PAPER NO : 24 SOIL NAILING & GUNITING PRACTICAL CONSTRUCTION ASPECTS By Ir.

Neoh Cheng Aik (E-Geo Consultant Sdn Bhd) MALAYSIA

ABSTRACT Soil nailing and guniting are cost-effective techniques commonly adopted by slope designers to reinforce or stabilize common shallow slips of residual soil cut slopes or enhance slope stability when cut slopes are very high or steep with low or unsatisfactory factor of safety. Generally, soil nailing is not recommended or not cost-effective in soft or loose or saturated slopes. Basically and normally, soil nailing consists of reinforcing the slope with reinforcement bars in drilled holes with cement grout until a block of soil mass is adequately formed to resist lateral earth pressure, sliding, overturning and bearing pressure and possess overall stability. In fact, soil nailing is quite similar to reinforced earth principle. Soil nails are usually installed with nail heads to disperse potential high load concentration at nail head when the slope is very steep and high. The nailed wall or slope surface is also normally and promptly protected with gunite facing to avoid the soil between the soil nails becoming unstable, especially when the slope is very steep (> 670). This paper will discuss the practical construction aspects of soil nailing and guniting with particular reference to the quality controls and their respective acceptance criteria. Common factors such as improper techniques in drilling, inserting of rebar, grouting and nail head construction that can affect the performance of soil nailing, will be discussed. 1.0 INTRODUCTION

Soil nailing is a well proven, cost-effective and widely used technique to strengthen and to enhance the stability of slopes/walls. Soil nailing is a technique quite similar to rock bolts or dowels that has been used to support tunnel excavation in early 1960 or earlier. The first time the soil nailing technique was used to reinforce a wall in France was 1972/73 (CLOUTERRE, 1991). Soil nailing technique to reinforce slope was introduced to Malaysia in early 1980s and one of the early slopes reinforced by soil nailing was Bukit Jugra Army Camp slope in Banting in 1983. Today, soil nailing and guniting, after extensive researches in Europe and US, are commonly used to stabilize steep or high slopes with low or unsatisfactory factor of safety. Pos Betau-Ringlet Highway, a new JKR R3 hilly road of about 85km long, is estimated to have about 55,000 soil nails and about 180,000m2 gunite areas to stabilize and protect steep and high hilly cut slopes. Though the application of soil nailing and guniting have been increasingly used to stabilize slopes/walls in Malaysia, the practice in design and construction of soil nailing and guniting varies considerably among different design engineers and contractors. This is because there are several different design standards published overseas and presently, JKR or REAM has not yet published any standard design guide or works specification for soil nailing and guniting. Improper construction techniques and inadequate construction controls due to ineffective supervision or inadequate works specification have frequently resulted in unsatisfactory performance or failure of soil nailed slopes/walls. This paper presents the good engineering practice and practical construction aspects of soil nailing and guniting with particular reference to the quality control and acceptance criteria. Common malpractice or shortfalls in construction techniques that can result in unsatisfactory performance or failures of soil nailed slopes/walls will also be briefly discussed with some case histories.

