INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR

SOIL MECHANICS AND

GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING

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The paper was published in the proceedings of the 6th

International Conference on Geotechnical and Geophysical
Site Characterization and was edited by Tamás Huszák,
András Mahler and Edina Koch. The conference was
originally scheduled to be held in Budapest, Hungary in
2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was held
online from September 26th to September 29th 2021.
 New measuring while drilling technology ASFOREC
Michaël PERONNE
Jean Lutz SA, Jurançon, France, [email protected]
Michel RISPAL, Catherine JACQUARD
Fondasol, Avignon, France, [email protected], [email protected]
Philippe REIFFSTECK
Université Paris-Est, French institute of science and technology for transport, development and networks
(IFSTTAR), Marne La Vallée , France, [email protected]

ABSTRACT: This paper will present a new measuring system for drilling parameter recording. During drilling, param-
eters are usually obtained from transducers inserted in the hydraulic circuit of the drilling machine. This new system
with transducers located on the drilling rods records parameters close as ever to the tool allowing the knowledge of the
direct response of the soil. Comparison of the parameters recorded with both techniques is presented and the influence
on the quality of compound parameters with other in situ tests as CPTu and pressuremeter tests are discussed.

Keywords: drilling parameter recording; pressuremeter test; measuring system.

at the request of the market, discredits the very interest

1. Context of the measures, failing to interpret them properly.
Finally, the improvement of drilling management
As part of the industry for design and construction of will only be possible by further improving the quality of
buildings (towers, high-rise buildings, etc.) and infra- measurements (precision). This paper presents the de-
structure (ports, bridges, power plants, tunnels, etc.), the sign and the validation of a new type of sensor for
necessary knowledge of the subsoil that will carry these MWD (Measurement While Drilling) aiming to handle
works implements a process of investigation. It's about all these drawbacks.
"probing" the terrain punctually by machines This is an
old activity already practiced by the Roman engineers 2. Objectives of the new ASFOREC
that has evolved very quickly from the industrial revolu-
tion to now by improvement of motorization. technology
The drilling of geotechnical boreholes is currently
based on drilling machines equipped with a physical pa-
rameters measurement system whose analysis is largely
based on the experience of the site operator.
The measuring device nowadays available on the
market and equipping the machine indirectly record the
drilling parameters on the hydraulic elements of the ma-
chine. This equipment leads to numerous developments
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].
Therefore, to be interpreted, these measurements re-
quire a calibration of the machine that does not consider
the conditions of use (heating, wear etc.). This is the
major difficulty in being able to derive compound pa-
rameters that can be linked to mechanical parameters
and geotechnical properties [8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14].
Incorrect adjustment of the control parameters of the
machine leads to deteriorate the quality of the borehole
walls in the case of in situ tests, spend excessive energy
and increase the risk of wear or breakage, often with
consequences on the productivity of the sites.
Besides, the signals measured by the sensors are al-
ways transmitted by wire technology, which is a major
source of defaults (60% of defaults come from cable
breaks).
Another source of difficulties results from the me-
chanical coupling of the sensors with certain moving Figure 1. Instrumentation evolution in Measurement While Drilling.
parts, which causes early failures.
On the other hand, the proliferation of poor-quality The new ASFOREC technology proposes to revolu-
measures (low-cost sensors), even massively carried out tionize this soil investigation market by developing a
new measurement system based on in situ instrumenta-
tion of the drill rods just below the rotation head using a Jean Lutz already offers several embedded systems
purely wireless and contactless high-end sensor for both of in situ measurements among which can be cited:
measurement and transmission. • The TIGOR sensor, inserted into the drill
The expected results of the project are a gain in string just above the drill tool for measuring
precision, an increase in the quantity and quality of the deviations.
information collected, and an improvement in • The TAUPI sensor, installed at the bottom
efficiency. of the thin screen injection profile, for the
The evolution of the measurement systems through measurement of deviations, the amplitude
the last decades and the resulting objectives of our and the frequency of the vibrations applied
project are summarized in the Fig. 1. to the profile.
It should be noted that other manufacturers (particu-
3. Instrumentation introduction larly in the United States) provide energy measurement
devices transmitted to the drill bit during sheet pile driv-
ing without rotation: strain gauges and accelerometers
3.1. Parameters measured positioned on the drill string transmit the measurements
All the current stakeholders in the field of drilling pa- through cables to an electronic junction box for signal
rameters use measurements made on flow rates or pres- processing.
sures of hydraulic oil feeding the active elements of the The use of such cables is not possible when carrying
drill rig (geared motors, cylinders, etc.), rather than out ground investigation drilling, the tool then being ro-
closer to the borehole (i.e. directly on the string of rods tated.
or at the drilling tool level), due to the mechanical stress
and technological difficulties of measurements encoun- 4. ASFOREC innovation
tered in situ.
These are therefore indirect measurements of the un- 4.1. Current sensors
derground phenomena which are rather imprecise (error
of around 30% for a given machine) and may depend The table 1 below lists the measurements made with
from machine to machine of the hydraulic circuit archi- conventional sensors and the difficulties associated to
tecture. them.
Thus, the rate of penetration into the ground (used to
Table 1. List of classical current parameter sensors and their disad-
qualify the resistance of the soil) depends on the nature vantages.
of the ground but also (among others) on the thrust force Measured parameter Disadvantage of the current
and on the rotation speed exerted on the drilling tool by
sensors
the machine.
This thrust force is itself approximated by the meas- Rotation torque Indirect and imprecise meas-
urement of the hydraulic drive pressure, which is not urement: sensor installed on a
strictly linearly related (hysteresis, temperature depend- hydraulic circuit whose value
ence, mechanical filtering of hydraulic components, depends on the speed of rota-
etc.) while rotation speed is hardly measured because of tion, the oil temperature and the
the sensor exposure to a mechanical stress due to its gear wear.
proximity with the drillings rods.
Thrust pressure Indirect and imprecise meas-
urement: sensor installed on a
3.2. Manufacturers solutions
hydraulic circuit whose value
Measurement technologies are made available by depends on the speed of trans-
drilling machine manufacturers, who generally have an lation, the oil temperature and
instrumentation service developed in-house and based the gear wear.
on their know-how in monitoring machine operation. Rotation speed Accurate but fragile sensor due
The signal processing is not advanced enough and
to its proximity with rotating
the interpretation of the data relatively rudimentary,
which is detrimental for the quality of the measure- rods.
ments. Vibration amplitude and fre- Indirect measurement (per-
Other technology providers specialized in the instru- quency. formed on the drill string drive)
mentation of geotechnical measurements and special Drilling fluid pressure Clogging or cavitation of ar-
foundation measures, offer more advanced products rangement
(elaborate signal processing, thorough data interpreta-
Drilling fluid flow Flow meter not easy to embed
tion) but always resorting to indirect measurements,
on a machine
which are therefore inherently flawed.
Advance rate Fragile cable sensor.

