08/01/2024

Soil Exploration

FHWA NHI-05-037

Presented By
Dr. Akanksha Tyagi
Assistant Professor
Civil Engineering Department
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee
AM-ASCE, LM-IGS, M-ISSMGE, M-DFI
Outline
• Methods of Boring
• Soil Sampling
• Field Tests
• Subsurface Exploration- Purpose and Minimum
Depth

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Purpose of subsurface exploration

1. Selecting suitable type and depth of foundation

2. Evaluating the load-bearing capacity of the foundation
3. Estimating the probable settlement of a structure
4. Determining potential foundation problems (e.g., expansive soil,
collapsible soil, sanitary landfill)
5. Determining the location of the water table
6. Predicting the lateral earth pressure for structures such as retaining
walls, sheet pile bulkheads, and braced cuts
7. Establishing construction methods for changing subsoil conditions

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 Methods of Boring
1. Auger Boring
• Simplest method of making exploratory
boreholes
• Types of hand auger: posthole auger and
helical auger.
• Hand augers cannot be used for holes to
depths > 3 to 5 m, can be used for soil
exploration work on some highways, shallow
foundations, borrow pits
• Portable power-driven helical augers (76 mm
to 305 mm in diameter) are available for
making deeper boreholes.
• The soil samples obtained from such borings
are highly disturbed.
• In soils with low cohesion or no-cohesion, a Post hole auger Helical auger
metal pipe is used as a casing to prevent the
soil from caving in.
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 Methods of Boring
1. Auger Boring
• Continuous-flight augers: used if power is available, can make boreholes
up to about 60 to 70 m.
• Two types: Solid-stem and hollow-stem
• Tip of the auger is attached to a cutter head. During the drilling
operation, length of auger can be extended by adding sections as hole
advances.
• Drillers can detect changes in the type of soil by noting changes in the
speed and sound of drilling.
• When solid-stem augers are used, the auger must be withdrawn at
regular intervals to obtain soil samples and also to conduct other
operations such as standard penetration tests.
• Hollow-stem augers have advantage over solid-stem augers in that they
do not have to be removed frequently for sampling or other tests.

https://youtu.be/i9eQcc7ilVw?si=_FyvQ4ANGnRdFK-d 5
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Methods of Boring
2. Wash Boring
• A casing pipe is driven through a heavy drop
hammer supported by a tripod and pulley.
• The lower end of the drill rod is fitted with a
chopping bit that cuts the soil
• Water is forced through the drilling rod and
exits at a very high velocity through the
holes at the bottom of the chopping bit.
• Soil which is cut is mixed with water and
floats up through the annular space
between casing pipe and drill rod
• Can be used below water table in all soils
except hard soils/rock

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Methods of Boring
3. Rotatory Boring

• Involves rapidly rotating drilling bits attached to the bottom of drilling

rods cut and grind the soil.
• Can be used in sand, clay, and rocks (unless they are badly fissured);
when the soil is likely to cave in.
• Mud rotatory drilling: Water or drilling mud (bentonite slurry) is forced
down the drilling rods to the bits, and the return flow forces the cuttings
to the surface.
• Boreholes with diameters of 50 to 203 mm are achievable made by this
technique.
• Core drilling: Core barrels with diamond bits are used, enables
simultaneous recovery of rock cores

https://youtu.be/YoUGs6w7MoE?si=jSId8BkrQVUDeX6n 8
Rotary Drilling

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Methods of Boring
4. Percussion Boring

• Suitable for boulder, gravelly

strata, hard soil and rock
• Heavy drilling bit is raised and
lowered to chop the hard soil
• Chopped soil particles are
brought up by the circulation of
water
• May require casing

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Soil Sampling
 Two types of soil samples: disturbed and undisturbed
 Disturbed, but representative samples can be used for the following
types of laboratory tests:
• Grain-size analysis
• Determination of liquid and plastic limits
• Specific gravity of soil solids
• Determination of organic content
• Classification of soil

 Disturbed soil samples cannot be used for field density, consolidation,

hydraulic conductivity or shear strength tests.

