At the Institute of Automotive Engineering in Hamburg an automized cone penetration test device has been developed, in order to ease the operation and make the measurements more efficient. A small computer unit to manage data recording and data storage was installed in the top case of a Bush Cone Penetrometer. Now the penetration tests can be carried out by one man alone. As the measurements can be carried out very quickly, it is possible to obtain more data, in order to consider the requirements of statistics. All the data are recorded and stored by the new device. This enables the operator to get the data without using any other devices, to transfer the stored data to a main computer by serial data transfer and to use the data profitably for further evaluation. It is possible to produce a statistical survey of the data, using the build-in computer. Due to the large scattering of the measured data it was always difficult to decide how many penetration tests should be carried out for a satisfying result. Now the required amount of measurements are automatically precalculated parallel to the tests. As input values the acceptable standard-deviation and the required confidence factor have to be chosen.
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