3.3. Direct measurement system

Performing direct measurements, i.e. closer to the
borehole, will significantly increase the accuracy of the
measurements.
4.2. Innovation brought 4.3. Installation on a drilling rig
In 2018, Jean Lutz began developing a sensor for The ASFOREC measuring system has already been
measuring torque and longitudinal force positioned at installed on different geotechnical drilling machine
the top of the shaft. representative of the one commonly used on the market.
The first field tests took place with Fondasol and
IFSTTAR during 2019 establishing a first step towards
the development of the expected solutions in
ASFOREC.
Before the ASFOREC solution, there were no in situ
technologies available for measuring drilling parameters
adapted to geotechnical engineering.
The ASFOREC measuring system combines in one
wireless sensor (radio communication, charging through
induction) the measurement parameters required to de-
velop a detailed geotechnical study of a site (as de-
scribed in Fig. 2).
The innovation lies in the in situ approach to the real-
ization of the measurements, meaning that the sensors
are positioned closer to the drilling tool, which has the
advantage of eliminating binding calibrations of the
drilling machine and several approximations necessary
when the measurements are made indirectly (e.g. the
torque exerted on the tool is until now calculated from a Figure 3. Zoom on the ASFOREC sensor.
hydraulic pressure.
The ASFOREC sensor is installed in direct contact
To this end, miniature integrated circuits are intro-
with the drill string, just below the rotation head and
duced into a robust mechanical and electronic assembly.
before the first drill rod (using drill pipe fitting), as
The latest wireless information transmission technolo-
shown in the Fig. 3, 4 and 5.
gies have been implemented.
This set will eventually be able to meet its energy
needs by taking advantage of the rotational movement
of the rods to avoid regular recharging operations on-
board batteries (in practice little done by site operators).

Figure 2. Description of the ASFOREC sensor system.

Figure 4. The ASFOREC sensor is installed before the first rod, just
after the rotation system.
Figure 5. ASFOREC sensor installed on a standard drilling machine
used for soil investigation.

