GEOTECHNICS

Model Tests on Passive Piles in Soft Clay

Goh Teck Chee Anthony (ctcgoh@ntu.edu.sg)
Miao Lingfeng (miaolf@pmail.ntu.edu.sg)
Wong Kai Sin (ckswong@ntu.edu.sg)
Teh Cee Ing (cciteh@ntu.edu.sg)

Introduction

The majority of piles are designed to support loads that are

applied directly to the pile head by a structure. However in
some cases piles are subjected to lateral soil pressures as a
result of lateral soil movements. Typical examples of these
“passive” piles are piles adjacent to tunnelling and excavation,
existing piles adjacent to pile driving, piles used to stabilise
slopes, and piles supporting bridge abutments adjacent to
approach embankments. A critical factor in the design of the
passive piles is the ultimate soil pressure pu, which is defined
as the maximum value of the limiting soil pressure along the

Civil Engineering Research

length of the pile shaft when piles are subjected to large soil
movements. A specially designed laboratory apparatus was
used to carry out a series of tests on single piles and pile
groups in soft clay undergoing lateral movements. Figure 2. View of assembled apparatus prior to testing

range of 9.14~11.94cu suggested by Randolph and Houlsby

Experimental apparatus
The apparatus is illustrated in Figure 1. It was designed to
apply a uniform rectangular profile of lateral soil movement
on the rigid piles with pinned head and tip conditions to
(1984) and a little higher than the value of 10.6cu obtained
by Pan et al. (2000) for a rectangular pile.
A number of tests were conducted on different pile group 69
configurations to investigate the reduction of the pile group

obtain the ultimate soil pressures. The model circular piles
of 16 mm diameter and 150 mm embedded length were
installed in a clay sample with the undrained shear strength
of 24 kPa. The clay samples were prepared from a kaolin
slurry by consolidating the slurry in a consolidometer of 400
mm diameter. The piles were instrumented with button load
cells to measure the ultimate soil pressures acting on the
piles. The assembled apparatus prior to testing is shown in
Figure 2.
Results and discussion
For the test on a single circular pile, the normalized ultimate
soil pressure pu/cu was found to be 11.1. It is within the
Figure 1. Elevation sketch of apparatus
January 2005
capacity. Some results are shown in Figure 3 for a two-pile
group. The group factor Fp is defined as
Fp = pui / pus (1)
in which pui is the ultimate soil pressure for an individual
pile in a group and pus is the ultimate soil pressure from the
single pile test. Sh and Sv are the pile center-to-center spacing
and d is the pile diameter. Generally, the group factors for
two-pile groups were smaller than 1.0 and increased with
larger pile spacing. For two piles in a row of 6d spacing, the
Fp was very close to 1.0. It indicated that the piles for a two-
pile group in a row behaved like isolated single piles when
the pile spacing was 6d or larger.
For two piles in a line, the group factor of the “front” pile
was always larger than that of the “back” pile in a group.
For the “front” pile, the Fp slightly increased with increased
pile spacing, and all values of Fp were close to 1.0 (with
maximum difference of 13%). For the “back” pile, even at
a pile spacing of 6d, the Fp was 0.76. It indicated that the
group effects still existed when the pile spacing was 6d for
a two-pile group in a line. When the pile spacing was 3d or
smaller, shear failure between two piles in a line was observed
on the soil surface, as shown in Figure 4. The shear failure
may have caused significant reductions of pu for the “back”
piles in a two-pile-in-a-line group.
 Figure 3. Group factors for two-pile groups
(with pile spacing in brackets)

References

[1] Pan JL, Goh ATC, Wong KS and Teh CI, 2000, Model Figure 4. Observed shear failure for two piles
tests on single pile in soft clay. Canadian Geotech. J., in a line with 3d spacing
37: 890-897.
[2] Randolph MF and Houlsby GT, 1984, The limiting
pressure on a circular pile loaded laterally in cohesive
soil. Geotechnique, 34(4): 613-623.
January 2005

Effect of Joint Number and Distribution

70 on Moment Induced in Tunnel Lining
Civil Engineering Research

Ashraf Mohamed Hefny (camhefny@ntu.edu.sg)

Chua Heng Choon (cchuahc@ntu.edu.sg)

Introduction Table 1. Properties of elastic tunnel lining

(after Sebastian and Nadarajah, 2000)
The use of precast segmental lining in tunnelling projects Parameter Symbol Value Unit
has become increasingly popular in recent years. However, Thickness t 0.275 m
in the design of precast segmental lining, the influence of Weight w 6.6 kN/m/m
joints between the lining segments on the stresses induced in Young’s modulus El 32000 MN/m2
the lining is often ignored.
Poisson’s ratio vl 0.2 -

A numerical study to investigate the effect of both the number

and orientation of joints on the moment induced in the lining Table 2. Properties of Bukit Timah Residual Soil
was performed. In this paper, some of the results obtained (after Karr Winn et. al., 2001)
are summarised and a simple design methodology to Parameter Symbol Value Unit
determine the moment induced in the jointed tunnel lining
Unit weight γ 18 kN/m3
without incorporating the joints in the analysis is proposed.
Coefficient of earth
pressure at rest Ko 0.5 -
Young’s modulus Es 8250 kN/m2
Methodology Poisson’s ratio vs 0.495 -
Shear strength Cu 55 kN/m2
The two-dimensional finite element program PLAXIS was
adopted in this study. Typical lining parameters of North-
East Line MRT Tunnels in Singapore were adopted. Table 1 Influence of number and orientation of joints
summarises the properties of tunnel lining. The analysis was
performed on a tunnel of 6.0m in diameter (D) with a cover- This study was performed to investigate the effect of the
to-diameter ratio (H/D) of 2, where H is the depth of the number and orientation of joints on the moment induced in
tunnel measured from ground surface to the centre of the the tunnel lining. The joints were evenly distributed around
tunnel. The main analysis was performed on soil properties the tunnel and various orientations of the joints were adopted
of Bukit Timah Residual Soil, as given in Table 2. in order to obtain the critical and the most favourable joint