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2.0

SOIL NAIL BEHAVIOUR AND DESIGN CONCEPT

The basic design concept of soil nailing is to reinforce and strengthen the slopes insitu by installing grouted steel bars or driven pipes, called nails, into progressively excavated slope/wall by the top down process. This process can create a reinforced mass that is internally stable and able to retain the ground mass against active pressure, sliding, bearing and overturning forces. Similar with mechanically stabilized reinforced earth wall, the reinforcements are passive and can develop their reinforcing action through nail-soil interactions as the slope/wall deforms during and subsequent to construction. The nailsoil interaction consists of transferring the resisting tensile forces generated in the inclusions of nonextensible rebars into the slope/wall through friction or adhesion mobilized at the nail-soil interface. Normally, lateral displacement due to stress-relief of excavated slope is about 0.1%H to 0.3%H, where H is the total excavated depth. Soil nails work predominantly in tension but may develop some bending/shear in certain circumstances when internal strain or deformation is too large. When the lateral displacement exceeds 0.5%H, excessive bending and shear in soil nails may happen and develop excessive creeping and tension cracks in the upslope. The existence of tension cracks is likely to decrease stability fatalistically because the length of potential slip surface over which the shear strength can be mobilized is reduced and also when the tension cracks are filled with water, the additional driving force will keep on increase until failure takes place. Hence, it is a good practice to predict deformation of steep/high nailed slope and to install some simple surface markers on the crest of nailed slope to monitor the deformation and the upslope conditions so that mitigative or preventive measures such as sealing the upslope with some membrane or gunite and additional large interceptor drains, etc., can be taken early. The resisting tensile forces mobilized in the grouted rebars can induce an apparent increase of normal stresses along the potential slip surfaces to increase the overall shearing resistance of insitu soil. The effect of the rebars is thus to improve stability by increasing the normal force and hence, the soil shear resistance along the potential slip surfaces in frictional soils; and reducing the driving force along potential slip surfaces in both frictional and cohesive soils. Estimation of pull-out resistance of soil nails is the most important part in soil nail design. In practice, the pull-out resistance is mainly based on bond strength or adhesion at the interface of nail-soil by empirical formula or some assumed or correlated values based on SI results and then verified by pullout tests during the construction stage. The soil nails should be long enough and extended a minimum distance beyond the back of the critical slip surface to achieve the minimum targeted FOS. Generally, Janbus stability analysis method is preferred to Bishops Modified Method because the former method is less sensitive to the assumed location of applied load in soil nails. Prediction of displacement and axial forces along the soil nail can be carried out by LEM (limit equilibrium method) or FEM (finite element method). Generally, FEM gives lower values or lower factor of safety. In Malaysia, soil nails, typically and invariably, consist of 16mm to 32mm diameters high yield steel reinforcement bars of 6m to 24m long at spacing of about 1.0m to 2.0m with design load of 50 to 200 kN. The nails are typically inclined slightly downwards (10-200) and grouted in pre-drilled holes having diameters in the range of 100mm to 150mm. Several publications are available for the design methods for soil nails and reference may be made to HA68/94 (1994) and FHWA (1998), for design details as examples.

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3.0 DRILLING

Improper equipment and methods of drilling will not only worsen the ground properties, i.e. lower pullout resistance, but also may cause slope instability or failure. There are many types of drilling techniques/tools and proper drilling through any and all ground conditions are very important to ensure satisfactory performance of soil nailing. Basic requirements of proper or efficient drilling for soil nails are deployment of suitable machines (appropriate combination of thrust, torque, rotary speed, percussive force and flushing methods) and skilled operator to ensure:- To complete the drilling as soon as possible, typically less than 1 hour for the specified nail geometry. - Machines shall be capable of permitting continuous and straight penetration in material that may invariably change abruptly from some localized soft to extremely hard or rock strata, etc. - Capable of providing a constant diameter, stable drilled hole, drilling debris wholly and cleanly removed, etc. Drill rod should be at least N size and attached with an alignment control devise. Rotary percussive drilling method using suitable top hammer or down-the-hole (DTH) hammer with proper drill bits (minimum 100mm diameter) to suit the types of material generally can meet the above requirements. Advantage of rotary percussive drilled grout holes are:- High and consistent penetration rate (12 - 20m/hr) with minimum hole deviation when compared with rotary or auguring methods. - Relatively small, light and mobile drill rigs can be used. High maneuverability. To ensure good performance or high pull-out strength of soil nails, the hole has to be drilled and completed soonest possible, cleansed thoroughly and subsequently grouted immediately. To ensure reliable and effective cleaning of the drilled hole just before grouting, an additional drilled length 0.5m to 1.0m to the design nail length should be provided so that cleaning of cuttings and debris towards the bottom of the hole by the compressed air through the drill rod can be effectively and eventually carried out. Drilled hole alignment deviation up to 20mm in 3m for soil nails up to 30m long can be considered acceptable. Reported/recorded alignment deviations for top drive percussion hammer and DTH hammer are generally < 20mm and 15mm in 3m respectively. Set-up tolerance of drill rod shall be within 75mm from the designed position. Drilling logs or records shall include not only operator/technician name, the location, date/ time of start/finish of drilling and soil type encountered, but logs shall also include observed exceptions or peculiarities such as marked variations in penetration rate, caving /sloughing of drillholes, flush / cuttings characteristics (wetness and sizes of cutting, etc.), drill response, drill length, deviation, date/time and method of grouting, grout pressure, photos, etc. These information are important and shall be considered when selecting the representative soil nails for pull-out tests. 4.0 REINFORCEMENT

