over other geotechnical methods in cost performance.

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Acknowledgments

Majority of the work presented in this paper was funded by the Foundation for the New Century Excellent Talents of China (Grant No. NCET-13-0118), the Foundation of Jiangsu Province Outstanding Youth (Grant No. BK20140027), the Foundation for the Author of National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of PR China (Grant No. 201353), the High Level Talent Project of Peak of Six Talents in Jiangsu Province (Grant No. 2015-ZBZZ-001). the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 2242016K41062). These financial supports are gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210096, China

    Jun Lin, Guojun Cai, Songyu Liu & Haifeng Zou

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, 76019, USA

    Anand J. Puppala

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  1. Jun Lin
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  2. Guojun Cai
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  3. Songyu Liu
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  4. Anand J. Puppala
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  5. Haifeng Zou
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Correspondence to Guojun Cai.

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Lin, J., Cai, G., Liu, S. et al. Correlations Between Electrical Resistivity and Geotechnical Parameters for Jiangsu Marine Clay Using Spearman’s Coefficient Test. Int J Civ Eng 15, 419–429 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40999-016-0055-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40999-016-0055-9

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