GEOTECHNICS
orientation that would induce the maximum and minimum
moment in the lining respectively.
Figure 1 shows the variation of maximum bending moment
with number of joints (critical orientation). It can be seen
from Figure 1 that as the number of joints increases, the
moment induced in the lining decreases and reaches a small
value when the number of joints is greater than 8. This can
be attributed to the fact that the span of the beams (lining
segments) is shorter for the larger number of joints and
therefore induces lower moment in the lining.
Figure 1. Variation of moment in tunnel lining
with number of joints (critical orientation)
Figure 2 shows the variation of moment induced in the lining
due to various joint orientations of the 4-joint lining. The
location of the joints in the tunnel with respect to the crown
was measured by an angle “θ”. An angle θ of 0o represents
the locations of joints at 0o, 90o, 180o and 270o with respect
to the crown of the tunnel, while an angle of 45o represents
the location of joints at 45o, 135o, 225o and 315o with respect
to the crown of the tunnel.
Figure 2. Variation of moment in 4-joint tunnel lining
with different joints orientation
It can be seen from Figure 2 that by orienting the joints from
θ = 45o to θ = 0o, the values of the moment induced in the
lining is reduced by 8 times. This is a considerably large
reduction in moment and can lead to a large reduction in
costs.
Simplified design methodology
A simplified design methodology is proposed in order to
facilitate the determination of bending moment induced in
jointed tunnel lining without incorporating the joints in the
analysis.
An equivalent tunnel is defined as the unjointed tunnel that
has a lining thickness that gives the same maximum moment
as the jointed tunnel lining. The equivalent of the jointed
tunnel is thus established for the moment as shown in Figure
3, where Ie,max and Ie,min are the effective second moment of
inertia of the lining for the critical and the most favourable
orientation of joints respectively and I is the second moment
of inertia for non-jointed tunnel lining.
Ie/I
Civil Engineering Research
Figure 3. Equivalent I of jointed shallow tunnels
For design purpose, one can obtain Ie,min which represents
the most favourable orientation for minimum moment in the
71
lining as shown in Figure 3. The corresponding effective
thickness can then be calculated. The calculated effective
January 2005
thickness can then be used to compute the flexibility ratio of
the lining as defined by equation (1):
Flexibility Ratio = ... (1)
where Es is the Young’s modulus of soil, El is the modulus
of elasticity of the lining, t is the thickness of lining, vs is the
Poisson’s ratio of soil, vl is the Poisson’s ratio of the lining
and Il is the moment of inertia of the cross section per unit
length along the axis of the tunnel.
One can then proceed to Figure 4 which shows the influence
of flexibility ratio on the moment coeficient to determine the
moment induced in the jointed tunnel lining.
Conclusion
A numerical study on the bending moment induced in jointed
tunnel lining was carried out. The influence of both the
number and orientation of joints on the moment induced in
jointed tunnel lining were studied in detail. From the study
performed, the following conclusions can be made:

