A

Report
On
Advantages and disadvantages of Rotary Drilling

By:

Bishwas Shrestha

Roll No. 43

Submitted to:

Er. Vimesh Poudel

Kathmandu University

Department of Civil Engineering

Submission Date

August 16, 2020

 43. BISHWAS SHRESTHA

Contents

Introduction....................................................................................................................................3
Rotary Drilling...............................................................................................................................4
Drilling Machine............................................................................................................................6
Advantages of Rotary drilling......................................................................................................8
Disadvantages of Rotary Drilling.................................................................................................9
Reference......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction

Rotary drilling is one of the fastest methods of drilling wells and is particularly adapted to drill
large size holes. The drilling process involves boring a hole by using a rotating bit to which a
downward force is applied. The bit is supported rotated by a hallow stem, composed of high-
quality steel, through which a drilling fluid is circulated. The method is most suitable for drilling
deep holes in unconsolidated formations. It is unsuitable for drilling boulders and hard rock’s
due to slow progress and high bit cost.

Fig 1: Rotary Drilling

Rotary technology uses a sharp, rotating drill bit and downward pressure to cut, or crush, through
the subsurface. Impact energy is supplied to the drill bit from either an above ground or down
hole impact hammer. This impact force aids in the drilling. Depending on the competency of the
substrate, the drill casing is advanced as the hole is cut, keeping the hole open during drilling.
Competent rock may be drilled "open hole", not requiring the use casing.
WHY CHOOSE ROTARY DRILLING?
 ROBUST Rotary methods effectively advance through hard and soft lithology.
 DEPTH & DIAMETER Rotary advance to deeper depths than direct push and auger,
and is capable of larger diameter holes.
 VERSATILITY Several variations of rotary technology are available; each offering
unique advantages based on the geology, site conditions, and scope of work.
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Types of Rotary Boring:

There are following two methods of rotary boring:
i. Straight rotary method.
ii. Reverse rotary method.
In the reverse rotary method, the drilling fluid is supplied through the annular space between the
drill rod and walls of the borehole, while the soil cuttings are collected through the central
hollow portion of the drill rod. The reverse rotary method is best suited to holes 30 cm and larger
in diameter.

Rotary Drilling

Rotary drilling machines use a segmented steel drilling string, typically made up of 20- foot (6.1
m) sections of steel tubing that are threaded together, with a bit or other drilling device at the
bottom end. Some rotary drilling machines are designed to install (by driving or drilling) a steel
casing into the well in conjunction with the drilling of the actual bore hole.

