Geotechnical Drilling Shreveport What Are the Types of Geotechnical Tests and Geotechnical Drilling?
Shreveport, Louisiana geotechnical drilling firms work with experienced geotechnical engineers, geologists and other experts to evaluate sites throughout Louisiana, Florida and the Gulf Coast. In fact, the Gulf Coast region is home to some of the continent’s most challenging geotechnical drilling environments due to the prevalence of loose, sandy soil, combined with high ground water content and soft bedrock in many regions.
So what are the different forms of geotechnical testing and geotechnical drilling? Shreveport natives frequently enquire on this point, so our expert team has compiled some additional information on this topic.
What Are the 4 Forms of Geo-Testing and Geotechnical Drilling?
Shreveport geotechnical explorations usually fall into four different categories. Some of these procedures are performed by a geotechnical drilling firm, while others are performed by other geotechnical investigators.
Test Pits – Test pits are dug using an excavator or by hand to provide a more general look at the sub-surface layers and conditions. Since the soil is disturbed during this process, the information that you can glean from this method is somewhat limited (although you can evaluate the “walls” of the pit, which are intact in terms of density, compaction and structure.) This technique is usually performed for fairly shallow depths only. Samples can be extracted using hand-driven augers, Shelby tube samplers, modified California samplers, split spoon samplers and other sampling techniques.
Trenching – Similar to the technique used for test pits, trenching involves the creation of a long trench that is excavated by hand or using an excavator. Trenching provides insight into how the sub-surface conditions change and vary across a larger area of land.
In-Site Testing – In-site testing refers to on-site testing methods, like standard penetration tests (SPTs) and cone penetration tests, which can be used to evaluate the properties of the soil without removing and analyzing samples. This provides a fairly accurate idea of sub-surface conditions, but the testing is somewhat limited in terms of depth. It can be challenging to perform some in-site tests beyond a certain depth.
Borings – Borings are typically small diameter holes that are drilled to extract soil and rock samples. Unfortunately, the boring process tends to disturb the soil, so the samples may not accurately represent the actual sub-surface conditions. But you can still send boring samples for analysis to determine values such as soil type, consistency, gradation, classification, the presence of contamination, moisture density relations, CBR and stratification.
A variation of borings are drilling operations designed to remove a vertical column of earth, called a core sample, which preserves much of the soil structure so the sample is more representative of the conditions that are found below ground.
*Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Amdrill Inc*