Figure 4. Variation of moment coefficient in
unjointed shallow tunnel lining with flexibility ratio
(a) The number and orientation of joints in the lining have
significant effects on the bending moment induced in
the lining.
(b) The increase in the number of joints in the most
favourable orientation will reduce the bending moment
in the lining significantly.
(c) The most favourable orientation of 4 joints can reduce
January 2005
moment in the lining up to 8 times as compared to the
critical orientation of the 4 joints.
72
Civil Engineering Research
Effect of Rock Mass Properties on
Tunnelling Boring Machine Excavation
Gong Qiuming (pg02722582@ntu.edu.sg)
Zhao Jian (cjzhao@ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
The tunnel boring technology has been improved over the
past years. This includes the significant advances of TBMs
on the capacities of thrust and torque as well as the
development of large diameter rolling cutters with a constant
section profile. Such cutters are capable of dealing with the
high cutter loads required for hard rock and keeping a
constant production and high abrasion resistance. Hence,
TBMs are extensively utilized in tunneling and the effect of
rock mass properties on TBM excavation has become an
important topic for project planning and choice of economic
tunneling methods. In this study, a series of two dimensional
numerical modeling were performed using the discrete
element method (DEM) to explore the effect of rock mass
properties including rock material brittleness index, joint
spacing and joint orientation on TBM excavation.
Model configuration
The dimension of the model was 0.6×0.6 m. The cutter was
GEOTECHNICS
(d) A simplified design methodology to determine the
moment induced in jointed tunnel lining without
incorporating the joints in the analysis is proposed.
References
[1] Karr Winn, Rahardjo, H and Peng, S.C. (2001).
Characterization of residual soils in Singapore.
Geotechnical Engineering Journal of the South-East Asia
Geotechnical Society, 32 (1), 2001, 1-13.
[2] Lee, K.M. and Ge, X.W. (2001). The equivalence of a
jointed shield-driven tunnel lining to a continuous ring
structure. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 38 (3), 2001,
461-483.
[3] Muir Wood, A.M. (1975). The circular tunnel in elastic
ground. Geotechnique, 1, 1975, 115-127.
[4] Peck, R.B., Hendron, A.J. and Mohraz, B., 1972. State of
the art of soft ground tunnelling. 1st North A M. Rapid
Excavation and Tunnelling Conference, Chapter 19.
[5] Sebastian, P. and Nadarajah, P., 2000. Construction of North
East Line tunnels at Singapore River Crossing. Tunnelling
in soft ground. Proceedings of the international conference
on tunnels and underground structures, Singapore, pp.191-
198.
modelled by a normal force applied at mid height of the left
boundary through a contact thickness of 15 mm. The rolling
force acting on the cutter was not taken into consideration
in the two dimensional model. The upper, lower and right
boundaries were regarded as fixed displacement boundaries.
There were three types of rock mass conditions modeled.
Type 1: only rock material brittleness index varied form
11.41~29.52. Type 2: one set of vertical joints was included
in the rock mass and the joint spacing varied form 10 mm
to 500 mm. Type 3: one set of joints with a fixed spacing of
200 mm was included in the computation model. The dip
direction of the joint set was assumed to be in the same
direction as the cutting load, and the joint dip angle varied
from 0º~90º. The rock blocks between the joint set were
discretized with fine finite difference meshes, namely zones
in UDEC. The zone size in the blocks was set to 5 mm and
the damping value 0.1.The rock material modeled is typical
granite found in Singapore (Zhao, 1996). The intact granite
was assumed to be the Mohr-coulomb material and its
properties are listed in Table 1, while all joints satisfy the
Coulomb slip model with the properties summarized in
Table 2.
 Table 1. Properties of intact granite results of the effect of joint spacing on TBM excavation are
Property Value shown in Figure 2. In the figure, Ps denotes the penetration
3
rate as the joint spacing is equal to S, and P0 denotes the
Bulk density (kg/m ) 2600
penetration rate without joints. With the increase of the joint
Bulk modulus (GPa) 55
spacing, the penetration decreases. The results are compared
Shear modulus (GPa) 32 with the field measurements by Bruland (1998) shown in
Cohesion (MPa) 66 Figure 2. The curve shape of the simulated results shows
Friction angle (°) 31 good agreement with that of the field measurements.
Tensile strength (MPa) 11.3
Dilation angel (°) 10 The effect of joint orientation on TBM excavation mainly
concentrates on the changes of the rock chipping process.
The simulation results are shown in Figure 3. In the figure,
Table 2. Properties of joints
Pα denotes the penetration rate as the angle between the tunnel
Property value axis and the joint plane is equal to α, and P0 denotes the
Normal stiffness (GPa/m) 10 penetration rate at α =0. As the angle α increases, the
Shear stiffness (GPa/m) 5 penetration increases until α reaches 60º, then the penetration
Cohesion (MPa) 1.5 rate decreases with the increase in α. The results show a good
Friction angle (°) 25 agreement with the in situ measurements by Bruland (1998).
Tensile strength (MPa 0.04

Effect of rock mass properties

on TBM excavation

Civil Engineering Research

The rock mass breakage process under TBM rolling cutters
may be divided into two stages. The first is that the rolling
cutters are pressed into rock surface which cracks the rock
immediately beneath the cutter. This process is termed as
indentation. The second stage is that cracks between two
adjacent cutters propagate across the distance between two
neighbouring cutters, and then chips are formed. The rock
strength affects the rock behaviour under compression. When Figure 1. Failure element variation at the different BI
73
the rolling cutter indents the rock, it must exert a stress more
than the rock strength. Thus, the rock strength is directly

January 2005
simulated results
relevant to the excavation of TBM. Some models for in situ measurements (St)
predicting TBM performance show the relationship between in situ measurements (Sp)

the penetration rate and rock uniaxial compressive strength

(Hughes, 1986). Generally, the penetration rate decreases
with the increase of rock uniaxial compressive strength.

The brittleness, which the rock exhibits when subjected to the

indentation test and chip formation, is important to the TBM
penetration. It affects the formation and propagation of cracks
inside the rock. In this paper, the brittleness index (BI) is Figure 2. Effect of the joint spacing on the TBM penetration
defined as the ratio of the uniaxial compressive strength to the rate (St denotes fissures and Sp denotes joints)
Brazilian tensile strength. Based on the simulation results,
with the decrease of the brittleness index, the crushed zone
decreases and the number and length of the main cracks outside
the crushed zone also decrease. It is obvious that with an
increase of the rock brittleness index the cutter indentation
process gets easier. The variation of the failure element number
at the different rock brittleness index is shown in Figure 1.
With the increase of the brittleness index, the failure element
number increases linearly.

