In-Situ Testing and Site Characterization

For each and every geotechnical study, the project site must be explored using field testing and sampling methods
to determine what subsurface materials exist and evaluate their engineering properties. The geologic setting and past
environmental conditions have already pre-decided whether the property is underlain by clay, silt, sand, gravel, or
rock. The materials may be sedimentary in origin, including marine, alluvial, fluvial, lacustrine, or diluvial, aeolian
(wind-blown deposits such as dune sands and loess), or residual (weathered in place from bedrock decomposition).
The rocks may be igneous, metamorphic, or sedimentary type, or combinations of these. The level of the
groundwater is also needed for analysis. The geotechnical site characterization program may therefore require a
variety of tests, including soil test borings, rock coring, cone soundings, piezocones, flat dilatometer, pressuremeter,
and/or geophysical methods.

Soil Test Borings

Auger and rotary drilling techniques are normally

used to advance a borehole approximately l00 to 200
mm in diameter, to typical depths of 10 to 50 meters.
In some cases, the borehole sides may remain stable
by themselves (e.g., stiff clay), but usually only
shallow depths are achievable. Thus, temporary
stability is achieved by use of drilling muds
(bentonitic and/or polymeric slurries), use of
temporary steel casing (retrieved after drilling), or
hollow stem augers. If rock is encountered,
diamond core drilling techniques (or new synthetic
carbide bits or cubic zirconium) are used to sample
the rock material. Within the soil borings at regular
intervals (generally 1.5 m), small 50-mm diameter
drive samples are taken using a drop hammer system
system and split-barrel sampler (steel hollow tube).
The repetitive blows required to drive the sampler
300 mm are recorded and thus designated the
standard penetration test (SPT) N-value. Because of
variations in systems, the N-resistance should be
corrected to 60% energy efficiency before used in
any analysis.

Undisturbed soil samples may be obtained using a

larger 75 mm diameter thin-walled tube sample
(Shelby) to provide quality specimeris for laboratory
triaxial and consolidation tests.

Photos: Truck-mounted
drill rigs for conducting
soil test borings,
augering, soil sampling,
and rock coring.
 In-Situ Drilling, Sampling, and Testing for Site Characterization
The traditional approach to characterizing a particular site for stratigraphy and the evaluation of soil engineering
parameters has been to drill borings (auger or rotary methods) and collect samples at regular intervals. The borings
can be advanced into soil using solid flight augers (z < 10 m), hollow stem augers (z < 30 m), or wash boring
techniques using rotary drilling techniques (z > 30 m). If the borings must continue into bedrock material, usually
wash boring methods with rock coring techniques are used to obtain intact rock core samples. Core bits are made of
diamond-studs or carbide tungsten. If no rock samples are needed, a tri-cone bit can be used to obliterate a hole. If
deep borings are needed (z > 60 m), wire-line drilling is used whereby special cable systems are used to transport the
core samples to the surface.

In soils, the samples are obtained using a variety of hollow tube-type devices: split-barrel (or spoon), thin-walled
(shelby) tube, piston, denison, and pitcher samplers. Drive-type samplers (split-barrel or split-spoon) correspond to
the standard penetration test (SPT), as detailed in ASTM Standard D-1586. The shelby tube and piston samplers are
hydraulically pushed into the ground (ASTM D-1587). The denison and pitcher samplers utilize jacking and coring
to obtain soil samples (see ASTM D-4700 for overview). The samples are transported (carefully) back to the
laboratory for extrusion, trimming, and testing. Several specimens are usually obtained from each tube sample. Index
tests (plasticity, water content, grain size) are conducted for soil classification purposes. One-dimensional
consolidation tests (oedometer tests) are used to evaluate compressibility parameters of fine-grained soils (D’, Cr, Cc,
Cs), rate characteristics (cv), creep (C"), and the very important preconsolidation stress (σp’), given in normalized
form as the overconsolidation ratio (OCR). Strength parameters include the undrained shear strength (su) and
the more fundamental effective stress strength parameters (c’ and φ’) that are obtained by subjecting the
specimens to triaxial shear, direct shear, and/or simple shear. Flow characteristics are represented by hydraulic
conductivity (k) and obtained by falling-head or constant-head permeability testing. The small-strain stiffness
(Gmax) of geomaterials is obtained through resonant column tests, bender elements, torsional shear, or internal
strain measurements taken on triaxial specimens.

The latest trend in characterizing soil materials is through the use of in-situ tests and probes whereby the soils
are tested in their natural environment. These include the cone penetration test (CPT), piezocone (PCPT),
pressuremeter (PMT), flat dilatometer (DMT), vane shear test (VST), and various in-situ geophysical techniques,
such as crosshole test (CHT), downhole (DHT), and spectral analysis of surface waves (SASW). The simple
geophysical survey using the seismic refraction of P-waves is useful for detecting the depth to shallow rock. The
downhole test is a quick and economical means of profiling S-waves for determining the static and dynamic
stiffness of soils.