The main function of the reinforcement in soil nailing is to transfer load by tension when the whole nail lengths are bonded to the soil. Reinforcement usually are high yield bar (BS4449) though polymer based reinforcement such as fiberglass or galvanized steel pipe also can also be used in practice. Common rebars are Y16, Y20, Y25, Y32 and their maximum structural capacity are generally 50kN, 80kN, 130kN and 200kN respectively. For permanent works, the rebars generally shall be protected against corrosion by hot-dip galvanizing (BS729) with minimum coat thickness of 85 microns or 610gm/m2. For proven aggressive ground (resistivity < 2000 ohm-cm or pH < 4.5 or sulphate content > 200ppm, or chloride content > 100 ppm),

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the rebar shall be enclosed in corrugated HDPE sheath (min 1mm thick and the annular space between the rebar and sheath > 10mm). Typical details of nail head construction are shown in Fig 1 and 2. Load likely to act on the nail head depends on the steepness of the slope/wall, bond strength mobilized in the active wedge, location of the rupture surface and the bearing capacity of slope surface soil. Typical standard design of soil nail plus the usual QC tests are shown in Fig 1. To reduce deformation of soil nailed wall, it is a common practice to lock-in a load of about 5% to 10% of the soil nail working load, with a torque wrench and lock nuts. For sites where providing green environment is necessary, HDPE geocell with infilled topsoil and turfs or hydroseeding can be adopted as facing with buried nail head as shown in Fig 2. Quality centralizers at about 2m spacing shall be securely and firmly fixed to ensure the rebar is not eccentrically grouted. Centralizers shall be made from quality PVC or galvanized steel sized to facilitate easy inserting, sized to allow free flow of grout and sized to allow the tremie grout pipe insertion to the bottom of the drill hole. Only soil nails of more than 12m long shall be spliced or coupled. The tensile strength of the mechanical splice or coupler shall be capable to develop the full tensile strength of the rebar as tested and certified by the manufacturer. Inserting of rebar shall be guided manually. Rebar shall be free from dirt and soil. Excessive force shall not be allowed in inserting the nail. In case of insertion refusal, the rebar shall be withdrawn and reinserted after the drill hole is redrilled and air reflushed. It is a good practice to withdraw some of the inserted rebars randomly to check the conditions of the centralizers. It is not uncommon to find many centralizers are damaged or deformed significantly, especially when poor quality centralizers with improper fixing methods are adopted.