It has been well recognized that joints and fractures have an

simulated results
important effect on the TBM performance. From the viewpoint
observed results
of either energy or fracture propagation, it is easy to understand
that discontinuities should facilitate rock breakage, because
rock mass with many discontinuities has more surface energy Figure 3. Effect of joint orientation on the
than that of the same volume of rock material. The simulation TBM penetration rate
 Conclusion
Rock mass properties are the main factors influencing TBM
excavation. Generally speaking, with the increase in the rock
strength, the penetration rate decreases. Higher rock
brittleness index leads to an increase in the TBM penetration
rate. With the increase of joint spacing, the penetration
decreases. In practise, when the joint spacing is too small,
the tunnel face may not be stable during excavation and the
penetration rate may decrease. The influence of joint
orientation shows a curvilinear relationship. When the angle
α is equal to 60º, the penetration rate reaches the maximum
value.
Hydrofracturing in Situ Stress Measurements
in Singapore Granite
January 2005
Zhao Jian (cjzhao@ntu.edu.sg)
Ashraf Mohamed Hefny (camhefny@ntu.edu.sg)
Zhou Yingxin (zyingxin@dsta.gov.sg)
74 Introduction
Civil Engineering Research
Recently, Singapore has been extensively exploring the
possibility of underground space development to free some
of the surface land. The first set of caverns in Singapore is
now under construction in the Bukit Timah Granite. Extensive
site and laboratory investigations have been carried out prior
to the construction phase. In situ stress tests have been
performed in the Bukit Timah Granite using the hydraulic
fracturing technique. These hydraulic fracturing tests are the
first in situ stress measurements to be carried out in rocks in
Singapore.
Geology features of the Bukit Timah Granite
and surrounding formations
The Bukit Timah Granite is the base rock formation in
Singapore and it outcrops in about one-third of the main
Singapore Island and the whole of Pulau Ubin. Granite is a
Mesozoic rock formation formed during the Triassic period.
The dominant granite component is grey and medium to
coarse grained (2~5 mm) and consists of cream or pale yellow
feldspar (60~65%), smoky quartz (30%), and smaller
proportions of reddish-brown biotite and hornblende.
Generally, there are three to four sets of joints in the granite
rock masses with predominantly sub-vertical joint sets,
accompanied by a sub-horizontal set. The strike of the
dominant sub-vertical joint set is NNW-SSE, with secondary
sets at NNE-SSW and NW-SE, measured in the Mandai
quarry. Investigations also reveal that the faults and the shear
zones are generally sub-vertical.
GEOTECHNICS
References
[1] Zhao J., 1996. Construction and utilization of rock
caverns in Singapore Part A: The Bukit Timah granite
bedrock resource. Tunnelling and Underground Space
Technology, Volume 11, Issue 1, pp. 65-72.
[2] Hughes H. M., 1986. The relative cuttability of coal
measures rock. Mining Science and Technology, Vol. 3,
pp. 95-109.
[3] Bruland A., 1998. Hard rock tunnel boring. Doctoral
Thesis, Norwegian University of Science and
Technology, Trondheim.
The Bukit Timah granite is mainly covered by the Jurong
Formation on the southwest and the Old Alluvium on the
east. The Old Alluvium is a Cenozoic semi-consolidated
sediment, mainly flat-lying sand and sub-ordinate pebbly
sand and gravel. The Old Alluvium has no significant bearing
on the in situ stress in the Bukit Timah granite and therefore,
is not elaborated here. The Jurong Formation is a Mesozoic
formation deposited during late Triassic to early Jurassic
times. It covers south, southwest and west Singapore with a
variety of folded sedimentary rocks. A variety of folds have
developed in the Jurong Formation. It was suggested [1] that
the folding of the Triassic sedimentary pile started before
the cessation of sedimentation in early Jurassic times by
sliding of the sedimentary pile to the NE against the Bukit
Timah granite. The folds range in style from open through
vertical isoclinal to isoclinal over-folds. The strikes are
generally NW with dips varying from 10 degrees to the
vertical. The lateral compression from the main range granite
block is believed to be the source of tectonic stress generating
folding in the Jurong Formation and possibly high in situ
stress in the Bukit Timah granite. The strike of the basin is
in the direction of NW-SE, and the folding is along the
maximum tectonic stress acting in NE direction.
In situ stress measurement
in the Bukit Timah Granite
A total of 8 hydrofracturing tests were carried out in 2
boreholes (BH8 and BH17), at depths between 60 and 120
m below the ground. The tests followed the standard test
set-up and procedure [2]. The test procedure, which involves
sealing a section, hydrofracturing the rock, re-opening the
fracture, recording the key pressures, and mapping the
fracture orientation, is listed below:
a) The test interval was selected based on borehole log.
b) Straddle packers were lowered down in the borehole to
the selected test depth.
c) The straddle packers were inflated to seal the test
interval. The pressure in the packers was set at about 7-
8 MPa.
d) Water was pumped with rapid flow rate into the test
interval. Pressure increased until “breakdown” occurred
(i.e., occurrence of a hydraulic tensile fracture on the
borehole wall) at pressure Pc. Pumping was then
immediately stopped, to obtain the “shut-in” pressure
Ps .
e) After the water pressure stabilised at the ambient pore
water pressure (Po), fracture re-opening test was carried
out. Water was pumped into the test interval again to
increase the pressure until the tensile fracture was re-
opened with a “re-opening” pressure Pr. Pumping was
then stopped immediately to obtain the “shut-in” pressure
Ps. Re-opening tests were usually repeated for 3-5 cycles
ambient pore water pressure is taken as the water pressure
after it is stabilised. The shut-in pressure is determined
graphically using two methods: the pressure decay rate (dP/
dt) versus pressure (P) method and the inversed pressure
decay rate (dt/dP) versus pressure (P) method. These are
statistical analysis procedures applied to digitally recorded
field pressure and flow rate data, aiming to improve the
objectivity of Ps [2]. As can be seen from Table 2, in general
the two methods yield close values.
Because the fractures induced by the tests are generally
vertical, the vertical stress σv is assumed as one of the
principal stresses and the maximum σH and minimum σh
horizontal stresses are calculated using the following
equations [2].
σh = Ps (1)
σH = 3σh – Po – Pc + T (2)
where T is the tensile strength of the rock. The tensile strength
can be estimated from the hydraulic fracturing test data as
the difference between the breakdown pressure and reopening
pressure. It can also be obtained through laboratory tensile

Civil Engineering Research

to ensure good test records.
f) After the hydraulic fracturing tests, fracture impressions
were mapped by impression packer tests. Orientation of
the fracture was determined from the impression.
testing. The values of the initial stresses and their orientations
in the ground as interpreted from the hydraulic fracturing
tests are summarized in Table 3.

