Measurement of penetration force using a Hall-current-sensor

Due to the evident influence of the penetration velocity on the measurement of cone index (CI), diverse motor-operated penetrometers have been designed to keep the velocity with a constant. In this paper, an attractive method to determine the penetration force for a motor-operated penetrometer was presented. Unlike other conventional methods employing various force sensors, this method used a Hall-current-sensor to dynamically measure the operating current of a permanent magnet dc-motor. For the proposed method, both a theoretical analysis related the operating current of the dc-motor to the penetration force and the measurement principle of the Hall-current-sensor were addressed. A soil column with three-layer water contents was used in the laboratory test. The experimental results confirm that the operating current of the dc-motor was a determinate indictor for estimating the penetration force.