5.0

GROUTING

Grouting with a neat cement grout is to fill up the voids in the drill hole with the purpose to strengthen the ground immediate adjacent to the drill hole, to enhance bond strength and to protect the rebar against corrosion. Composition of grout mix usually consists of Ordinary Portland Cement (BS12) Water (W/C = 0.45-0.50); the problem of low pull-out resistance due to serious shrinkage and bleeding of water in cement grout is common and serious when W/C >0.5. Admixture to reduce shrinkage, to reduce bleeding and to improve fluidity/workability, etc (expanding plasticizer) shall be used. Grouting by normal tremie method using a tube of about 30mm diameter or from bottom-up method shall be carried out continuously without interruption to avoid any disturbances caused by sedimentation within the grout and to reduce air bubble entrapment. Grouting shall be carried out within 2 hours after drilling unless otherwise approved by the Engineer. Drill hole left overnight or a long time ungrouted may encounter excessive swelling or relaxations and loss of bond strength. Drill holes left for days and have been subject to wetting by inflow surface runoff can lose bond strength by more than 50%. Hence, for drill holes that have been left ungrouted for too long or left overnight should be redrilled (larger by 15%) and longer and flushed clean again by compressed air just before grouting. Pressure grouting before insertion of rebar is technically acceptable provided that the rebar is immediately inserted through the grout without difficulity and the bond shown by pull-out test is high. Quality and performance of insitu grout depend on quality of grout mix formulation, technique of grouting and conditions of drill hole. Water should be added to the mixer before any cement and admixtures. Mixing should be by a high speed colloidal shear mixer (> 1000 rpm) for a few minutes until a homogeneous grout free from undispersed cement, free from slumps, segregation, sedimentation and bleeding of water is obtained. The grout is then transferred through a 5mm sieve to remove lumps

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into a storage tank attached with a paddle agitator to prevent sedimentation and to avoid entrapment of air bubbles. Grout should be pumped into the drill hole as soon as possible and within the initial setting time (< 30 minutes after mixing). If normal paddle mixer (> 150 rpm) instead of high speed colloidal mixer is used, longer mixing time (> 10 minutes) is required and retarder may also be necessary. The following important QC tests shall be carried out at least once or twice daily or every 40 cubic metres of grout used:Crushing strength tests of 100mm cubes at 7 days and 28 days (BS 1881) shall be minimum 15kPa and 30 MPa respectively. Bleeding test (< 0.5% by volume 3 hour after mixing or 2% when measured at 200C). Flow cone efflux time test (< 15 seconds, ASTM C939-87) to assess fluidity or grout rheology / flowability /penetrability. Non-destructive insitu grout strength test (ASTM C1074) to determine the rate of grout strength gain tests to determine the installed nail length may also be specified (optional) 6.0 GUNITING

Guniting is the process of spraying dry mix cement/sand mortar pneumatically at high velocity on soil or rock surface of slopes / walls. The main differences between guniting and shotcrete are:6.1 Guniting consists of dry cement (350-600kg/m3), sand (< 4mm size) and water; comparatively smaller machines and compressor; applicable for thinner section and smaller output (0.5m32m2/hr); more rebound or wastage (20-40%) especially on near vertical surface.

6.2

Shotcrete can be dry or wet mix, with aggregate size up to 15mm with more economic cement content (300-450 kg/m3), requires very large machines but higher output (2-10m3/hr); lower rebound or wastages (<10%); more applicable for very thick section up to 400mm or more such as tunnel lining. Structural strength of gunite depends on the proportions of the mix ingredients and water content (W/C ratio usually 0.45-0.50 to control shrinkage and crack problems). Due to unavoidable change of water content and mix and rebound problems, a skilled nozzle-man is required to adjust the water intake, orientation and distance of guniting nozzle from the surface, etc. so as to produce quality gunite which should be consistently of high density and high strength with even thickness. Important QC tests are control panel test to check the quality of gunite mix and skill of the nozzleman, and coring test (at about one core per 150 to 300 m2) to check the quality, thickness and strength of gunite sprayed. The defective gunite that exhibits segregation, honeycombing, lamination, porous voids or sand pockets, etc shall be carefully hacked off and regunited. Factors that can affect the quality of gunite with respect to strength, density, finishes, durability, etc are:Composition of the mix ingredients, water and additives, grading of sand; too much fines and water may cause lumpy and choking/blockage in the conveying hose. Type and design of nozzle Impact speed of the sprayed material (depending on air pressure / air blow and speed and distance / height of the conveyed material, capacity and characteristics of pump or rotor engine). GI pipe may be used to reduce blockage and choking in hose when height is too high or steep. Surface hardness of receiving surfaces (more rebound for harder surface ) Reinforcement wire mesh, weep holes, spacer blocks, etc Distance of the nozzle from the surface (usually 0.6m 1.5m) and at near perpendicular direction Angle of spraying Capability and experience of the nozzle man