A summary of the breakdown pressure Pc, interpreted shut- Conclusion

in pressure Ps, reopening pressure Pr, and ambient pore water
pressure Po for each test is given in Table 1. The breakdown
pressure is interpreted as the peak value of the pressure in
the first cycle. The reopening pressure is taken as the average
value of the peak pressures in the re-opening cycles. The
Results of the stress measurements indicate that the ratio of
σv:σh:σH is approximately 1:2:3. The maximum horizontal in 75
situ stress is in the direction of NNE-SSW. This direction of
maximum horizontal stress is in correlation with local

January 2005
Table 1. Key pressures for the derivation of horizontal in situ stresses
Borehole Test No. Depth (m) Pc (MPa) Po (MPa) Pr (MPa) Ps (MPa) Thf (MPa) Tlab (MPa)
BH8 A1 62 11.87 0.54 5.08 3.30 6.79 10.1
BH8 A2 85 9.41 0.77 5.30 4.69 4.11 10.1
BH8 A3 94 10.02 0.85 5.73 4.11 4.29 10.18
BH8 A4 113 12.95 1.04 7.29 6.19 5.66 10.18
BH17 B1 65 13.84 0.50 5.33 4.00 8.51 10.18
BH17 B2 90 11.30 0.75 7.98 8.04 3.32 10.18
BH17 B3 109 14.65 0.94 5.99 5.43 8.66 10.18
BH17 B4 120 12.31 1.04 4.15 3.94 8.16 10.18

Table 2. Interpretation of shut-in pressures

Ps (MPa) – dP/dt method Ps (MPa) – dt/dP method
Test Depth Average Ps
Borehole
No. (m) (MPa)
Cycle 2 Cycle 3 Cycle 4 Cycle 2 Cycle 3 Cycle 4
BH8 A1 62 3.36 3.53 3.36 3.27 3.15 3.12 3.30
BH8 A2 85 5.00 4.65 4.39 4.83 4.70 4.56 4.69
BfH8 A3 94 4.07 4.10 4.13 4.13 4.16 4.11 4.11
BH8 A4 113 6.11 5.81 5.99 6.15 6.50 6.58 6.19
BH17 B1 65 4.24 3.92 4.05 4.09 3.81 3.91 4.00
BH17 B2 90 8.33 8.08 7.96 8.05 7.98 7.85 8.04
BH17 B3 109 5.10 5.14 5.04 5.95 5.66 5.66 5.43
BH17 B4 120 4.02 4.15 3.83 4.02 3.91 3.70 3.94
 Table 3. Summary of derived in situ stresses
σH (MPa), σH (MPa),
Borehole Test No. Depth (m) σv (MPa) σh (MPa) Direction of σH
by Thf by Tlab
BH8 A1 62 1.59 3.30 4.28 7.67 039
BH8 A2 85 2.18 4.69 8.00 14.07 017
BH8 A3 94 2.38 4.11 5.75 11.76 006
BH8 A4 113 2.90 6.19 10.24 14.76 057
Average 2.26 4.57 7.07 12.04 018
BH17 B1 65 1.66 4.00 6.17 7.84 000
BH17 B2 90 2.32 8.04 15.39 22.25 011
BH17 B3 109 2.80 5.43 9.09 10.88 017
BH17 B4 120 3.07 3.94 6.63 8.65 007
Average 2.51 4.46 7.30 9.12 008

geological setting. The Bukit Timah Granite is against the References

lateral deformation and folding in the Jurong Formation in
the direction of NE~NNE. The regional maximum horizontal
stresses are also in the direction of NE~NNE, as influenced
by the Sumatra-Java trench. The high horizontal stresses
provide general favourable condition for the construction of
the proposed cavern complex as the cavern designed is of
large arch span and relatively small height.
January 2005
[1] Public Works Department. The geology of the Republic
of Singapore. Public Works Department, Singapore,
1976.
[2] Hamison BC. The hydraulic fracturing method of stress
measurement: theory and practice. Comprehensive Rock
Engineering, Editor-in-Chief: Hudson JA, 1995; Vol.3,

395-412.

76

Continuous Surface Wave Measurement

Civil Engineering Research

for Site Characterization

M.H.R. Meer (harunmeer@pmail.ntu.edu.sg)
E.C. Leong (cecleong@ntu.edu.sg)
H. Rahardjo (chrahardjo@ntu.edu.sg)

