1

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

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

foundation soil
s exploratio
n

tunnelin
g
… buried right under your
feet.
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SIVA
 A good site investigation is a prerequisite.

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SIVA
 Need
Need good
good
knowledge
knowledge of of
proposed structure
the
the soil
soil
conditions
conditions

?
Problem Soils
e.g., reactive
6
SIVA clays, soft soils,
SIVA
 Soil data required:
 Soil profile
- layer thickness and soil identification

 Index properties
- water content, Atterberg limits, etc.
 Strength & compressibility
characteristics
- c’, cu, φ ’, Cc, Cr, OCR, …

 Others (e.g., water table depth)

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SIVA
 Desk Study
First stage of site investigation. Negligible
cost. Look for any freebies (i.e., info available
currently)
 Aerial photographs
 Topographical maps
 Existing site investigation reports (for nearby
sites)
 Other info. from local councils, literature

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SIVA
 Site Reconnaissance
A site visit and chat with locals.

 Site access
 Topography
 Site geology
 Conditions of adjacent structures
 Any obvious problems foreseen?

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SIVA
 back hoe drill rig

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

11
SIVA
 Trial Pit
Enables visual inspection, locating strata
boundaries, and access for undisturbed block
samples.

A Very Large Trial

12
SIVA Pit
 In clay layers…

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

bore Consolidation,
Consolidation,
triaxial tests in
 Undisturbed Clay
Samples
Required for triaxial, consolidation tests in
the lab.
Good quality samples
necessary.
O. D.2 − I .D.2
AAR<10
<10 so AR = 2
× 100 (%)
%
R
il I . D.
%
area
area
sampling ratio
ratio
tube

Thicker the wall, greater the

disturbance.
Take good care in transport and
handling. 14
SIVA
 In Granular Soils …

Very difficult to get undisturbed

samples.
∴ Go for in situ tests.
e.g.,
e.g., penetration
penetration
tests
tests

80-90%
80-90% ofof foundation
foundation
designs
designs are
are based
based on
on
penetration
penetration tests
tests 15
SIVA
 Penetration Tests

Measuring the soil resistance to penetration by a

probe.
φ ’, E
…

GL

drill
rod

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SIVA
 How many bore holes?

Proposed site for

m 0
10

a multi-storey
shopping
complex
bore
hole
120
m

Not
Notenough
enoughbore
boreholes;
holes;soil
soilprofile
profileand
and
properties
propertiesnot
notwell
welldefined..
defined.. 17
SIVA
 How many bore holes?

m 0
10

120
m

Too
Toomany
manybore
boreholes
holesand
andblows
blowsthe
the
budget.
budget. 18
SIVA
 How many bore holes?

trial
m 0 pit
10

120
m

About
Aboutright?
right?
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SIVA
 How many bore holes?

The number of bore holes depends

on: type and size of the
project
budget for site
investigation
soil variability

Typically spaced at 20-40 m for non-residential

buildings.
Locate the bore holes where the loads are
expected.

proposed 20
SIVA
 How deep to explore?
Explore the soil to a depth where the
stress changes become insignificant

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SIVA
 Standard Penetration Test
(SPT)
65 kg
hammer
760 mm
Count the number of blows drop
anvi
required for 300 mm l
penetration
Blow
Blow count
count
or
or
N-Value
N-Value

drill rod

split spoon
sampler
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SIVA
 Standard Penetration Test
still
stillhas
has
some
some
value
value
mainly for granular soils; unreliable in
clays
N-value correlated to φ ’, E …

done within bore holes at 1.5 m depth

intervals
samples (disturbed) collected in split-spoon
sampler
AAR = 112%;
R = 112%;
use
usefor
for
classification
classification
soi
I.D. = 35
mm
l
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SIVA O.D.= 51
 Standard Penetration Test

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SIVA
 SPT Hammer

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SIVA
 SPT Corrections

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

Overburde
Overburde
Energy
Energy nn
correction
correction correction
correction

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SIVA
 SPT Correlations in Clays
not
corrected
for
N60
overburde cu (kPa) consistency visual identification
n
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 effort

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

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

>30 >200 hard Cannot indent even with thumb

nail

Use with caution;

27
SIVA unreliable.
 SPT Correlations in Granular
Soils
(N)60 Dr (%) consistency
not
corrected
for
0-4 0-15 very loose
overburden 4-10 15-35 loose
10-30 35-65 medium
30-50 65-85 dense
>50 85-100 very dense

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SIVA
 Cone Penetration Test
(CPT)