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Soil Samples
• Disturbed Samples- natural soil structure gets modified or destroyed
during sampling

• Representative Samples- natural moisture and proportion of mineral

constituents are preserved

• Non –representative samples- mineral constituents get altered. Of no

use !!

• Undisturbed samples- original soil structure is preserved and

material properties have not undergone any modification.
Practically impossible but still obtained with small disturbance

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Soil Sampling

Extent of disturbance due to sampler depends on three

features
1. Cutting edge
2. Inside Wall Friction
3. Non-return valve

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Soil Samplers
Disturbed but
representative samples Solid tube
Thick-walled
1. Open drive samplers Split tube
Open-end steel tube with a Thin-walled
cutting edge
Undisturbed samples

2. Piston samplers
3. Rotatory samplers

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Split-spoon Sampler
• Samples are disturbed but still representative
• Tool consists of a steel driving shoe, a steel tube that is split
longitudinally in half, and a coupling at the top. Coupling connects the
sampler to the drill rod.
• Standard split tube has an inside diameter of 34.93 mm and an outside
diameter of 50.8 mm, samplers with inside and outside diameters up to
63.5 mm and 76.2 mm, respectively, are also available.
• Used in SPT

CivilDigital.com
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Thin-walled samplers- Shelby tubes
• Used to obtain undisturbed clayey soils.
• Most common thin-walled tube samplers have outside diameters of
50.8 mm and 76.2 mm. The bottom end of the tube is sharpened.
• A thin-walled tube with a 50.8-mm outside diameter has an inside
diameter of about 47.63 mm.

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Degree of Disturbance

Area Ratio of a sampler is defined as ratio of disturbed area

to total area of soil.

D0 is outside diameter of the sampling tube and Di is inside diameter of the

sampling tube
If area ratio is ≤ 10%, sample is undisturbed.

20% for stiff formations

10% for soft sensitive clays 17
Inside & Outside Clearance

• Inside clearance:
To reduce friction between soil
sample and sampler ci= 1 to 3 %

• Outside clearance
To reduce friction when sampler is
driven or withdrawn co= 0 to 2 %
Should not be greater than inside
clearance

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Recovery Ratio

In case of rocks,

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Soil Samplers Disturbed but
representative samples Solid tube
Thick-walled
1. Open drive samplers Split tube
Open-end steel tube with a Thin-walled AR ~111.5%
cutting edge
Undisturbed samples
Suitable for soils with AR <15%
some cohesion

2. Piston samplers Negative pressure hold back the sample during

withdrawal. Suitable for saturated sands and soft soils

3. Rotatory samplers Double-walled tube sampler with an inner

removable liner
Suitable for hard cohesive soils and rocks

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Piston Samplers

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Piston Samplers
• To improve the quality of samples and to increase the recovery of soft or slightly
cohesive soils, a piston sampler is normally used.
• The presence of the piston prevents the soft soils from squeezing rapidly into
the tube and thus eliminates most of the distortion of the sample.
• The piston also helps to increase the length of sample that can be recovered by
creating a slight vacuum that tends to retain the sample if the top of the column
of soil begins to separate from the piston.
• During the withdrawal of the sampler, the piston also prevents water pressure
from acting on the top of the sample and thus increases the chances of
recovery.
• The design of piston samplers has been refined to the extent that it is
sometimes possible to take undisturbed samples of sand from below the water
table.
• However, piston sampling is relatively a costly procedure and may be adopted
only where its use is justified
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Core Barrel (Rotary Drilling)

Rock coring: (a) single-tube core barrel; (b) double-tube core barrel
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References
• Principles of Foundation Engineering by Braja Das (Seventh Edition)
• Basic and Applied Soil Mechanics by G. Ranjan and A.S.R. Rao (Second
Edition)
• Principles and Practices of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering
by V.N.S. Murthy

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