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Surface Preparation Just before guniting, the surface shall be cleaned by compressed air or sand blasting to remove all loose particles, debris, leaves, etc. The surfaces shall also be firm, and reasonably dry and even. Wet surface after raining should be covered by tarpaulin to keep dry before guniting to avoid debonding. Surface with seepage shall be dried up by longer and closer weep holes or horizontal drains. Except at nail head, nominal reinforcement (BRC A5 or A7) is sufficient to reduce shrinkage crack if the W/C ratio is less than 0.5. Too much reinforcement wire-mesh will cause debonding which can lead to creation of voids, excessive shear or bending on soil nails head or dowels, resulting in slipping or cracking. Loss of gunite due to rebound, surface over-break or surface unevenness (resulted from erosion or improper excavation) can be 100% to 200% of the design quantity and is a significant factor in costing. In guniting, the material travels at very high speed to slope surface to create impact to get high density. The lighter particles are carried towards the receiving surface with higher speed than the heavier or coarse particles. Initially, upon striking the surface, rebound or blow away of 50% of all particles may take place. Finally a cushion of cements and water is built up and subsequent rebound will be reduced to 10-40% at near vertical surface. If the wire-mesh is not firmly fixed to the nail heads, dowels or weep holes, spacers, the wire-mesh will vibrate and cause more rebound and voids in gunite. Rebound and dust (cement and fines) can be reduced by high grade nozzle and experienced nozzle-man. To avoid debonding and creation of voids in gunite, nozzleman should not step on wire mesh. Improper bonded gunite will crack and have a reduced life time. Rebound shall not be reused and will cause pores and localized weakness. Measures to reduce rebound: mix ingredients thoroughly mixed, higher cement content, slightly more fines, smaller maximum sand size, finer grading, inclusion of some fly ash or silica fume, etc. Too much fines will cause slumping and choking in the conveying hose. Air Requirements The compressor shall maintain a constant supply of clean, dry, oil free air to maintain the required steady nozzle flow/velocity. Capacity of compressor required depends on the type of equipment, its conditions and mode of operation, type, length, size and height of hose from the position of compressor to the location of guniting, density of gunite, bends and kinks. GI pipe needs lower capacity of compressor and vertical portion of the hose should be replaced by GI pipe, if there is excessive drop in pressure. For 35mm to 50mm diameter hose and typical compressor of 750-850 cfm x 100-300 psi, pressure shall be increased by 35kPa for each 15m hose length to 35kPa added for each 8m height increased. Curing to keep gunite wet for at least few hour or avoid hot sun by covering with tarpaulin sheet should be carried out.

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7.0 PULL-OUT TESTS

The purpose of pull-out tests up to 2.0 times the design load is to verify the designed pull-out resistance or designed bond strength and also to verify the adequacy of drilling, installation and grouting techniques. Usually, at least 1% to 5% of installed nails should be subject to pull-out test. The results of pull-out tests shall be carefully analyzed with the purpose to revise the design accordingly. The pull-out strength or bond strength of soil nails depends on but not limited to:- Insitu soil/rock type, density, permeability and strength - Reinforcement type and size, length - drilling technique and procedure - hole cleanliness and wetness - Grout characteristics, strength, pressure, etc. Testing is not everything unless the test results are adequate and representative so that the results can statistically represent the untested soil nails on the safe side. In this respect, the representative weakest nails based on site observation, SI report & installation records shall be selected for pull-out tests. FHWA (1998) recommends that at least 2 preliminary pull-out tests or verification tests shall be carried out per different soil/rock unit or per different drilling/grouting method for each nailed slope/hill. The temporary unbonded length of the test nail shall be at least 1m or preferably 3m. The loading schedule for verification test is as follows:Load (5% DTL) 0.25 DTL 0.50 DTL 0.75 DTL 1.00 DTL 1.25 DTL 1.50 DTL (Creep Test) 1.75 DTL 2.00 DTL (Max test Load) DTL Lb Qd Hold Time 1 minutes 10 minutes 10 minutes 10 minutes 10 minutes 10 minutes 60 minutes 10 minutes 10 minutes

