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.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
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.
References
Australian Drilling Industry Training Committee Limited. (1997). Drilling, the manual of methods, applications and management, 4th Ed., Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, FL, 624.
Benoît, J., Bothner, W. A., and Escamilla-Casas, J. (2002). “Characterization of fractured-rock aquifers using drilling parameters.” Proc., Fractured-Rocks Aquifers 2002 Conf., National Ground Water Association, Westerville, OH.
Cailleux, J.-B. (1986). “Étude des diagraphies instantanées en forage.” Rapport des laboratoires, GT12, 97 (in French).
CEN (European Committee for Standardization). (2013). “Geotechnical investigation and testing—Field testing. Part 15: Measuring while drilling.” EN ISO 22476-15, Brussels, Belgium, 45.
Christie, K. (2002). “Introducing new technologies to in situ geotechnical testing.” Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, 66.
De Paoli, B., Viola, G., and Tomiolo, A. (1988). “The use of drilling energy for soil classification.” 2nd Int. Symp. on Field Measurements in Geomechanics, S. Sakurai, ed., A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 313–321.
Diehl, G. W. (1978). “Automation and optimization of rock drill parameters in hydraulic drilling.” Min. Magazine, 135(7), 38–43.
Falconer, I. G., and Normore, D. (1987). “MWD bit efficiency model provides real-time answers.” Technol. Oil Gas J., 85(43), 40–48.
Fortunati, F., and Pellegrino, G. (1998). “The use of electronics in the management of site investigation and soil improvement works: Principles and applications.” Proc., 1st Int. Conf. on Site Characterization, P. K. Robertson and P. W. Mayne, eds., Vol. 1, A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 359–364.
Garassino, A. L., and Schinelli, M. L. (1998). “Detection of cavities by monitored borehole drilling (TMD).” Proc., 1st Int. Conf. on Site Characterization, Vol. 1, Geological Society of London, London, 365–370.
Girard, H., Morlier, P., Puvilland, O., and Garzon, M. (1986). “The digital Enpasol method—Exploitation of drilling parameters in civil engineering.” Proc., 39th Canadian Geotechnical Conf., Canadian Geotechnical Society, Richmond, BC, Canada, 59–68.
Gui, M. W., Soga, K., Bolton, M. D., and Hamelin, J.-P. (2002). “Instrumented borehole drilling for subsurface investigation.” J. Geotech. Environ. Eng., 283–291.
Hamelin, J. P., Levallois, J., and Pfister, P. (1983). “Enregistrement des paramètres de forage: Nouveaux développements.” Int. Symp. on Soil and Rock Investigations by In-Situ Testing, Vol. 1, École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris, 83–88 (in French).
LCPC (Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées). (2010). “Paramètres de Forage en Géotechnique.” Méthode d’essai, ME79, 49 (in French).
Möller, B., Bergdahl, U., and Elmgren, K. (2004). “Soil-rock sounding with MWD—A modern technique to investigate hard soils and rocks.” Proc., 2nd Int. Conf. on Site Characterization (ISC-2), Vol. 1, Faculdade de Engenheria da Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal, 733–740.
Nishi, K., Suzuki, Y., and Sasao, H. (1998). “Estimation of soil resistance using rotary percussion drill.” Proc., 1st Int. Conf. on Site Characterization, P. K. Robertson and P. W. Mayne, eds., Vol. 1, A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 393–398.
Nuyens, J., Gilles, P., and Jaumain, P. (1995). “Corrélations entre Paramètres de Forages.” Proc., 4th Int. Symp. on Pressuremeters (ISP4), G. Ballivy, ed., A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 481–485 (in French).
Peck, J., Scoble, M. J., and Carter, M. (1987). “Interpretation of drilling parameters for ground characterization in exploration and development of quarries.” Drillex 87 Conf., Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, London, 141–148.
Peck, J., and Vynne, J. F. (1993). “Current status and future trends of monitoring technology for rotary blasthole drills.” Proc., Int. Mining Geology Conf., Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Carlton South, VIC, Australia, 311–325.
Pfister, P. (1985). “Drilling parameter recording in soil engineering.” Ground Eng., 18(3), 16–21.
Reiffsteck, P. (2011). “Influence factors of measuring while drilling method.” Proc., 15th European Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering. Geotechnics of Hard Soils—Weak Rocks, Vol. 1, IOS Press, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 67–72.
Sadkowski, S. S., Stetson, K. P., Benoit, J., and Roche, J. T. (2010). “Characterizing subsurface conditions using drilling parameters for a deep foundation project in Boston, MA, USA.” GeoFlorida, 2010, ASCE, Reston, VA.
Somerton, W. H. (1959). “A laboratory study of rock breakage by rotary drilling.” Petroleum Trans. AIME, 216, 92–97.
Swedish Geotechnical Society. (1999). “Reference test procedure for soil-rock drilling.”, Fjärås, Sweden (in Swedish).
Teale, R. (1965). “The concept of specific energy in rock drilling.” Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci., 2(1), 57–73.
Yue, Z. Q., Gao, W., Chen, J., and Lee, C. F. (2006). “Drilling process monitoring for a wealth of extra factual data from drillhole site investigation.” Proc., 10th IAEG Congress, Geological Society of London, London.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
©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
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.