CODE: BE 222

NAME: BUILDING
CONSTRUCTION III

TOPIC: INTRODUCTION TO
SOIL MECHANICS

Lecture II
16/11/2017
3.2 Site investigation and soil explorations
• Soil exploration is a part of site investigation.
• Site investigation - deals with determining the
suitability of the site for the proposed construction.
• This is done to obtaining the information about
subsurface conditions at the proposed site.
• Soil exploration consists of:-
– determining the profile of the natural soil deposits
at the site
– taking the soil samples
– Determining the engineering properties of soils.
– Also in-situ testing of soils.
• Site investigation attempt at understanding the
subsurface conditions such as:
– Soil and rock profile
– Geological features of the region
– Position and variation of ground water table
– Physical properties of soil and rock
– Contamination, if any
– General data of adjacent structures, hydrological
data,
– To determine the type of foundation required for the
proposed project at the site, i.e. shallow foundation
or deep foundation.
 – To make recommendations regarding the safe
bearing capacity or pile load capacity.
– Ultimately, it is the subsoil that provides the ultimate
support for the structures
• When to conduct soil exploration?:
• To what extent soil exploration should be done?
 Methods of soil investigations
1. Open excavation

2. Borings

3. In-situ Tests
– Vane test or shear test
– Standard penetration test
– Loading test
– Cone penetration test -

4. Geographical methods
1. OPEN EXCAVATION
/TRIAL PITS

• Test pits:
– Permits visual inspection of
subsurface conditions in
natural state.
– Max. depth limited to 18 -20
feet.
– Especially useful for gravelly
soil where boreholes may be
difficult.
– Sampling/testing done on
exposed surfaces.
2. BORINGS;

• Use of backhoe or hand boring machine can be done.

• The use of backhoe is advantageous because it is quick, mobile, and

versatile.

The process consists of

– Drilling a hole and visually examining the cuttings coming out from
different depths.

– Lifting the soil samples from different depths by using mechanical

devices called samplers.

Methods of boring

• Auger boring: This is simplest method of boring a whole by hand or

power drilling. These can be used for shallower depths generally
confined to depths of about 10 m or so. Mostly for cohesive and
other soft soils above water table.
Hand operated
augers

Power driven augers

• Auger and Shell boring:

– Cylindrical augers and shells with cutting edge or

teeth at Lower end can be used for making
deep borings.

– Augers are suitable for soft or stiff clays and very

stiff and hard clays and sand pumps for sandy
soils.

– Hand operated, mechanized ring are used for

depths 25m, 50m respectively.
• Wash boring:
– This is a simple and fastest method, used for making holes in all
types of soils except boulders and rocks.
– A casing is driven with a drop hammer.
– A hollow drill rod with chopping bit is inserted inside the casing.
– Soil is loosened and removed from the borehole using water or
a drilling mud jetted under pressure.
– The water is jetted in the hole through the bottom of a wash
pipe and leaves the hole along with the loose soil, from the
annual space between the hole and wash pipe.
– The water reaches the ground level where the soil in suspension
is allowed to settle and mud is re-circulated
• Mud rotary
– Hollow drill rods with a drill bit is rotated into the soil.
Drilling
– mud is continuously pumped into the hole. The bit grinds
the
– soil and the return flow brings the cuttings to the surface.
• Core drilling
– Used for obtaining rock cores.
– A core barrel is fitted with a drill bit is attached to hollow
drill rods.
Examples: diamond coring, calyx or shot core drilling
• Record of borings
In all exploration work it is very important to maintain an accurate
and explicit record of borings.
– Soil/rock samples are collected at various depths, during boring.
– The samples are suitably preserved and arranged serially
according to the depth at which they are found.
– A boring chart is prepared for each bore hole.
– A site plan should be prepared, showing the disposition of
various bore holes on it.
3. IN-SITU TESTS
• Vane test or shear test
– This is used in cohesive soils such as soft clay and silty clay from
which it is difficult to obtain good undisturbed samples for testing
purposes.
– The apparatus consist of four- bladed vane attached to the high
tensile rod. This is pushed to about 750mm into the soil at the
bottom of the borehole and the force required to twist the vane is
measured.
– This force is required to overcome the shear strength of the soil
acting over the surface of the cylinder of the soil turned by the
vanes so that from it the shear strength of the soil can be
calculated
– It can be used up to a depth of 30m
• Standard Penetration Test (SPT):