Introduction
Geophysical techniques have been used to characterize the
earth’s surface for decades. The great advantage of
geophysical techniques is that they can be performed rapidly
and cover large areas. Geophysical tests using surface wave
have become popular recently in geotechnical site
characterization. There are two different geophysical
techniques using surface waves: Spectral Analysis of
Surface Wave (SASW) method which uses hammer blows
as an energy source and Continuous Surface Wave (CSW)
method which uses a steady-state vibrator as an energy
source. The CSW method overcomes the frequency
resolution problem of the SASW method by using a vibrator
that can create surface waves with known frequencies.
Although surface wave survey methods have shown great
improvement in the ease of conducting the test, there is
still ambiguity in the interpretation of surface wave tests
which is the primary concern of this article. In this article,
the interpretations of CSW tests for two sites in NTU are
presented.
Continuous Surface Wave System and field
experimental procedures
The Continuous Surface Wave System (CSWS) developed
by GDS (GDS Instruments Ltd., 1998) was used for the
field experiment. Details of CSWS and test procedures are
given in Anand et al. (2001) and will not be repeated here.
CSW tests were conducted at two sites in Nanyang
Technological University (NTU) Jurong campus. Site 1 is
located behind the School of Civil and Environmental
Engineering and Site 2 is located near the NTU Jalan Bahar
entrance (opposite to graduate hall).
Analyses of CSW tests
The data collected from the CSWS were retrieved for further
analysis. Processing of the data can be divided into
calculation of dispersion curve (plot of phase velocity, Vφ,
versus wavelength, λ) and inversion of the dispersion curve.

GEOTECHNICS
 by drawing tangents to the dispersion curve as illustrated
in Figure 2. The intersection of two tangents represents a
change in the soil stiffness and therefore a different soil
stratum. The factored wavelength method suggests that λ/
z is constant, where z is depth and λ is wavelength.
Literature show that the value of λ/z varies from 2 to 4
(Gazetas, 1982). To estimate the thickness of each soil
Time Series
layer from the dispersion curve, λ/z of 2, 3 and 4 were
used. The γ and ν of each soil layer are arbitrarily assigned
values 18 kN/m 3 and 0.3, respectively. The inversion
analyses are then carried out and the root mean square
Power spectra (RMS) errors of the fit of the computed dispersion curve
to the measured dispersion curve are compared as shown
in Table 1. Using the soil profile with the lowest RMS
error (Trial 2 for both Site 1 and Site 2), the other two
Phase angle parameters of the soil layer, γ and ν, are then adjusted to
see if a lower RMS error can be obtained as shown in
Table 2 as Trials 4 and 5, respectively. It was found from
different trials for both Site 1 and Site 2 that, when only
the values of γ are varied (γ = 17, 18, 19 kN/m3) and all
other parameters remained constant, the RMS value remains
constant. However, the RMS value decreases and then
Phase angle, φ

increases with increasing value of ν (from 0.3 to 0.49). For

Phase angle Geophone 1
plot Geophone 2
2πf/Vφ Site 1, the lowest RMS value was obtained when ν = 0.45.

Civil Engineering Research

Geophone 3
Therefore the final shear wave velocity profile for Site 1 is
Distance, d
Trial 5. For Site 2, Trial 5 with ν = 0.4 gave the lowest
RMS error. Therefore, Trial 5 was selected as the most
Phase Velocity, Vφ
probable final shear wave velocity profile for Site 2. It is
possible to have different γ and ν for each soil layer. In the
Wavelength, λ

Dispersion For 15 Hz above, both γ and ν were varied similarly for the soil layers
curve
so simplify the illustration.

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of obtaining 77

dispersion curve from CSW

January 2005
The schematic diagram for obtaining the dispersion curve
is shown in Figure 1. The dispersion curve is subsequently
inverted to obtain the shear wave velocity profile using a
MATLAB program based on the linear elastic method by
Lai and Rix (1998). With a given surface wave dispersion
curve and initial soil profile containing information of layer
thickness, Poisson’s ratio, unit weight and initial shear wave
velocity of each soil layer as input parameters, the program
continuously adjusts the shear wave velocity profile to
match the field dispersion curve in a least square error
sense.
(a) Site 1 (b) Site 2
Uniqueness of shear wave velocity profile from the
Figure 2. Dispersion curves for Site 1 and Site 2
inversion is difficult to prove. Many researches have
suggested examining the shear wave velocity profile
obtained from several initial soil profiles to determine the From the final shear wave velocity profile, the shear
reasonableness of the shear wave velocity profile stiffness of each soil layer can be easily obtained using
(Herrmann, 2002; Lai and Rix, 1998). Attempt is made in
this article to optimise the procedure for obtaining the shear G=ρVs2 (1)
wave velocity profile. The shear wave velocity profile
obtained is compared with available borehole information. where G is the stiffness of the soil, ρ is the mass density
and Vs is the shear wave velocity. The stiffness profile of
The initial soil profile has three parameters: thickness (t), Site 1 and Site 2 are compared with the available borehole
unit weight (γ) and Poisson’s ratio (ν). To obtain t, the information in Figure 3. The comparison shows good
factored wavelength method is used. In this method, the agreement with the stratification given by the borehole
number of soil layers is obtained from the dispersion curve information.
 Table 1. Effect of thickness of soil layer on inversion analyses
Site 1
Layer Initial Trial 1 (λ/z = 2) Trial 2 (λ/z = 3) Trial 3 (λ/z = 4)
γ (kN/m )3
ν Vs (m/s) t (m) Vs(final) t (m) Vs(final) t (m) Vs(final)
1 18 0.3 200 3.00 164.00 2.00 158.25 1.50 163.62
2 18 0.3 200 4.00 211.59 2.67 169.19 2.00 158.66
3 18 0.3 200 4.50 329.07 3.00 259.97 2.25 201.26
4 18 0.3 200 4.00 394.43 2.67 329.02 2.00 267.20
5 18 0.3 200 2.00 424.84 1.33 377.29 1.00 332.98
RMS error = 1.4222 1.1251 1.1571