Fig 2: Rotatory Drill Parts

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Air and/or water is used as a circulation fluid to displace cuttings and cool bits during the
drilling. Another form of rotary style drilling, termed 'mud rotary', makes use of a specially made
mud, or drilling fluid, which is constantly being altered during the drill so that it can consistently
create enough hydraulic pressure to hold the side walls of the bore hole open, regardless of the
presence of a casing in the well. Typically, boreholes drilled into solid rock are not cased until
after the drilling process is completed, regardless of the machinery used.
Drilled wells are usually cased with a factory-made pipe, typically steel (in air rotary or cable
tool drilling) or plastic/PVC (in mud rotary wells, also present in wells drilled into solid rock).
The casing is constructed by welding, either chemically or thermodynamically, segments of
casing together.
If the casing is installed during the drilling, most drills will drive the casing into the ground as
the bore hole advances, while some newer machines will actually allow for the casing to be
rotated and drilled into the formation in a similar manner as the bit advancing just below. PVC or
plastic is typically welded and then lowered into the drilled well, vertically Stacked with their
ends nested and either glued or splined together. The sections of casing are usually 20' (6 m) or
more in length, and 6"–12" (15 to 30 cm) in diameter, depending on the intended use of the well
and local groundwater conditions.
Surface contamination of wells in the United States is typically controlled by the use of a
'surface seal'. A large hole is drilled to a predetermined depth or to a confining formation (clay or
bedrock, for example), and then a smaller hole for the well is completed from that point forward.
The well is typically cased from the surface down into the smaller hole with a casing that is the
same diameter as that hole. The annular space between the large bore hole and the smaller casing
is filled with bentonite clay, concrete, or other sealant material. This creates an impermeable seal
from the surface to the next confining layer that keeps contaminants from traveling down the
outer sidewalls of the casing or borehole and into the aquifer. In addition, wells are typically
capped with either an engineered well cap or seal that vents air through a screen into the well,
but keeps insects, small animals, and unauthorized persons from accessing the well.
At the bottom of wells, based on formation, a screening device, filter pack, slotted casing, or
open bore hole is left to allow the flow of water into the well. Constructed screens are typically
used in unconsolidated formations (sands, gravels, etc.), allowing water and a percentage of the
formation to pass through the screen. Allowing some material to pass through creates a large area
filter out of the rest of the formation, as the amount of material present to pass into the well
slowly decreases and is removed from the well. Rock wells are typically cased with a PVC
liner/casing and screen or slotted casing at the bottom; this is mostly present just to keep rocks
from entering the pump assembly. Some wells utilize a 'filter pack' method, where an undersized
screen or slotted casing is placed inside the well and a filter medium is packed around the screen,
between the screen and the borehole or casing. This allows the water to be filtered of unwanted
materials before entering the well and pumping zone.

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Drilling Machine

Drilling parameters are strongly affected by the advancing speed that is dictated by the driving
power. It is believed that if the driving power is too high, it will be impossible to identify the
layering of the site formations. Furthermore, the machine size must be compatible with the need
for it to work in especially the relatively constricted grouting shafts.

Fig 3: A typical instrumented rotary drilling machine that can be used to drill at various drilling
angle

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Fig 4: Instrumented borehole drilling in progress.

Fig 5: Drilling rods and drilling bits used for drilling.

The drilling process must be of the rotary method instead of the roto-percussion method
(Hamelin et al, 1982). Thus, the most suitable drilling machine is of rotary type (see Figures 1
and 2) and that it has to be hydraulically driven because all the pressures are measured through
the hydraulic circuit which is impossible via an electrical system. It is also recommended that the
system should adopt drilling rigs with a minimum stroke of 3 m together with a high-torque
rotary drill head. The drilling rod and bit diameter are generally depending on the diameter of
‘tubes-a-manchettes’ but, in most cases, API rods of 89 mm diameter or the ‘Tricone’ bit of 114
mm in diameter be adopted.

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Advantages of Rotary drilling

 Quick construction speed. Because rotating drill construction by with a valve at the bottom of the
rotary drum type bit broken rock and soil, and it directly into the drill in the elevator to the
ground, don't need to geotechnical grated on mud return out of the hole, can be up to 50 cm in
footage per minute on average. The construction efficiency can be increased by 5 ~ 6 times in the
suitable formation.
 Construction accuracy is relatively high. The construction process can be controlled by the
fuselage computer, such as depth of pile, vertical degree, drilling pressure and filling capacity of
drilling tube.
 Small noise. The noise from the construction of the rotary drill mainly comes from the sound of
the fuselage engine, and the rest of the machine has little friction, which is especially suitable for
use in urban or residential areas.
 Environmental protection. Rotating drill construction less dosage of mud, mud in the
construction process of the main effect is to increase the stability of hole wall, even in the region
of the soil stability better can use water instead of mud drilling construction, greatly reducing the
emissions of mud, the relatively small impact on the environment, at the same time to save the
cost of mud sinotrans.
 It can walk on its own and easy to move. As long as the load-bearing capacity can meet the
demand of the rotary drilling rig, it can move on its own by itself without any other mechanical
cooperation.
 The degree of mechanization is high. The construction process does not need to be removed and
assembled manually, without the need for mud cleaning and slag treatment, which can reduce the
labor intensity of the workers and save human resources.
 No power supply is provided. Using rotating drill are on the market at present USES the fuselage
power diesel engine, the construction site without electricity, especially, at the same time also
save for the hauling cable layout and protection, security is relatively high.
 Under the same conditions, the bearing capacity of single pile is higher than that of bored pile.
Due to rotating drill on cylinder base Angle blade cutting soil into hole, hole after hole wall is
coarser, compared to drilling pile hole wall almost no mud apply effect, the combination of pile
and soil pile degree is higher, relatively higher bearing capacity of single pile.
 The application of strata is extensive. If the rotating drill construction process for the
corresponding technical control, due to the diversity of the rotating drill bit configuration,
rotating drill can apply to various stratum, all in the same pile construction process can be
completed by rotating drill, don't need to choose other mechanical fit into a hole.
 Easy to manage. Characteristics due to the rotating drill, drill, compared to the required
mechanical punching pile construction process and greatly reduced, and electricity demand is not
high, from the management Angle, easy to manage and save the management cost.