– This is used in non-cohesive sands and gravel

from which undisturbed soil samples. The purpose
of this is to provide an insight as to the
quantitative and relative strength of the soils
occurring at various depth throughout the site.

– The penetrometer consist of a rod on the bottom

end of which is screwed a bullet-shaped point of
about 50mm diameter and on the top end a
driving cap.
– A pit is dug through top soil and subsoil to a depth of
about 600mm
– The supports of the penetrometer (poles) are hoisted
over the pit holding a pulley with 75 kg weight.
– A 50mm diameter rod is fixed 150mm deep in the pit
dead center under the weight and closed the top of
the rod with a wooden top.
- The weight is held exactly 750mm above the top of
the rod is repeatedly released to fall down on the
top of the plug until the rod is pushed to 300mm
deep into the soil.
- Then the density of the soil strata is then analysed
Simple soil test

Bearing capacity of soil in

No. of falls of weight kg/cm classification

5 0-5 poor

7-8 1.0 moderate

14 2 good

20 3 very good

Source: American Society of Testing and Materials, (ASTM)

• Loading test: -

– This consists of applying loads to the steel plate

at approximately the proposed foundation level

and measuring the amount and rate of

settlement which occurs under progressively

increasing loads.

– At the beginning the settlement is rapid after

application of the load but soon ceases.

– As the loading increases settlement will continue
for a longer period between each increment of
load until a point will be reached when settlement
continues indefinitely.

– The ultimate bearing capacity of the soil is judged

by the maximum load which can be applied
before the indefinite settlement occurs.

– This test is of short duration and measures primarily

the settlement due to direct compression and
lateral displacement of the soil.
 – It is suitable for uniform non-cohesive soils and soft rocks in

which settlement are entirely due to these causes

(loading) but; the ultimate bearing capacities obtained

should be treated with reserve because the plate area is

smaller than the foundation width and the depth of soil

affected is small.

– The test is not suitable for clay soil in which consolidated

settlement is taking place over a very long period.

Reading Assignment:

• Cone penetration test -

4. GEOGRAPHICAL METHOD OF EXPLORATION

For economic reasons the boreholes, especially if deep, frequently

cannot give an accurate picture of the sub-soil conditions. Geographical
methods may be adopted in such cases as a means of;

– Providing data between borings

– Establishment the most useful position for such boring and

– Reducing the number of boring necessary.

– It can be used to obtain rapidly the depth and position of

changes in strata over a large area but are only successively when
the soil formations have marked differences in characteristics.
There are two geographical methods as follows:
• Electrical resistivity method
– This method is use for locating the position and
depth of different sub-soils.
– The methods is based on the measurement and
recording of potential differences between two
inner electrodes by means of resistivity or apparent
specific resistance of various soils.
– The test is done by driving four metal spikes to act
as electrodes into the ground along a straight line
at equal distances.
– Direct voltage is applied between the two outer
potentiometer electrodes and then mean for the
potential difference between the inner
electrodes is calculated.
– From the knowledge of the differences in
resistance of various soils, it is possible to
determine the depth and thickness of the sub-soil
strata.
• Seismic refraction method
– The seismic method is based on the principle that
sound travels more rapidly through dense
materials than through loose materials.
– It is useful for locating bedrock and for
evaluating the stiffness of various types of soils.
– Dense rock has a very high electrical resistivity
and soft, saturated clay has a low resistance.
 Next Session………………
SOIL SAMPLING &CLASSIFICATION OF
SOIL