Energy-based comparison between a dynamic cone penetrometer and a motor-operated static cone penetrometer

► Methodology and an experiment for comparing DCP and SCP. ► Energy-based results for assessing two analytical models of DCP. ► Energy loss due to the vibration should be taken into account for improving models. Dynamic cone penetrometers (DCP) have been available for many years. However, there is still an uncertainty between the simplified Dutch Formula and the complete one. As a continual approach to assess both formulae, this study provides an energy-based comparison between a DCP and a motor-operated static cone penetrometer (SCP). The results yielded by SCP were regarded as reference. Through the designed experiment, we observed that both formulae considerably extenuated the energy loss arisen from strikes, which was equivalent to an overestimation of the calculated penetration force. Since the overestimation is greater than the uncertainty between both formulae, a better analytical model is required. Regarding the energy loss, the shaft vibration should also be taken into account for correcting each formula.