Site 2
Layer Initial Trial 1 (λ/z = 2) Trial 2 (λ/z = 3) Trial 3 (λ/z = 4)
γ (kN/m )3
ν Vs (m/s) t (m) Vs(final) t (m) Vs(final) t (m) Vs(final)
1 18 0.3 100 2.50 99.17 1.67 99.04 1.25 98.65
2 18 0.3 100 1.50 110.17 1.00 101.64 0.75 110.13
3 18 0.3 100 1.50 92.04 1.00 106.36 0.75 110.42
4 18 0.3 100 5.50 143.34 3.67 119.08 2.75 106.32
5 18 0.3 100 3.00 195.66 2.00 139.03 1.50 123.85
RMS error = 2.8178 2.8158 2.8205
January 2005

Table 2. Effect of unit weight and Poisson’s ratio on inversion analyses

Site 1
Layer Initial Trial 4 Trial 5
78 T (m) γ (kN/m ) 3
ν Vs (m/s) γ (kN/m3) Vs(final) ν Vs(final)
1 0.50 18 0.3 99.04 19 99.04 0.45 95.52
Civil Engineering Research

2 1.33 18 0.3 101.64 19 101.64 0.45 173.96

3 2.50 18 0.3 106.36 19 106.36 0.45 244.84
4 3.33 18 0.3 119.08 19 119.08 0.45 276.21
5 2.67 18 0.3 139.03 19 139.03 0.45 326.23
RMS error = 2.8158 1.0052

Site 2
Layer Initial Trial 4 Trial 5
T (m) γ (kN/m ) 3
ν Vs (m/s) γ (kN/m3) Vs(final) ν Vs(final)
1 0.83 18 0.3 99.04 19 99.04 0.4 97.31
2 1.16 18 0.3 101.64 19 101.64 0.4 100.09
3 1.67 18 0.3 106.36 19 106.36 0.4 104.45
4 3.67 18 0.3 119.08 19 119.08 0.4 114.32
5 2.00 18 0.3 139.03 19 139.03 0.4 134.01
RMS error = 2.8158 2.8099

References
Conclusion
[1] Anand, S., Leong, E.C. and Cheong, H.K., 2001,The
Current technology for surface wave measurements is well
use of a continuous surface wave measurement system
developed. However, the uncertainty in the interpretation of
for in-situ characterisation of soil, Proceedings of
the surface wave tests still exists. In this article, a procedure
International Conference on In Situ Measurement of Soil
of obtaining a consistent shear wave velocity profile from
Properties and Case Histories, Bali, Indonesia, May 2001,
the surface wave test is presented. The procedure appears to
pp. 139-144.
give shear wave velocity profile in good agreement with
borehole information. Ongoing research effort is made to [2] GDS Instruments Limited, 1998, The GDS Continuous
further improve the procedure. Surface Wave System: User Handbook, GDS Instruments
Ltd., Surrey, UK.

GEOTECHNICS

(a) Site 1 (b) Site 2
Figure 3. Results of inversion analysis for Site 1 and Site 2
One Dimensional Dynamic Compaction
of Sand Column
Budi Wibawa (cwibawa@ntu.edu.sg)
Chua Soon Seng (css@pmail.ntu.edu.sg)
Chua Ai Hui (jc_81@pmail.ntu.edu.sg)
Introduction
The small land size and high population density in
Singapore, coupled with the industrial development and
economic growth, increase the need to utilise poor soils
for foundation support and earthwork construction. Besides
this need, extensive land reclamation programmes have
been carried out by the Singapore government to meet the
demand for more land. An example of the past reclamation
projects that used sand as the fill material to reclaim
the low land or sea area are Punggol and Changi
Airport.
In fact, the poor ground conditions of the marginal and
reclaimed land lead to the need for soil improvement. Soil
improvement utilises the poor ground −by modifying or
stabilising it− without the use of pile foundations. In many
cases, it is more practical and economical to enhance the
mechanical properties of the poor soil by soil improvement
rather than to ignore the problem and design the structures
with pile foundations. Dynamic compaction, as one of the
methods to improve engineering properties of soil, is a
deep improvement method mainly for granular soil.
Dynamic compaction, for example, was used extensively
for the densification of the hydraulic fills in the site for the
development of the Changi airport.
How does dynamic compaction work? Dynamic
[3] Gazetas, G., 1982, Vibrational characteristics of soil
deposits with variable velocity, International Journal
for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics,
Vol. 6, pp. 1-20.
[4] Herrmann, R.B., 2002, Computer Program in
Seismology, Version 3.20, Department of Earth and
Atmospheric Sciences, Saint Louis University, USA,
August 25, 2002.
[5] Lai, C.G., and Rix, G.J., 1998, Simultaneous Inversion
of Rayleigh Phase Velocity and Attenuation for Near-
Surface Site Characterization, Report No. GIT-CEE/
GEO-98-2, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of
Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Civil Engineering Research
79
compaction is a soil improvement method in which a large
January 2005
pounder is repeatedly dropped from a certain height onto
the ground surface by using a crane; it intends to compact
mainly granular soil in-place without the need of removal.
During the dynamic compaction process, the potential
energy of the pounder is converted into impact energy
that is produced by dropping the pounder onto the ground
surface. Normally, dynamic compaction is performed with
a regular pattern in order to densify the granular soil. The
primary goal of dynamic compaction is to change a poor
granular soil into one that has better engineering properties,
such that the soil strength is increased, and its
compressibility is decreased, as the result of the
densification process.
Dynamic compaction produces impact stress on the ground
surface, and as a result of the impact stress, the
displacements −usually seen as craters− are produced at
the ground surface. The stresses during impact have a
significant role in the process of densification, and there is
not much information about the lateral stress in the soil
due to the impact. Therefore, the objective of this research
is to investigate the effect of the initial dry density of sand
and the impact energy of the pounder on the impact and
lateral stresses due to one dimensional dynamic compaction.
The study was experimental, and the scope of the
experiments was one-dimensional laboratory dynamic
compaction on a dry sand column.
 Experiments and results

