SITE INVESTIGATION AND SELECTION OF FOUNDATION

Scope and objectives – Methods of exploration – auguring and boring – Wash boring and ro-
tary drilling – Depth of boring – Spacing of bore hole – Sampling techniques – Representa-
tive and undisturbed sampling – methods - Split spoon sampler, Thin wall sampler, Station-
ery piston sampler – Penetration tests (SPT and SCPT) - Bore log report – Data interpreta-
tion - strength parameters and Liquefaction potential - Selection of foundation based on soil
condition.

Site Investigation
It refers to the procedure of determining surface and subsurface condition in the area of
proposed construction. The purpose of site investigation is to get clear information about the
soil and hydrological conditions at the site.

Objectives of Site Investigation

 To access the general suitability of the site

 To achieve safe and economical design of foundations and temporary works.
 To know the nature of each stratum and engineering properties of the soil and rock,
which may affect the design and mode of construction of proposed structure and
foundation?
 To foresee and provide against difficulties that may arise during construction due to
ground and other local conditions.
 To find out the sources of construction material and selection of sites for disposal of
water or surplus material.
 To find out the sources of construction material and selection of sites for disposal of
water or surplus material.
 To investigate the occurrence or causes of all natural and manmade changes in condi-
tions and the results arising from such changes.
 To ensure the safety of surrounding existing structures.
 To design for the failed structures or remedial measures for the structures deemed to
be unsafe.
 To locate the ground water level and possible corrosive effect of soil and water on
foundation material.

Planning For Subsurface Exploration

1. Fact finding and geological survey

2. Reconnaissance
3. Preliminary exploration
4. Detailed exploration
5. Special exploration

Soil exploration

The purpose of soil exploration is to determine, (within practical limits) the stratification
(formation of layers) and engineering properties of the soils underlying the site.
i. Order of occurrences and extent of soil and rock strata.

ii. Nature and engineering properties of the soil and rock formation.

iii. Location of ground water and its variation.

METHODS OF SOIL EXPLORATION

1. Open excavation
2. Borings
3. Sub surface soundings
4. Geographical methods

1. OPEN EXCAVATION

A pit, eventually, can be excavated for exploring shallower depths, say of the order of 2 to 5
m, or so. Such a pit can be easily excavated at the proposed construction site, if the soil has
a bit of cohesion, and the soil samples can be lifted from such different depths, besides
making the easy visualization and examination of the different strata. Even undisturbed soil
samples can be lifted from such a pit by a process called chunk sampling.

2. BORING:

Soil samples can be lifted from deeper depths by drilling bore holes by using mechanical de-
vices called samplers.
The process consists of
i. Drilling a hole and visually examining the cuttings coming out from different depths
ii. Lifting the soil samples from different depths by using mechanical devices called sam-
plers.

Methods of boring

i. Auger boring: This is simplest method of boring a hole by hand drilling. These can be
used for shallower depths generally confined to depths of about 5 m or so. In cohesive and
other soft soils above water
w table, augerss may be used.
u

ii. Auger andd Shell boring:

b Augers
A aree suitable
e for soft or stiff cclays and very stifff and
hard clays and sand pu
umps for sandy soiils. Cylind
drical auge
ers and sh hells are used for mak-
ing deep
d borin
ng. Hand operated,, mechaniized ring are
a used for
f depthss 25m, 50 0m respec ctive-
ly.

iii. Wash
W borring: this is a simp
ple and fasstest method, used
d for mak
king holes in all typ
pes of
soils except boulders and rocks.
iv. Percussio
P on boring
g: This method
m is used to make hole in all ttypes of soils inclu
uding
bouldders and rocks.

v. Rootary boring (Mud rotary drilling) ): This me

ethod is us
sed to advvance holle in rocks
s and
soils. Rotatingg core barrels whic ch are pro
ovided witth comme ercial diam
mond bits
s or a steel bit
with slots are used for rotary drrilling. Th is methodd is used to obtain the rock cores, so o this
meth hod is callled as corre boring or
o core drrilling.

