GED 452

Drilling
 Introduction
• The first purpose of site investigation is to acquire
the data needed to create a three- dimensional
geotechnical model of the ground that will be
encountered and affected by the construction of
the project. This model must represent:
– the sizes and shapes of the different bodies of
materials in the ground,
– the geotechnical properties of those materials that are
relevant to the project,
– the distribution, orientation and engineering
characteristics of the structural discontinuities in the
mass, and
– the location and behaviour of groundwater.
• The second purpose of site investigation is to use this
information for predicting the reaction of the ground
to the construction of the project.
• Access to the ground must be obtained to gain
information on the factors required to establish the
model.
• This is mostly done by opening some form of
excavation, by describing the materials and features
encountered, and by taking samples to be tested in the
laboratory. Significant data regarding boundaries,
discontinuities and mass properties may also be
obtained by geophysical surveys.
• Consequently, almost all site investigations at
some stage involve the drilling of boreholes
whose primary purpose is to gather information
about the nature and distribution of geological
materials and the discontinuities that ramify
through the mass, and to obtain samples which
can be examined and tested in the laboratory.
• The site investigator is necessarily faced with the
problem of deciding what, where, and how to
sample.
• Contemporary methods of investigating the
surface and subsurface materials (soil, rock
and other) include Drilling.
• Drilling Methods and Equipment
There are two basic types of drill rigs for
geotechnical investigations. These are:
(1) the rotary rig
(2) the cable percussion rig
ROTARY RIG
 Rotary Rig
• It is regarded as the most satisfactory method of
assessing the character of rock formations which
lie at depth below the ground surface.
• Specimen of rock in the form of cylindrical cores
are recovered from the drill holes by means of
core barrels.
• The lower end of the core barrel has a detachable
shoe or core bit which carries industrial diamond
chips in a matrix of a metal.
• The rotation of the barrel by means of drill
rods cause the core bit to cut an annulus in
the rock.
• Cuttings are washed to the surface by means
of a stream of water pumped down the hollow
drill rods.
• Wash water also cools the drilling bit.
• For hard rock drilling, bits have industrial
diamond inserts whereas
• For soft rock bits Tungsten carbide inserts are
used.
Reaming shells and core bits
 Flushing medium
• Common flushing medium are:
– Air
– Bentonite slurry (drilling mud)
– Water
 Core barrels
• Core barrels are made in various types and sizes,
depending on the depth of borehole, type of rock
and the size of specimen required.
• Barrels are also made in various lengths, with
1.5m and 3m being the common lengths for site
investigations.
• Usual practice is to employ a double tube core
barrel for all small diameter foundation
investigation borings.
• The inner tube retains the core ad usually
does not rotate with the outer tube.
 Angle and oblique holes
• When rock formations dip at steep angles , it is
often more economical to drill them at an angle
to the ground.
• The drill head is inclined until its axis is normal to
the dip of the beds.
• Angle holes can be drilled from any direction
from the vertical. Such holes seldom are
advisable if the overburden requires casing, in
such cases, the casing can be sunk only by under-
reaming the hole and pushing the casing in by the
pressure of the drill head.
• Holes near horizontal or in upward direction have
difficulty of maintaining sufficient water
circulation to keep the bit cool and wash all the
cuttings from the hole.
• Initial inclination of angle holes often tend to vary
owing to the centrifugal forces and the force of
gravity acting on the drill roads.
• Cores from angle holes show bedding and it
must be realized that the angle of bedding is not
true.
 Core sizes and recovery
• Rock cores generally come in four sizes
(diameter) corresponding to four sets of
casing, coupling and bits.
• EX 7/8”
• AX 1 3/16”
• BX 1 5/8”
• NX 2 1/8”
• AX and BX cores are the most commonly used.
• The cores are preserved in special core boxes
with narrow long partitions.
• The cores are placed in the boxes in the order of
extraction.
• The depth are indicated on a small wooden block
and inserted between each run.
• A core run is the amount of core obtained each
time the core barrel is retrieved from the hole
and emptied.
• For ease of drilling deep holes, the size of the
holes commonly reduce with depth (e.g. start
with NX, be reduced to BX at 50feet, be further
reduced to AX at 150 feet and finally be drilled with
EX bits beyond 250 feet).
• This reduction in size permits Easier handling
of casings when it must be carried to great
depths because of extremely broken rock.
• To ensure recovery in fragmentary and seamy
rocks, the borehole may be pregrouted.
– Small pilot holes (EX) is drilled, washed and
grouted.
– After grout has set , a larger hole about NX is
drilled directly over the EX hole.
 Recovery ratio
• The ratio of length of core to the length drilled
is termed recovery ratio or simply core
recovery expressed in terms of percent.
• It is advisable to use as large diameter of core
as economy would permit, the larger the
diameter, the more accurate are the
geological observations on jointing and
fracturing.
• In fractured rocks, less core loss is apt to occur
if drilled with large diameter bit.
• EX should be avoided when possible.
 Drilling in soils
• A hole may be made by repeatedly dropping a
pointed pole on the ground. If the pole is
hollow, soil will enter the pipe and a sample
will be recovered.
• Thus the most common method of recovering
a sample of soil is to push or hammer a tube
into the ground.
 Percussion drilling rig
• light percussion rig,
properly called a cable tool
percussion rig, but often
still referred to by the
traditional ‘shell and auger’
name, despite the fact that
the bucket auger is now
rarely used.
Auger
 Clay cutter
• Similar to shell but has no flat valve.
 Wash boring
• Soil is loosen by a high pressure water jet from
a pipe passing down the borehole.
• The washing are brought to the surface in the
water which passes back up the outside of the
jet pipe.
 Borehole
• The opening created by drilling is termed
borehole
• Boreholes or drill holes may be vertical, oblique
or horizontal.
• As drilling progresses, earth material loosen and
hence the need to extract it from the hole.
• Loosening is done by either chopping or drilling
bit.
• The earth material extracted from a borehole is
termed “cuttings” or “cores” (as discussed earlier)
Drill chisels
• Holes of small diameter above water level
generally are stable.
• Caving can occur arising from collapse of walls
of borehole.
• The danger of caving in increases with:
– Diameter and depth of the hole
– The presence of cohesionless sands
– The presence of groundwater
• Boreholes are sometimes filled with water to
counteract the tendency towards caving.
• Uncased boreholes filled with water are
commonly used in cohesive soils or soft rocks
if hole is to be open for a long time.
• If walls contain salts and anhydrite, strong
solution of salt may be used instead of fresh
water.
 Drilling fluids
• Stabilisation of boreholes with drilling fluids or
driller’s mud or benonite.
• Driller’s mud is a slurry prepared by mixing
commerical products such as volclay or Aquagel
(essentially) bentonite with water.
• If fat clay is obtainable locally, it may be used as
an admixture.
• The mud stabilises the wall of the bore both by
coating them with an impervious film and by
exerting on them lateral pressure (hydrostatic)
• Where drilling fluids are used, they should be
noted on the log sheet.
 Casing
• Most expensive method of protecting
borehole is by casing (or pipe).