Friction angle of sand from minicone soundings at shallow depth

The paper presents the results of full-scale minicone penetration tests to shallow depth in sand test beds. The results are used to evaluate commonly used methods for determining the friction angle in sands from cone tip resistance. Peak secant friction angles were determined from drained triaxial compression tests allowing a comparison of measured versus predicted friction angles. The results of the study have shown that the Meyerhoff, Schmertmann, and Puech & Foray methods under predicted the friction angles for loose and dense test beds. The Robertson & Campanella and Durgunoglu & Mitchell methods predicted very closely the friction angles for the loose test bed but slightly over predicted the friction angles for the dense test bed.