Depth of exp
ploration

Deptth of inve estigation,, in generral, is deccided bassed on thee intensitty of struc

ctured loaading
and the type of founda ation contemplated . This dep pth up to which the e increasee in stress
s due
to sttructural loading caauses shear failure or excessive settle ement of foundatio on is know wn as
sign
nificant d depth. This depth of o investig gation is generally taken ass the deptth upto a level
at which
w presssure intensity becoomes 10% % of q, where
w ‘q’ is
i the inteensity of loading at
a the
basee of foundation.

The depth off explora

ation at th
he start o
of the wo
ork may be decidded accorrding to the
t
follo
owing gu
uide rules
s, which may nee ed modification as
s explora
ation proceeds:

solated spread footiing or raftt: One an d a half tiimes the width.

1. Is w
2. Adjacent footings with clear spacing less than twice the width: One and a half times the
length.
3. Pile foundation: 10 to 30 metres, or more, or at least one and a half times the width of
the structure.
4. Base of the retaining wall: One and a half times the base width or one and a half times
the exposed height of face of wall, whichever is greater.
5. Floating basement: Depth of construction.
6. Weathering considerations: 1.5 m in general and 3.5 m in black cotton soils.

The member and spacing of borings/test pits depends on the type and size of
foundations and extent of variation in soil conditions. IS 1892 makes the following
recommendations:

i. For a compact building site covering an area of about 0.4 hectare, one bore hole or trial
pit in each corner and one in the centre should be adequate.

ii. For smaller and less important buildings even one bore hole or trail pit in the centre will
Suffice.

iii. For very large areas covering industrial and residential colonies, the geotechnical nature
of the terrain will help in deciding the number of bore holes or trail pits.

iv. Cone penetration tests may be performed at every 50 m by dividing the area in a grid
pattern and number of bore holes or trail pits decided by examining the variation in pene-
tration curves. The cone penetration tests may not be possible at sites having gravelly or
boulderous strata. In such cases geophysical methods may be suitable.

   
Soil samples
s a
and sampling
i. Distturbed sam mple: in disturbed
d sampling,, the natu ural structtures of so
oils gets partly
p or fully
modiffied or des stroyed, although
a with
w suitab
ble precau ution the natural w water conte ent may beb
preserved. Distturbed sam mple can be obtain ned by direct excavations by auger an nd thick wall
sampllers.
ii. Unddisturbed sample: in undistu urbed sam mple, the natural
n structure an nd properrties remaain
preserved. The ese samplees are useed to testss for sheaar, consolidation an nd permea ability.
iii. No
on-represe entative sample: it consists oof a mixtu ure of soil from diffe
ferent soil strata. Size of
the sooil grains aas well as
s the mineeral const ituents, might
m thus
s, have ch hanged in such sam mples.
Soil saamples ob btained from augerr cuttings and settliings in sum well of wash borrings, can be
classiffied in this categoryy. Such sa
amples m may help in n determining the d depths at which ma ajor
chang ges may b be occurrin
ng in sub surface so oil strata.

Standdard splitt spoon

It con
nsists of to
ool-steel driving
d shoe at the bottom, a steel tub
be (that iss split longitudinally
y in to
top. The
T steel ttube in the middle has inside
e and outs
side diameters of 334.9mm and 50.8m mm,
respecctively. Standard split spoon sampler 

Thin wall
w sam
mpler
The sa brass or aluminium
ampling tube shall be made of steel, b a m. The low
wer end is levelled to
t form
a cuttting edge
e and is ta
apered to reduce waall friction
n.

Piston type sa
ampler

Good quality un ndisturbed d sampless are obta

ained fromm piston saamplers wwhich use thin-walled
samplling tubess with a piiston insid
de. While the tube is being loowered too the botto
om of the drill
hole, the piston
n rods and d piston are held att the bottom of thee sampler by means s of a drill rod
which rises to tthe top off the bore hole. The
e presence e of the piston prev
vents exceess soil frrom
squeeezing in to
o the tube and thus s, maintain
ns the integrity of the
t samplle.
Samp
ple Disturrbance

This depends
d o
on the des
sign of sam
mplers an d method
ds of samp
plings.

Design factors governing

g the degrree of distturbances
s:

i. Cuttting edge: A typic

cal cutting
g edge of a sampler is shown
n in the fig
gure

The im
mportant design fea
atures of the cuttin
ng edge arre

a) Are
ea ratio,

Where
e D1 and D2 are internal and
d externa l diameters of the cutting
c ed
dge respectively.