Figure SC-1: Computerized Cone Track Truck for In-Situ Testing of Subsurface Media.
 EVALUATION OF SOIL STRENGTH and STRESS STATE PARAMETERS

CLEAN QUARTZ SANDS:

A. EFFECTIVE FRICTION ANGLE (degrees):

SPT: NN = arctan{[N60/(12.2 + 20.3FvoN/Fatm)]0.34} (Schmertmann, ASCE In-Situ, 1975)

NN = 20/ + [15.4 (N1)60]0.5 (Uchida & Hatanaka, S&F, Dec. 1996)

where (N1)60 = stress-normalized & energy-corrected N-value = N60/(Fvo'/Fatm)0.5

Fvo' is the effective overburden.
Note: Fatm = pa = reference stress = 1 atm = 100 kPa . 1 tsf . 1 kg/cm2 . 14.7 psi.

CPT: 1. NN = arctan[0.10 + 0.38 log(qt/FvoN)] (Robertson & Campanella, GGJ, 1983)

2. NN = 17.6° + ll.0 log(qt1) (Kulhawy & Mayne, EPRI EL-6800, 1990)

where qt1 = (qt/Fatm)/(FvoN/Fatm)0.5 = normalized cone tip resistance.

DMT: NN = 20.0° + [0.04 + (0.06/KD)]-1 (Marchetti, 1997; Mayne, In-Situ 2001)

where KD = (p0-u0)/Fvo') = horizontal stress index from flat plate dilatometer test.

B. STRESS HISTORY:

Stress history is represented by the preconsolidation stress (Fpr) and its normalized form, the
overconsolidation ratio = OCR = (Fpr/FvoN).

1
 . ⋅ qt
133 0.22
 (sin ϕ ' − 0.27 )
CPT: OCR =  0.31  (In-Situ 2001, Bali)
 (1 − sin ϕ ') ⋅ (σ vo ' ) 
where qt is in units of MPa and Fvo’ is in kPa.

SPT: Estimate the value of effective preconsolidation stress (FpN) using the very rough trend below based on
limited data. The very general form given by:
FpN = 0.47 Fatm(N60)m (US-Brazil Workshop, NSF, 1993)
where exponent “m” varies from m . 0.6 for sands to m . 1.0 for clays. Approximate lateral stress
state found from Ko-OCR relationship.

DMT: FpN . 0.51 (po - uo)

where p0 is the (corrected) contact pressure from flat plate dilatometer test.

C. HORIZONTAL GEOSTATIC STRESS STATE:

The at-rest condition is represented by the coefficient K0, whereby the in-situ lateral effective stress is given
by
FhoN = K0 FvoN
Lateral Stress Coefficient: K0 = (1-sinNN)OCRsinNN (ASCE JGE, June 1982)

Notably, the K0 value is bounded by the active and passive conditions: KA < K0 < KP where the simple
Rankine values are given by: KA = (1-sinNN)/(1+sinNN) and KP = (1+sinNN)/(1-sinNN).
FINE-GRAINED CLAYS & SILTS:

A. UNDRAINED SHEAR STRENGTH (su): Normalized form: su/FvoN (Simple Shear) = ½ sinNN OCR7

where 7 = 1 - Cs/Cc often assumed . 0.8 to 0.9. Note: Cs = swelling index and Cc = virgin compression
index.
B. OVERCONSOLIDATION RATIO (OCR = FpN/FvoN), where preconsolidation stress for intact clays:

1. CPT: FpN . 0.33 (qt - Fvo) (TRR No. 1479, 1995)

2. CPTu: FpN . 0.53 (ub - uo) where porewater pressures measured at shoulder (ub = u2).
3. DMT: FpN . 0.51 (po - uo)
4. SPT FpN . 0.47 N60 Fatm
C. HORIZONTAL GEOSTATIC STRESS STATE:

Lateral Stress Coefficient: Ko = (1-sinNN)OCRsinNN (ASCE JGE, June 1982)

D. EFFECTIVE STRESS FRICTION ANGLE (NN):

1. TX: Best found from consolidated drained triaxial tests, consolidated undrained triaxial tests with porewater
pressure measurements, or direct shear tests on undisturbed samples (c’ = 0).
2. CPTu: Theoretical method from piezocone measurements by Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTH) given
by Senneset et al. (TRR No. 1235, 1989). An approximate method for the direct deterministic evaluation of Nr at each
depth is given by determining the cone resistance number Nm = (qt-Fvo)/(Fvor + ar) and normalized porewater pressure
parameter, Bq. = )u/(qt-Fvo), where a’ = attraction. For the usual case where a’ = 0, the parameter Nm is the normalized
cone tip stress Q = (qt-Fvo)/(Fvor) per the classification system of Robertson (CGJ, 1990). Case shown below is for
angle of plastification $ = 0 and the dots generated from the theory and lines represent the approximate equation below
for ranges specified.

Senneset, Sandven, & Janbu (1989, Transportation Research Record 1235)

100 Bq
Resistance Number, Nm

NM = ∆(qt-σvo)/∆σvo'
0.1
Bq = (u2-u0)/(qt-σvo) 0.2
0.4
0.6
10 0.8
1.0

1
20 25 30 35 40 45
φ' (degrees)

ϕ ' ≈ 29 .5 ⋅ B q 0.121 ⋅ [0 .256 + 0 .336 B q + log( N m ) ]

where 20 ° < ϕ ' < 45 ° and 0 .1 < B q < 1 .0