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Destructive Probe Drilling Application to Nahakkai Tunnel


Technical Report December 2014
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.4588.7203

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Asif Riaz
National University of Sciences and Technology
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Retrieved on: 15 May 2016

Destructive Probe Drilling for Nahakkai Tunnel

Tunnel Engineer
Asif Riaz
December 14.
Tunnel Engineer Asif (3 December14)

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Destructive Probe Drilling for Nahakkai Tunnel

Destructive Probe Drilling

Concept.
Underground construction is unique in the aspect that it has more than 90% uncertainties as compared to the
any other construction field. It would be the justified desire of any Tunnel manager/ Engineer or Geologist to know the rock
of the complete tunnel length. Various methods have been devised from geophysical surveys to Core drilling by HDD.
Destructive probe drilling is another method which involves existing resources and gives us approximate look ahead of
geology. Destructive Probe Drilling is technique to know the geology of the tunnel in advance before we do full face drill and
blast. It has following qualities:o Low cost and easy
o No additional mechanical resources are required
o No additional technical resources are required
o Will give us forward look of geological strata upto 30 60m atleast.
o Limitation. Maximum length can be restricted to Jumbo capacity and deviation of rod inside the rock.

Probe drilling in Normal strata

Probe drilling in Jointed strata

Probe drilling in fault zone

Method
o Employment of regular jumbo drill machine.
o Generally attaching the standard 3m rods through couplers.
o I personally did 2 holes of 40m each and 1 hole of 60m probe drilling.
o Just keep drilling and observe the performance of drill jumbo. Note down the variations in the performance of
machine while drilling
o These variations will be the indicator of change of geology or some fault zone.
Tunnel Engineer Asif (3 December14)

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Destructive Probe Drilling for Nahakkai Tunnel

Technique
Note : (Experienced operator to be employed & Geologist to be in jumbo cabin from start till end)
o
o
o
o

Park Jumbo infront of the face.


Preferably start drilling in the center of the tunnel face.
Keep one arm of jumbo on ground and other one on to the drill point.
Get available extension rods and couplers to the side of arm so as to save time and effort. Air flushing of rods is very
important to avoid false results.
o Operator MUST drill with the same style / specifications as he does for regular drill & blast operation so as to get a
clear difference in observation.
o Keep few constants and few variables :-

Constant

Variables

Push Pressure

Percussion

Tunnel Engineer Asif (3 December14)

Velocity
If digital output in machine is not available than it can
always be measured manually with stop watch etc
Rotation

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Destructive Probe Drilling for Nahakkai Tunnel

o Constant values for Percussion and Push Pressure can be calculated upon hit & trial method. In my case in Ceneri base
Tunnel(Switzerland) we had 150 bar for Percussion and 50 bar for push pressure as constant.
o Rotation can never be kept as constant as it will adjust itself according to certain factors, such as:o Hole depth
o Angle
o Rock geology
o Main observant parameter would be Velocity. It will now have a direct relationship with hole geology. Interpret the
velocity as under:o Softer rock
Higher velocity
o Hard rock
Low velocity
o Also try to get the crushed rock according to the depth meters (Like sample A indicates the crushed sample from 1st rod
i.e; 0-3m and so on). These samples can be matched with the observed parameters of Jumbo and cross check against our
observation.
o Interpretation
o Rock Type Clear difference in velocity would indicate the change in rock
o Water
If hole encounters the water than extra ordinary / excessive water would come out from the
hole.
o Fault
o Fault can be predicted if very high velocity is observed
o If fault is more than 50cm than it will give us a clear indication out of fast velocity else it will show
negligible effect on velocity of drilling rod.

Tunnel Engineer Asif (3 December14)

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Destructive Probe Drilling for Nahakkai Tunnel

Pictorial Follow Up

Flushing of Rods before drilling

Keeping the Dashboard observed

Tunnel Engineer Asif (3 December14)

Jumbo Placement / Parking

Positioning of Jumbo Arm / Rod

View from the face to Jumbo

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Destructive Probe Drilling for Nahakkai Tunnel

Suggested Probe Drilling Log (Can always be improved as per site conditions)
Date:

_______________

Time: __________________

Weather:____________________

Tunnel Meter(Rd):

From____________ To_______________ Geologist:

____________________________

Jumbo Operator 1:

________________________

____________________________

Machine Make & Type:_______________________


Runing
length of
Rod
1

Jumbo Operator 2:

Machine ID: __________________________________

Percussion

Push
Pressure

Velocity

Rotation

Project
Geology
(Available)
6

Machine
observation
Results
7

Rock
Petrography
Results
8

Special
Observational
Remarks
9

0-3m

3-6m

6-9m
Table Notes (Column wise)
o
1, 2 & 3 will always be constants
o
4 will vary and we must be noting this on site precisely
o
5 will also be varying with indirect effect on column 4
o
6 will not be drawn before we fill all the columns ( here I have put the picture of Nahakkai Tunnel just for assimilation purpose)
o
7 can be any observation coming into machine ( If everything is going fine than it could be written constant)
o
In #8, if available a Microscope (cost not more than 10K) in site office than geologist can always observe the crushed rock sample coming out from the rod /hole and fill in data to be more
sure about the machine observational results)
o
#9 would have any other additional observation recorded on site

Tunnel Engineer Asif (3 December14)

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