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Disadvantages of Rotary Drilling

 The upfront investment is relatively large. If the purchase equipment, one-time input is large.
 Self-importance and strict site requirements. Rotating drill self-respect is in commonly 70 t about
working status, but the crawler and the ground contact area is about 7.0 m2, so the requirements
of the foundation bearing capacity in 100 kpa, particularly in filling area, if there is no hardening
or change the surface processing, surface water is rich or rainy season construction to careful
consideration, taking the construction of the rotating drill just switching is very difficult, serious
waste of mechanical advantage.
 Poor wall protection. Due to the fast drilling speed of rotary drilling rig, it is mainly used to drill
through the cutting soil. Especially in the land filling and soft soil layer, the hole and shrinkage
are easy to occur and should be given attention. The construction of filling soil and soft soil
should control the speed of drilling. As far as possible, the drilling should be reduced as much as
possible, so as to meet the requirements of protecting the wall. Meanwhile, in the soft soil, the
construction should be carried out into the drill, and the depth should not be too large.
 Need mechanical cooperation. Due to the structure characteristics of rotating drill hole after the
installation of reinforcing cage and concrete pouring cannot complete by oneself, there must be
other hoisting machinery, which produced during process and dig holes must have other
earthmoving machinery to dig with, or after the spoil bank is high will directly affect the
construction of rotating drill.
 It is easy to generate negative pressure inside the hole in the soft soil. Rotating drill cylinder and
soil contact surface is larger, if drill footage in the soft soil, drill pipe ascension process easy to
produce negative pressure, increase in rotary digging pile on the body weight of pull at the same
time have an adverse effect on the stability of hole wall, easy to form a wall of hole shrinkage.
 Short-term investment in construction process increased. Because rotating drill construction
speed, short term investment is needed of the cost of material is bigger, the construction unit
should combine project funding operation situation, project time limit as prescribed by the
contract and relevant disciplinary situation synthetically consider and choose.

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Reference
B, T. (2018, February 16). Top 5 Methods Used in Soil Exploration | Soil Engineering. Soil

Management India. https://www.soilmanagementindia.com/soil-exploration/top-5-

methods-used-in-soil-exploration-soil-engineering/13877#:%7E:text=in%20this

%20method.-,Disadvantages%3A,and%20soils%20that%20contain%20boulders.

Cascade. (2020, May 20). Rotary Drilling. https://www.cascade-

env.com/technologies/drilling/rotary-core-drilling/#:~:text=Rotary%20Core

%20Drilling-,Rotary%20Core%20Drilling,or%20crush%2C%20through%20the

%20subsurface.&text=This%20impact%20force%20aids%20in,the%20hole%20open

%20during%20drilling.

News_BOKE-Structural Component. (2018, January 18). Boke.

http://www.groupboke.com/ennews_show.aspx?id=388

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