As the continuation of the past research performed by Low

[1], a laboratory dynamic compaction was conducted on a
dry Ottawa sand column under various dry densities. The
dry sand column was prepared by raining and dry pluviation
methods so that various densities could be obtained. The
details of the experiments can be found in Chua and Chua
[2]. A set up of the equipment system to produce an impact
on the sand column is shown in Figure 1. A free falling
pounder was dropped several times onto the surface of the
sand column, and the deceleration of the pounder during
impact was measured by an oscilloscope through a signal
Figure 2. Stress vs. time profiles of drop 5 for loose sand
conditioner. In addition, lateral stresses in the sand column with impact energy of 34 Nm
during impact were also measured by pressure transducers
at 150 mm and 300 mm below the sand surface.
January 2005

Figure 3. Impact stress profiles for loose sand

80
with impact energy of 34 Nm
Civil Engineering Research

Figure 1. Impact testing set-up

Figure 2 shows typical variation of impact stress and the

lateral stresses with time for loose sand condition under
the impact energy of 34 Nm. Impact stress can be defined
as the vertical stress acting on the surface of the sand column
due to the impact of a free falling weight, and lateral stress
is the radial stress induced in the sand column as the result
of the impact. Firstly, Figure 2 indicates that the impact
stress has relatively higher amplitude than that of the lateral
stresses. In fact, the deeper the location in the sand column,
the smaller the amplitude of the lateral stress is; this is
Figure 4. Lateral stress - time profiles for loose sand
probably because of the decreasing impact energy with with impact energy of 34 Nm
depth due to the loss of the impact energy along the sand
column. Secondly, Figure 2 also illustrates that there is a
time lag for the lateral stresses, due to the time taken by largest since the density of the sand is in the loosest state.
the stress wave travelling down the sand column. Thus most of the impact energy is cushioned by the sand
mass; however, as the sand density increases, the amplitude
Accordingly, Figure 3 shows the impact stress versus time of the impact stress increases as well. Figure 4 shows the
under various pounder drops. Figure 3 indicates that the lateral stress versus time under various drops. The pattern
impact stress of the first drop has a relatively small of the lateral stress for various drops is quite similar to that
amplitude with longer impact duration, whereas the impact of the impact stress.
stress after the fifth drop shows a quite high stress amplitude
with relatively shorter impact duration. According to
Wibawa et al. [3], the difference of the stress amplitudes is Discussion
due to a higher sand density which resulted after the first
drop. The loose sand becomes denser because there is a Since the stresses in the sand column are closely related to
hardening effect after dropping the pounder repeatedly. displacement, the effect of the initial dry density and impact
During the first drop, the damping effect is probably the energy on the impact and the lateral stresses will be

GEOTECHNICS
discussed. Figure 5 shows the amplitude of the impact and
the lateral stresses versus dry density at the energy level of
34 Nm. The first finding, as shown in Figure 5, is that the
amplitude of the impact and the lateral stresses increases
nonlinearly with the dry density of sand. This is probably
because loose sand absorbs more impact energy than sand
of higher density, and as a result, the stress amplitude is
smaller. Secondly, Figure 5 also indicates that the impact
stress’ amplitude is higher than that of the lateral stresses
for the density range in the experiments. This is probably
due to the different depths and the decreasing impact energy
with depth − caused by energy loss in the sand column.
Figure 5. The amplitude of impact and lateral stresses
vs. dry density
Finally, the effect of impact energy on the amplitude of the
impact and the lateral stresses of sand will be discussed.
Figure 6 shows the relationship of impact and lateral stresses
and applied impact energy. Figure 6 indicates that, firstly,
the amplitude of the impact stress is linearly related to the
applied impact energy because higher impact energy causes
larger impact on the sand column, especially the surface,
resulting in the higher impact stress. This finding is also
consistent with the previous experiment in Wibawa et al.
[3]. Secondly, the amplitude of the lateral stress is smaller
than the impact stress’ amplitude; the difference of the stress’
amplitude is due to the different depths. Lastly, the
amplitude of lateral stresses is also linearly related to the
impact energy.
Figure 6. The amplitude of stress and energy relationships
for loose sand
Conclusion
Based on the experimental results and the discussion above,
for the particular impact energy range in the experiments,
it can be concluded that:
a. The amplitude of impact stress and the lateral stress
increase nonlinearly with the dry density of sand.
Civil Engineering Research
b. The amplitude of impact stress and the lateral stress
increase linearly with the applied impact energy of the
free falling pounder.
References
[1] Low, P. C., “Dynamic Compaction of Sand Column,”
81
M.Eng Thesis, Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore, 1995
January 2005
[2] Chua, S. S. and Chua A. H., “Laboratory Dynamic
Compaction on Dry Cohesionless Soil,” Final Year
Project Report, Nanyang Technological University.
Singapore, 2004
[3] Wibawa, B., Bay, H. S. and Ng, Y. K., “Impact Stress
on Dry Sand due to Dynamic Compaction,” Civil
Engineering Research, No. 17, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore, 2004