Dynamic cone Static cone

penetration penetration
test test
(DCPT) (SCPT)
similar to SPT; hammer pushed into the ground @ 2
driven cm/s
using cone instead of split gives continuous
spoon measurements

closed
end; no
samples
gives blow counts @ 1.5 m
depth intervals 29
SIVA
 Dynamic Cone Penetration
Test
Simple and rugged.
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

DCP
T
30
SIVA Solid (∴ no
 Static Cone Penetration Test

10 cm2 cross
section fs
friction ratio, fR = × 100
qc %
sleeve friction
(fs) Typically
Typically00————
————
10%.
10%.
granula
granula cohesiv
cohesiv
rr ee

cone
resistance (qc) 31
SIVA
 Piezocone (CPTU)
A modern static cone;
measures pore water
pressure also.

Porous
Piezocone
Pushedstone
into
with
the
for pore
pressure
leads
ground
measurement
32
SIVA
 Pushed
Pushedinin
@
@20
20mm/s
mm/s
rate
rate

Continuous
Continuous
measureme
measureme
nts
ntsof
ofqqcc,,ffss
and
andu.u.

33
SIVA
 Interpreting SCPT Data

See next 34
SIVA
 Interpreting SCPT (Piezocone)
Data

Soil
SoilBehavior
BehaviorType
Type(Robertson
(Robertsonetetal.,
al.,1986;
1986; Robertson
Robertson&&Campanella,
Campanella,1988)
1988)
11––Sensitive fine grained
Sensitive fine grained 5 – Clayey silt to silty clay
5 – Clayey silt to silty clay 9 – sand
9 – sand
22––Organic material
Organic material 6 – Sandy silt to silty
6 – Sandy silt to silty sandsand 10
10––Gravelly
Gravellysandsandto
tosand
sand
33––Clay
Clay 7 – Silty sand to sandy
7 – Silty sand to sandy silt silt 11 – Very stiff fine grained*
11 – Very stiff fine grained*
44––Silty clay to clay
Silty clay to clay 8 – Sand to silty
8 – Sand to silty sandsand 12
12––Sand
Sandtotoclayey
clayeysand*
sand*
*Note: Overconsolidated or cemented
*Note: Overconsolidated or cemented 35
SIVA
 Sounding - Shelby County, TN
(U.S.A)

qt (MPa) Fr
0 5 10 15 20 25 0
0 0

5 5
Courtesy: Professor. P.W. Mayne, Georgia
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SIVA Inst. of Technology
 SCPT
Correlations
In Clays,
qc − σ vo
cu =
Nk cone factor (15-
20); varies with
cone

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

37
SIVA
 qc/N Relation in Granular
Soils

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

38
SIVA kPa)
 φ ’ from SPT/CPT in Granular
Soils

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

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SIVA
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

cylindric
al probe guard
Siv cell
a

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

Similar
Similar
to
tothe
the
cone
cone

60
60mmmmdia.
dia.
flexible steel
flexible steel
membrane 41
SIVA membrane
 Cone
Pressuremeter
Combines piezocone and
pressuremeter.
Uncommon; specialised.

pressurem
pressurem
eter
eter

piezoco
piezoco
ne
ne

42
SIVA
 Vane Shear Test
measuring
(torque) head

For clays, and mainly for soft

clays.
bore Measure torque required to
hole quickly shear the vane pushed
into soft clay.
∴
undrained
h≈ 2d torque  undrained shear
strength cu
van Typical d = 20-100
e mm.
d

soft van
SIVA clay e 43
 Vane Shear Test

Failure surface
Test in
Progress 44
SIVA
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.

plat
press e
ure
settlem

Doing it in Sri Lankan

ent

style.
 Common In Situ Testing
Devices

SPT

VST PM DM
CPT
T T

In bore 46
SIVA holes
 Pocket penetrometer
A simple hand-held device for measuring unconfined
compressive strength (qu = 2 cu) of a clay.
very
very
Used in trial pits and
rough
rough
samples.
Must for every practicing geotechnical
engineer.

Push ..read
Pushinto
into ..read
the the
theclay,
clay, the
and.. strength
strength
and..
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SIVA
 Cost versus Accuracy
Pressuremeter
test
Relative Cost per
Test

Dynamic cone
penetration test Static cone
penetration test

Standard
penetration test
Relative Test
Pocket penetrometer Accuracy
test
If only they had proper site
investigation…

…Tower of Pisa will not be leaning

today!
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SIVA
Hypertext References:

www.fugro.nl Fugro International-

www.ce.gatech.edu Georgia Institute of
Technology
www.pagani-geotechnical.com Pagani Geotechnical
Equipment