The area ratio s

should no
ot exceed 25%. Forr soft sens
sitive soils
s, it should
d not exceed 10%..

b) Ins
side clea
arance: Itt allows ellastic expa
ansion of sample when
w it en
nters the tube.
t

Where
e D3= ins
side diame
eter of the
e sample ttube.

The in
nside clearance must lie betw
ween 1 to 10%, forr undisturbed samp
ple it shou
uld be betw
ween
0.5 an
nd 3%.

c) Outside cle
earance: It should not be much greatter than th
he inside cclearance
e. Normally it
lies be
etween 0 and 2 perrcent. It helps
h in re
educing th
he force re
equired to
o withdraw
w the tube
e.

Where
e D4 is the externa
al diamete
er of the ssample tub
be.

d) Re
ecovery ra
atio ,R

R = (L/H) x 10
00

e, L is the
Where e length of
o the sam
mple withi n the tube
e,
H is the depth of
o penetration of thee samplin
ng tube.

presents th
It rep he disturb
bance of the
t soil sa
ample. Fo
or good sa
ampling tthe recove
ery ratio should
s
be 96 to 98 %.

ii. Ins
side wall friction: The walls of the s ampler sh
hould be smooth
s an
nd kept prroperly oiled.

iii. No
on-return
n valve: The
T non-rreturn valv
ve should permit ea
asy and q
quick esca
ape of watter
and air when th
he sample
e is driven
n.

3. SU
UB-SURFA
ACE SOUN
NDING TESTS
T

These
e tests are
e carried out
o to mea
asure the resistanc
ce to pene
etration off a sampliing spoon, a
cone or
o other s
shaped too
ols under dynamic or static loading.
l These
T testts are used for expllora-
tion of erratic s
solid profiles for finding deptth to bed rock or stratum and
d to get approxima
a ate in-
dicatio
on of the strength and otherr propertie
es of soil.

There are two iimportantt tests use

ed.

i. Standard Pe
enetratio
on Test (S
SPT)

This test is carrried out in

n a clean hole of dia
ameter ab
bout 55 to
o 150mm.. the sides of the holes
are su
upported b
by casing or drilling
g mud. A split tube
e sampler with 50.8
8mm outer diamete
er,
38mm
m inner dia
ameter is driven into the und
disturbed soil, placed at the bottom of
o the hole
e un-
der th
he blows o
of 65kg drrive weigh
ht with 75
5cm free fall. The minimum
m o
open length of the sam-
pler is
s 60cm, th
he sample
ers is first driven th
hrough 15
5cm as a seating
s drrive and th
hen through
30cm or until 1
100 blows have bee
en applied
d. Numberr of blows required to drive sampler
s 3
30cm
beyon
nd the sea
ating drive
e is known
n as pene
etration re
esistance and
a it is d
denoted by
y N.

When N is grea
ater than 15, Terzaghi and P eck have recomme
ended the use of an
n equivale
ent
penetration res
sistance, Ne
N in plac
ce of the a
actually ob
bserved value of N..

Gibbs and Holtz

z have stu
udied experimentallly the effect of ove
erburden p
pressure on
o the value of
N and
d their mo
odification for air drry or moisst sand can be represented b
by the rela
ation,

Where
e Ne= Corrrected va
alue of ov
verburden effect

N= actual values of blows

= effective overburde
en pressure (kN/sq
q.m)

Note: The overrburden co

orrection is applied first and then dilattancy corrrection is applied.

ii. Cone penettration te

est or Du
utch cone
e test

This ty
ype of tes
st is carrie
ed out to get a conttinuous re
ecord of the resista
ance of the soil by pene-
p
trating
g steadily
y under sta
atic press
sure, a con
ne with ba
ase of 10 sq.cm (3 .6 cm in dia.)
d and an
a
angle of 60 deg
gree at the vortex. To find o ut the con
ne resistance, the ccone alone
e is first forced
f
down for a disttance of 8cm and th
he maxim
mum value
e of resista
ance is re corded. This
T test is
s very
useful in finding
g bearing capacity of pits in cohesion less soil. Cone res istance qc
c (kg/sq.c
cm) is
approximately equal to 10
1 times the
t penet ration res
sistance N.

