a) Explain 3 types of boring for cohesive and cohesionless soil (include picture for your

explanation)

The 3 types of boring for cohesive soil are auger boring, wash boring and
displacement boring while the other 3 types of cohesionless soil are rotary drilling,
percussion drilling and hollow stem auger.

Cohesive soil

 Auger Boring

Picture 1: Auger boring Picture 2: Real-life auger boring on site

Auger boring is a trenchless technology whereby a steel casing pipe is jacked

(shoved) into the earth from the main shaft to reception shaft. The helical rotating
augers then carry the spoil back into its casing pipe to the main shaft for removal
(excavation). It is a safe, quick, and cost-efficient method for installing steel pipes and
casing. One of its many benefits is it reduces traffic disruption and roadway pavement
damage. It is only suitable for very soft soil (not very hard or cemented soil) to allow
flow into the hole.
 Wash Boring

Picture 3 & 4: Wash boring & its real-life application

Wash boring is a method for advancing holes in site exploration and geotechnical
investigation. It is commonly used for most soils except gravel and boulders (not
suitable for cohesionless soil). It is a very quick and simple method to carry out and
uses inexpensive, portable handling and drilling equipment.

By using wash boring, the change of colour of slurry flowing out of the hole will be
observed to determine the soil characteristics. The sample obtained from this method
is completely disturbed hence not suitable for very soft soil, fine to medium-grained
soil or cemented soil. The steps for using wash boring is by:
1. Forcing pressured water into the drilled hole which is rotated, dropped, and raised
2. This causes soil to be disintegrated
3. The soil-water slurry is forced up to the ground and observe to determine soil’s
characteristics.
 Displacement Boring

Picture 5: Displacement boring pile

Displacement boring is a method of combination between sampling and boring

operation. It is a very simple and economic method if no unnecessary caving occurs.
Due to this loose sand is not suitable for this method of boring. The presence of
resistance during penetration is a means of detection for major changes of soil
character. Displacement boring will produce 25mm to 75mm hole. The type of
sampling suitable for this sample is stiff and dense soil to avoid damaging the sample
or heavy construction pit. The steps of application are:
1. Spotting
2. Drilling – with clockwise auger rotation and vertical force
3. Reinforcement – at the desired depth, insertion of reinforcing cage, release of the
sacrificial tip
4. Concrete placement - into the casing
5. Working tube extraction – extraction of the casing with an oscillating upward and
downward motion and alternating 180° clockwise and counter-clockwise
rotations.
6. Completed Fundex pile
Cohesionless Soil
 Rotary Drilling

Picture 6 & 7: Rotary drilling diagram and real-life application

Rotary drilling is a method used for drilling highly resistant strata. It functions as
finding out the rock strata and accessing the rock's quality from cracks, fissures, and
joints. It can also be used for sand and silts. It functions similarly to wash boring
technique. The steps of using rotary drilling (fully cased drilling with rotary drive)
are:
1. Casing installation – with the rotary drive of the drill rig (pushing and rotating)
2. Drilling – with bucket, auger, or core barrel. Stabilize the wall of the bore with
segmental casings
3. Install reinforcement cage – with the auxiliary winch of the drill rig into the
borehole temporarily stabilized by the casings
4. Pour concrete – through the tremie pipe into the cased borehole
5. Extract the casing – with the rotary drive during concreting
 Percussion Drilling

Picture 8 & 9: Percussion drilling diagram and real-life application

Percussion drilling is a manual drilling technique where a heavy hammering bit is

attached to a rope or cable and is lowered in the open hole or a temporary casing.
Another name for this technique is a cable tool. A tripod is usually used to provide
support for this technique. When moving the rope up and down, the hammering bit
causes the soil to loosen or consolidated the rock in the borehole. The extraction later
will occur using a bailer. To prevent the hole from collapsing, temporary steel or
plastic casing will be used. After the permanent well screen and casing are installed,
the temporary casing will be removed. However, the main disadvantage of using
percussion method is it causes a disturbance at the bottom of the hole which leads to
the destruction of good quality of undisturbed samples due to heavy blows of the
chisel. Also, this technique can only be used for detecting heavy strata, not thin strata.
 Hollow Stem Auger

Picture 9 & 10: Hollow stem auger and its real-life application

Hollow stem auger is one of the most effective and efficient drilling and soil sampling
method for deep bedrock. It functions as drilling glacial tilt, silt, clay, and sandy soils
(cohesionless soil). The sampling soil is collected by lowering the split spoon
samplers on the drill rod through the opening of the auger. After calibration,
automatically, the sampling hammers drive into the soil to gather both physical and
geotechnical data of soil. This type of auger is commonly used in geotechnical and
environmental soil sampling and water monitoring well installations. It is best used in
unconsolidated sediments with not more than 30% gravels of 200’. It is non-effective
in highly consolidated sediments, cobbles, rock or highly saturated silts and muds.
Reference
6 Different Methods of Boring Used for Soil Exploration, Civilblog.org
URL:
https://civilblog.org/2015/09/05/6-different-methods-of-boring-used-for-soil-
exploration/

Auger Boring, Midwest Mole

URL:
https://midwestmole.com/auger-boring/#:~:text=Simply%20put%2C%20Auger
%20Boring%20is,shaft%20to%20a%20reception%20shaft.&text=An%20Auger
%20Boring%20Machine%20(ABM,pipe%2C%20depending%20on%20the
%20project

Wash boring, Trenchlesspedia

URL:
https://www.trenchlesspedia.com/definition/4202/wash-boring

Percussion drilling, akvopedia

URL: https://akvopedia.org/wiki/Percussion_drilling#:~:text=Percussion%20drilling
%20is%20a%20manual,used%20to%20support%20the%20tools.

Hollow Stem Auger, Holocene Drilling

URL:
https://holocenedrillinginc.com/equipment/hollow-stem-auger/