Turn the speakers on

SIVA 1
 This is an attempt to create a
stand alone self learning
module on site investigation.
Fasten your seat belts. Sit back,
relax and enjoy.

SIVA 2
Site Investigation
Narrated by:
y
N. Sivakugan & Kate Johnson
 Some unsung heroes of Civil Engineering

foundations soil
exploration

tunneling

buried right under your feet.

SIVA 4
 A good site investigation is a prerequisite
prerequisite.

SIVA 5
 Need good knowledge
of the soil conditions
proposed structure

?
Problem Soils
e.g., reactive clays, soft
SIVA soils, sink holes, etc. 6
 Soil data required:
eq i ed
Soil profile
- layer thickness and soil identification

Index properties
- water content, Atterberg limits, etc.

Strength & compressibility characteristics

- c, cu, ,
Cc, Cr , OCR,
OCR E,
E

Others (e.g., water table depth)

SIVA 7
 Desk St
Study
d
First stage of site investigation. Negligible cost.
Look for any freebies (i.e., info available currently)

9 Aerial photographs
9 Topographical maps
9 Existing site investigation reports (for nearby
sites)
9 Other info. from local councils, literature

SIVA 8
 Site Reconnaissance
A site visit and chat with locals.

9 Site
Sit access
9 Topography
9 Site
Si geology
l
9 Conditions of adjacent structures
9 Any obvious problems foreseen?

SIVA 9
 b k hoe
back h drill rig

Trial Pit
1-2 m width
dh
2-4 m depth Bore hole
CLAY
75 mm dia
10-30 m depth

SIVA 10
 Trial Pit
Enables visual inspection, locating strata boundaries,
and access for undisturbed block samples.
samples

A Very Large Trial Pit

SIVA 11
 In clay layers

collect undisturbed clay

samples in thin walled
Clay sampler
(e g shelby tube)
(e.g.

bore hole Consolidation,

triaxial tests in lab
 Undisturbed Clay Samples
Required for triaxial, consolidation tests in the lab.

Good quality samples necessary.

O. D.2 I .D.2
AR<10% soil AR = 2
100 (%)
I . D.

area ratio
sampling tube

Thicker the wall, greater the disturbance.

Take good care in transport and handling.

SIVA 13
 In Granular
G an la Soils

Very difficult to get undisturbed samples.

Go fo
for in situ
sit tests.
tests

e g penetration tests
e.g.,

80-90% of foundation designs

are based on penetration tests

SIVA 14
 Penetration Tests

Measuring the soil resistance to penetration by a probe

probe.

, E

GL

drill rod

SIVA 15
 How many bore holes?

Proposed site for a

multi storey
multi-storey
shopping complex

bore hole

120 m

Not enough bore holes; soil profile and properties

not well defined..
SIVA 16
 How many bore holes?

120 m

Too many bore holes and blows the budget.

SIVA 17
 How many bore holes?

trial pit

120 m

About right?

SIVA 18
 How many bore holes?

The number of bore holes depends on:

type and size of the project

budget
g for site investigation
g

soil variability

Typically spaced at 20-40 m for non-residential buildings.

Locate the bore holes where the loads are expected.

proposed building
SIVA 19
 How deep
p to explore?
p
Explore the soil to a depth where the stress
changes become insignificant

SIVA 20
 Standard Penetration Test (SPT)
65 kg hammer

760 mm dropp
Count the number of blows required anvil
for 300 mm penetration
Blow count
or
N-Value

drill rod

split spoon sampler

SIVA 21
 Standard Penetration Test
still has some
value

mainly for granular soils; unreliable in clays

value correlated to
N-value
N , E

done within bore holes at 1.5 m depth intervals

samples (disturbed) collected in split-spoon sampler

AR = 112%; use
for classification

soil
I.D. = 35 mm
O.D.= 51 mm
SIVA 22
 Standard Penetration Test

Cathead
Hammer

Anvil

Hammer with rotating cathead

Automatic trip hammer
SIVA 23
 SPT Hammer
Hamme

SIVA 24
 SPT Corrections

(N1)60 = CER CN N
Corrected
C d
blow count Measured
blow count

Overburden
Energy correction
correction

SIVA 25
 SPT Correlations in Clays
not corrected
for overburden

N60 cu (kPa)
(kP ) consistency
i visual
i l identification
id ifi i
0-2 0 - 12 very soft Thumb can penetrate > 25 mm

2-4 12-25 soft Thumb can penetrate 25 mm

4-8 25-50 medium Thumb penetrates with moderate

e o
effort

8-15 50-100 stiff Thumb will indent 8 mm

15-30
15 30 100
100-200
200 very stiff Can indent with thumb nail; not
thumb
h b

>30 >200 hard Cannot indent even with thumb

nail

Use with caution; unreliable.