4. GE
EOGRAPH
HICAL ME
ETHODS

i. Elec
ctrical re
esistivity method

This method
m is based on
n the meas
surementt and reco
ording of changes
c in
n the mea
an resistiv
vity or
apparrent speciffic resistance of various soilss. The tes
st is done by driving
g four metal spikes
s to
act as
s electrode
es into the ground along a s traight lin
ne at equa
al distance
es. This is
s shown in
n the
figure
e. Direct v
voltage is applied be
etween th
he two outter potenttiometer e
electrodes
s and then
n
mean for the potential drop betwe
een the in
nner electrodes is calculated..

Mean resistivity
y (ohm-cm
m)

Where
e D= dista
ance betw
ween the electrodes
e s (cm)

E= potential drop
p between outer ele
ectrodes (volts)
(

I= curre
ent flowing
g between
n outer el ectrodes (amperes)

R= resisttance (ohms)

Resis
stivity ma
apping: This
T method is used
d to find out
o the ho
orizontal cchanges in
n the sub soil,
the electrodes kept at a constant spacing, are moved as a gro
oup along
g the line of
o tests.

Resis
stivity sounding: This meth
hod is use
ed to study
y the verttical chang
ges; the electrode
e sys-
tem is
s expande
ed, about a fixed ce
entral poin
nt by incre
easing the
e spacing gradually
y from an initial
small value to a distance
e roughly equal to tthe depth of explorration dessired.

ii. Seismic reffraction method

m

The se
eismic reffraction method
m is based
b on the fact that
t seism
mic waves have diffe
erent velo
ocities
in diffferent types of soils
s (or rocks
s). The wa
aves refra
act when they crosss boundarries betwe
een
differe
ent types of soils.

If arttificial imp
pulses are produced
d either by
y detonattion of exp
plosives o r mechanical blows
s with
a heav
vy hammer at the ground su
urface or a
at shallow
w depth within a ho
ole, these shocks ge
ener-
ate th
hree types
s of waves
s.

In ge
eneral, only compre
ession wav
ves i.e., lo
ongitudina
al waves are
a observ
rved. Thes
se waves are
classiffied as eitther directt, reflecte
ed or refra
acted waves. Directt waves trravel in ap
pproximattely
straight lines frrom the so
ource of the
t impulsse to the surface.
s

Reflected or re
efracted waves
w und
dergo a ch
hange in direction
d when
w they
y encounte
er a boundary,
a sepa
arating media of different se
eismic velo
ocities. Th
he method
d starts by
y inducing
g impact or
o
shock
k waves in
nto the soiil at a parrticular loccation. The shock waves
w are picked up
p by geo-
phone
es.

These avvailable methodss of explo

oration can be bro
oadly cla
assified into two cate-
c
es:
gorie
a) Dirrect methods
b) Inddirect metthods

The direct meth hod of soiil explorattion usual ly consistts of sinkin

ng a bore hole at a predeterm
mined
on to the required depth by a method
locatio d suitable for the sitte and to obtain fairly intact sam-
ples of
o soils fro
om every stratum
s encountere
e ed or at suitably
s se
elected deepths. Thee samples ob-
tained
d are utiliz
zed to gett necessarry informaation abou ut the soil characte
eristics by means off la-
boratoory tests.
During recent years, indirect methods of soil exploration have also been used for civil engi-
neering structures. These methods include various sounding and geophysical methods. In
sounding methods, the variation in penetration resistance of sample or cone is utilized to in-
terpret some of the physical properties of the strata. In geophysical methods, the change in
subsoil strata are identified by measuring certain physical characteristics, e.g. electrical con-
ductance, wave velocity of subsurface deposits. In addition to these methods, projectiles,
probes, and aerial photographs are also useful in interpreting the soil characteristics.

Borehole Log

A borehole log is a record of information obtained from in situ tests and summary of
laboratory tests on samples for a particular borehole. It includes description or classification of
various soil / rock types at different depths with summary of essential properties including
presence or otherwise of ground water table.