Enhancing Geotechnical Investigations Using Drilling Parameters
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 144, Issue 3
Abstract
Ground investigation techniques such as the pressure meter and the standard penetration test give discrete distribution of information with depth, whereas few others such as the cone penetration test provide continuous profiling. A need to have continuous data still exists for many projects in which the design depends heavily on a reliable soil profile. Since the 1970s, measuring while drilling (MWD) has been used mostly for qualitative description of the subsurface. The technique consists of observing and recording the drilling process in terms of advance rate, penetration thrust, rotation rate, torque, drilling fluid pressure, and flow to provide a fairly accurate representation of the stratigraphy while advancing a borehole in soils and in rock. A study at a specially constructed test embankment was used to evaluate the potential of drilling parameters to deliver quantitative in addition to qualitative data from instantaneous drilling logs. The embankment, consisting of eight distinct zones of different soil types and materials, allowed measurements of MWD parameters under various drilling and soil conditions. The drilling variables studied included drilling methods (rotary drilling and rotary percussive drilling), drilling procedures, and use of different drilling tools. Subsurface conditions included gravel, sand, clayey sand, silt, clay, reconstituted chalk, in addition to a buried layer of concrete and a layer of hollow polymer blocks. The measurements were analyzed as individual drilling parameters or a combination of parameters known as compound parameters. The compound parameters allowed the determination of the most efficient drilling techniques to advance boreholes in these different materials. Using histograms and frequency distributions, the results obtained at the test embankment in these different geological conditions suggest that MWD measurements have the potential to provide geotechnical engineers with reliable stratigraphic details that are necessary to build an accurate geological model of the subsurface.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy (MEDDE), and the ANR research project SISCA (ANR-08-RISK-0009) for funding of this research, and their colleagues, G. Laudansky, J.-L. Tacita, O. Malassingne and E. Haza-Rozier, for their help in carrying out this testing program. The authors also appreciate the reviewers’ comments, which significantly improved this paper.
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Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 144 • Issue 3 • March 2018
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©2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 4, 2016
Accepted: Aug 16, 2017
Published online: Jan 6, 2018
Published in print: Mar 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Jun 6, 2018
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