SIVA 26
 SPT Correlations in Granular Soils
(N)60 Dr (%) consistency
nott corrected
t d ffor
overburden
0-4 0-15 very loose
4-10 15-35 loose
10-30 35-65 medium
30 50
30-50 65 85
65-85 dense
>50 85-100 very dense

SIVA 27
 Cone Penetration Test (CPT)

Dynamic cone Static cone

penetration test penetration test
(DCPT) (SCPT)

similar to SPT; hammer driven pushed into the ground @ 2 cm/s

using cone instead of split spoon gives continuous measurements

closed end;
no samples

gives blow counts @ 1.5 m

depth intervals
SIVA 28
 Dynamic
y Cone Penetration Test
Simple and rugged.
Si
Siva
Better than SPT or SCPT in hard
soils such as dense gravels
As crude as SPT; relies on
correlations based on blow counts

Hollow (split spoon)

SPT

DCPT

SIVA Solid (no samples) 29

 Static Cone Penetration Test

10 cm2 cross section

fs
friction ratio
ratio, fR = 100 %
qc
sleeve friction (fs)
Typically
ll 0 10%.

granular cohesive

cone resistance (qc)

or tip resistance (qT)
SIVA 30
 Piezocone (CPTU)
A modern static cone; measures
pore water pressure also.

Porous
Piezocone
Pushed
stone
into
with
for
theleads
pore
ground
pressure measurement
p

SIVA 31
 Pushed in @
20 mm/s rate

Continuous
measurements
of qc, fs and u.
u

SIVA 32
 Interpreting SCPT Data

See next slide

SIVA 33
 Interpreting SCPT (Piezocone) Data

Soil Behavior Type (Robertson et al., 1986; Robertson & Campanella, 1988)
1 Sensitive fine grained 5 Clayey silt to silty clay 9 sand
2 Organic material 6 Sandy silt to silty sand 10 Gravelly sand to sand
3 Clay 7 Silty sand to sandy silt 11 Very stiff fine grained*
4 Silty clay to clay 8 Sand to silty sand 12 Sand to clayey sand*
*Note: Overconsolidated or cemented
SIVA 34
 Sounding - Shelby County, TN (U.S.A)
qt (MPa) Friction Ratio (%) u2 (kPa) Vs (m/sec)
0 5 10 15 20 25 0123 45678 -500 500 1500 2500 0 250 500
0 0 0 0
SM
Clayey Silt

5 5 5 5 Dense Sand

Dense Sand
pth BGS (m))

10 10 10 10
Dep

15 15 15 15
Stiff Clay

20 20 20 20

25 25 25 25

Courtesy: Professor. P.W. Mayne, Georgia Inst. of Technology

SIVA 35
 SCPT Correlations
In Clays,
qc vo
cu =
Nk cone factor (15-20);
varies with cone

In Sands,
E = 2.5-3.5 qc (for young normally consolidated sands)

SIVA 36
 qc/N Relation in Granular Soils

qc in kg/cm2 (1 kg/cm2 = 98.07 kPa)

SIVA 37
 from SPT/CPT in Granular Soils

After Peck et al. (1974) After Meyerhof (1976)

SIVA 38
Pressuremeter Test
Expand a cylindrical probe inside a bore hole.
Most rational of all in situ tests
Gives strength, modulus, K0, cv
For all soils

cylindrical
probe guard cell
Siva

pressuremeter
 Dilatometer Test
Advance @ 20 mm/s. Test every 200-300 mm.
Nitrogen tank for inflating the membrane
membrane.
Gives cu, K0, OCR, cv, k, soil stiffness .
Can identify
d f soill (from
(f a chart).
h )

Similar to
the cone

60 mm dia. flexible
steel membrane
SIVA 40
 Cone Pressuremeter
Combines piezocone and pressuremeter.
Uncommon;; specialised.
p

pressuremeter

piezocone

SIVA 41
 Vane Shear Test
measuring (torque) head

For clays, and mainly for soft clays.

bore hole Measure torque required to quickly
shear the vane pushed into soft clay
clay.

undrained

h2d torque undrained shear strength cu

vane
Typical d = 20-100 mm.
d
vane
soft clay
SIVA 42
 Vane Shear
Shea Test

Failure surface
Test in Progress
SIVA 43
Plate Loading Test
Load a square plate (300 mm x 300 mm) to failure.
Plot pressure vs. settlement. Extrapolate to prototype.
Loading arrangement makes it expensive.

Good on random fills; indicateses an average behaviour.

plate
pressure
ment
settlem

Doing it in Sri Lankan style.

 Common In Situ Testing Devices

SPT

VST PMT DMT

CPT

In bore holes
SIVA 45
 Pocket penetrometer
p
A simple hand-held device for measuring unconfined compressive
strength (qu = 2 cu) of a clay.
very rough
Used in trial pits and samples.

Must for every practicing geotechnical engineer.

Push into the ..read the

clay,
l and..
d strength

SIVA 46
 Cost versus Accuracyy
Pressuremeter test
ative Costt per Testt
Rela

Dynamic cone penetration test

Static cone penetration test

Standard penetration test

Relative Test Accuracy
Pocket penetrometer test
If onlyy theyy had p
proper
p site investigation
g

Tower
T off Pi
Pisa will
ill nott be
b leaning
l i today!
t d !
SIVA 48
Hypertext References:

www.fugro.nl Fugro International-

www.ce.gatech.edu
t h d G
Georgia
i IInstitute
tit t off T
Technology
h l
www.pagani-geotechnical.com Pagani Geotechnical Equipment