Types of Boring - 2 | Foundation Engineering - Civil Engineering (CE) PDF Download

Procedure 
The borehole is advanced to the required depth and the bottom cleaned.
The split-spoon sampler, attached to standard drill rods of required length is lowered into the borehole and rested at the bottom .
The split-spoon sampler is driven into the soil for a distance of 450mm by blows of a drop hammer (monkey) of 65 kg falling vertically and freely from a height of 750 mm. The number of blows required to penetrate every 150 mm is recorded while driving the sampler. The number of blows required for the last 300 mm of penetration is added together and recorded as the N value at that particular depth of the borehole. The number of blows required to effect the first 150mm of penetration, called the seating drive, is disregarded. The split-spoon sampler is then withdrawn and is detached from the drill rods. The split-barrel is disconnected from the cutting shoe and the coupling. The soil sample collected inside the split barrel is carefully collected so as to preserve the natural moisture content and transported to the laboratory for tests. Sometimes, a thin liner is inserted within the split-barrel so that at the end of the SPT, the liner containing the soil sample is sealed with molten wax at both its ends before it is taken away to the laboratory. The SPT is carried out at every 0.75 m vertical intervals in a borehole. This can be increased to 1.50 m if the depth of borehole is large. Due to the presence of boulders or rocks, it may not be possible to drive the sampler to a distance of 450 mm. In such a case, the N value can be recorded for the first 300 mm penetration. The boring log shows refusal and the test is halted if
• 50 blows are required for any 150mm penetration
• 100 blows are required for 300m penetration
• 10 successive blows produce no advance.

Precautions 
• The drill rods should be of standard specification and should not be in bent condition.
• The split spoon sampler must be in good condition and the cutting shoe must be free from wear and tear.
• The drop hammer must be of the right weight and the fall should be free, frictionless and vertical. The SPT is carried out at every 0.75 m vertical intervals in a borehole. This can be increased to 1.50 m if the depth of borehole is large. Due to the presence of boulders or rocks, it may not be possible to drive the sampler to a distance of 450 mm. In such a case, the N value can be recorded for the first 300 mm penetration. The boring log shows refusal and the test is halted if
• 50 blows are required for any 150mm penetration
• 100 blows are required for 300m penetration 10 successive blows produce no advance.

Precautions 
• The drill rods should be of standard specification and should not be in bent condition.
• The split spoon sampler must be in good condition and the cutting shoe must be free from wear and tear.
• The drop hammer must be of the right weight and the fall should be free, frictionless and vertical. The height of fall must be exactly 750 mm. Any change from this will seriously affect the N value.
• The bottom of the borehole must be properly cleaned before the test is carried out. If this is not done, the test gets carried out in the loose, disturbed soil and not in the undisturbed soil. When a casing is used in borehole, it should be ensured that the casing is driven just short of the level at which the SPT is to be carried out. Otherwise, the test gets carried out in a soil plug enclosed at the bottom of the casing.
• When the test is carried out in a sandy soil below the water table, it must be ensured that the water level in the borehole is always maintained slightly above the ground water level. If the water level in the borehole is lower than the ground water level, ‗quick' condition may develop in the soil and very low N values may be recorded. In spite of all these imperfections, SPT is still extensively used because the test is simple and relatively economical.
• it is the only test that provides representative soil samples both for visual inspection in the field and for natural moisture content and classification tests in the laboratory. SPT values obtained in the field for sand have to be corrected before they are used in empirical correlations and design charts. IS: 2131-1981 recommends that the field value of N be corrected for two effects, namely, (a) effect of overburden pressure, and (b) effect of dilatancy. (a) Correction for overburden pressure

Several investigators have found that the penetration resistance or the N value in a granular soil is influenced by the overburden pressure. Of two granular soils possessing the same relative density but having different confining pressures, the one with a higher confining pressure gives a higher N value. Since the confining pressure (which is directly proportional to the overburden pressure) increases with depth, the N values at shallow depths are underestimated and the N values at larger depths are overestimated. To allow for this, N values recorded from field tests at different effective overburden pressures are corrected to a standard effective overburden pressure.

Static cone penetration test 
At field SCPT is widely used of recording variation in the in-situ penetration resistance of soil in cases where in-situ density is disturbed by boring method & SPT is unreliable below water table. The test is very useful for soft clays, soft silts, medium sands & fine sands.

Procedure 
By this test basically by pushing the standard cone at the rate of 10 to 20 mm/sec in to the soil and noting the friction, the strength is determined. After installing the equipment as per IS-4968, part III the sounding rod is pushed in to the soil and the driving is operated at the steady rate of 10 mm/sec approximately so as to advance the cone only by external loading to the depth which a cone assembly available. For finding combine cone friction resistance, the shearing strength of the soil qs , and tip resistance qc is noted in gauge & added to get the total strength

Limitations
This test is unsuitable for gravelly soil & soil for having SPT N value greater than 50. Also in dense sand anchorage becomes to cumbersome & expensive & for such cases Dynamic SPT can be used. This test is also unsuitable for field operation since erroneous value obtained due to presence of brick bats, loose stones etc.

Geophysical exploration General Overview 
Geophysical exploration may be used with advantage to locate boundaries between different elements of the subsoil as these procedures are based on the fact that the gravitational, magnetic, electrical, radioactive or elastic properties of the different elements of the subsoil may be different. Differences in the gravitational, magnetic and radioactive properties of deposits near the surface of the earth are seldom large enough to permit the use of these properties in exploration work for civil engineering projects. However, the resistivity method based on the electrical properties and the seismic refraction method based on the elastic properties of the deposits have been used widely in large civil engineering projects.