= Design Test Load (kN) = Lb x Qd = As-built bonded test length (min 1m) = 0.9fy As/2.0 Qd, where fy and As are yield stress and area of rebar respectively. = Design / allowable pull-out resistance (kN/m)

At least 2 calibrated dial gauges of 0.025mm accuracy shall be used to measure nail head movement. Each load increment shall be held for at least 10 minutes. Nail movement at creep test (1.50 DTL) shall be taken at 1,2,3,5,6,10,20,30,50 and 60 minutes. The load during the creep test shall be maintained within 2% of the intended load by use of a calibrated load cell. For working pull-out tests or proof tests, the testing procedure including creep test is similar to verification test except that the max test load (MTL) = 1.5 x DTL and Lb = 0.9fy As/1.5Qd. A pull-out test is deemed acceptable when: a) For verification tests, a total creep movement of less than 2mm per log cycle of time between the 6 and 60 minute readings is measured during the creep test and the creep rate is linear or decreasing throughout the creep test load hold period.

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b) For proof tests, a total creep movement of less than 1mm is measured between the 1 and 10 minute readings and the creep rate is linear or decreasing throughout the creep test load hold period. c) The total measured movement at the max test load (MTL) exceed 80% of the theoretical elastic elongation (le) of the test nail unbonded length (le = 0.8P (UL) (106) As E, where P = max applied load, UL = length from the back of nail to jack connection to the top of the bond, As = rebar cross-sectional area (mm2) and E = rebarss modulus = 200,000 MPa) d) A pull-out failure does not occur at the max test load. Pull-out failure is defined as the load at which attempts to further increase the test load simply result in continued pull-out movement of the test nail.

8.0

CONCLUDING REMARKS

This paper has presented important good engineering practice and practical construction aspects about soil nailing and guniting for slope stabilization. Understand the engineering behavior of soil nails in various possible conditions is important to produce cost-effective design. Factors that can influence the behavior and performance of soil nails are not only the subsoil conditions and geometry of soil nails, but also how the soil nails are installed, i.e. construction technique and process. A lot of understanding, much skill and meticulous attention to detail in drilling, inserting rebar, grouting, guniting, etc., are very critical to produce high performance quality soil nails in respect to high bond strength and low deformation plus long term stable slope/wall. Soil nailing, more than most engineered processes, needs an intuitive perception and understanding of how a good soil nail can be produced plus the consequences of improper installation process. Such intuitive understanding can only be gained by attentive observation and physical field experiences.

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REFERENCES BS 8006 (1997). Code of Practice for Strengthened/reinforced Soils and Other Fills. FHWA (1998). Manual for Design and Construction Monitoring of Soil Nail Wall. GEO (1984). Geotechnical Engineering Manual for Slopes. Geotechnical Engineering Office, Hong Kong. GEO (1989). Model Specification for Reinforced Fill Structures. GeoSpec 2, Geotechnical Engineering Office, Hong Kong. GEO (1989). Model Specification for Prestressed Ground Anchors. GeoSpec 1, Geotechnical Engineering Office, Hong Kong. HA68/94 (1994). Design Methods for the Reinforcement of Highway Slopes by Reinforced Soil and Soil Nailing Techniques. Department of Transport (UK).

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