5. Contribution in the measures

Below are presented the geotechnical reports for
three boreholes performed on two different drilling ma-
chines with conventional sensors and the ASFOREC
system.
These studies were conducted in order to carry out
concurrent in situ tests (Menard Pressuremeter – PMT - Figure 6. Geotechnical test report n°1.
or CPT test) to allow the establishment of correlations
and determine a complete study of the soil encountered. 5.2. Test n°2 in Saxony, Germany
5.1. Test n°1 in Basque Country – France The second test has been performed on a bigger and
more powerful drilling machine in an alluvial area with
The ground profile was composed of fill on the first presence of ancient conglomerates and coarse grained
meters, loose sands, over compact sands. The parameter materials.
presented in the Fig. 6, all regarding depth (drilling The parameter presented in the Fig. 7, all regarding
from 0 to 11.25 m length) are from the left to the right: depth (drilling from 10.4 to 80 m length) are from the
• (Blue) Rate of penetration using a left to the right:
conventional sensor (rotary encoder). • (Blue) Rate of penetration using a
• (Pink) Rotation torque pressure (analogic conventional sensor (Jean Lutz D907 rotary
pressure sensor mounted on the hydraulic encoder).
pipe). • (Pink) Rotation torque pressure (Jean Lutz
• (Orange) Rotation torque from ASFOREC C16400 analogic pressure sensor mounted
sensor (direct measure). on the hydraulic pipe).
• (Green) Thrust force pressure (analogic • (Orange) Rotation torque from ASFOREC
pressure sensor mounted on the hydraulic sensor (direct measure).
drive). • (Green) Thrust force pressure (Jean Lutz
• (Yellow) Thrust force from ASFOREC C16400 analogic pressure sensor mounted
sensor (direct measure). on the hydraulic drive).
The curves displayed show a good correlation on the • (Yellow) Thrust force from ASFOREC
rotation torque measurement, at least up to 6.5 m. sensor (direct measure).
In the next zone, from 6.5 to 8 m the power of the The geotechnical test report shows a quasi perfect
machine tends to minimize the torque required for the correlation of ASFOREC sensor with classical MWD
rotation of the rod. instrumentation. Compared to the two other tests, the
The analysis of the longitudinal force shows that the signal is much more noised du to the different types of
reaction on the rods are much “smoother” (through the arrangement for the drill rig to apply thrust. However
ASFOREC sensor) than measured with the sensor the signal both for the hydraulic and direct (ASFOREC)
installed on the hydraulic drive. type of sensors show clearly the same trends.
Then, starting at 8 m when the penetration rate drops,
the parameters measured on the hydraulic circuits show
a continuous variation meanwhile the ASFOREC sensor
indicates a step increase and a plateau. Classical MWD
show force and pressure losses due to dampers system
on the drill rods and to actuator valves on hydraulic
circuit.
 Figure 8. Geotechnical test report n°3.
Figure 7. Geotechnical test report n°2.
6. Analysis – Influence on quality
5.3. Test n°3 in the Landes, France
These round robin tests on 3 real sites show that the
The site is located in the south-west of France in a ASFOREC sensor gives high quality measurement, very
sand quarry. A thick layer of dense sand with some close to actual MWD based on pressure transducers
intercalation of cemented and / or gravelly sand. located on hydraulic circuit of drill rigs. The main
The machine used is the same than the one set up in characteristics of the ground profile are well observed.
the first test.
The parameters presented in the Fig. 8, all regarding
depth (drilling from 0 to 13.7 m length) are from the left
to the right:
• (Blue) Rate of penetration using a
conventional sensor (rotary encoder).
• (Pink) Rotation torque pressure (analogic
pressure sensor mounted on the hydraulic
pipe).
• (Orange) Rotation torque from ASFOREC
sensor (direct measure).
• (Green) Thrust force pressure (analogic
pressure sensor mounted on the hydraulic
drive).
• (Yellow) Thrust force from ASFOREC
sensor (direct measure).
The geotechnical test report shows that ASFOREC
sensor compares well with classical MWD
instrumentation. Thurst was less sensible when reaching Figure 9. Comparison of the torque values for the three tests per-
formed (ASFOREC vs hydraulic sensor).
the more stiffer layer at around 8 m depth. Torque gives
a correct and reliable characterisation of the gravel
layer, being also less sensible to the layer located
around 5 m.
As observed on site 1 results, ASFOREC sensor
gives immediate and stepped variation while classical
sensors produce damped variation
 [6] Falconer I.G., Normore D., MWD bit efficiency model provides
real-time answers, Technology Oil & Gas Journal, 1987, pp. 40-
48.
[7] CEN, Geotechnical investigation and testing — Field testing —
Part 15: Measuring while drilling, EN ISO 22476-15, CEN,
2013, 45 p.
[8] De Paoli B., Viola G., Tomiolo A., The use of drilling energy for
soil classification, 2nd International Symposium on Field Meas-
urements in Geomechanics, Kobe, Sakurai Ed, 1988, pp. 313-
321.
[9] Nishi, K., Suzuki, Y., Sasao, H. (1998), Estimation of soil re-
sistance using rotary percussion drill, Proceedings First Interna-
tional Conference on Site Characterization, Atlanta, Robertson
and Mayne Editors, vol.1, pp. 393-398.
[10] Reiffsteck P., Influence factors of measuring while drilling
method, European conference on soil mechanics and geotech-
nical engineering, 15: Geotechnics of Hard Soils - Weak Rocks,
Athens, 12-15 September 2011. Proceedings, vol. 1, pp. 67-72.
[11] Laudanski G., Reiffsteck Ph., Tacita J.-L., Desanneaux G., Be-
noît J., Experimental study of drilling parameters using a test
embankment, Intern. Conference on Site Characterization ISC4,
Porto de Galinhas, Brasil, 2012, 4 pages
Figure 10. Comparison of the thrust force values for the three tests [12] Gui M.W., Soga K., Bolton M.D. Hamelin J.-P., Instrumented
performed (ASFOREC vs hydraulic sensor). borehole drilling for subsurface investigation, Journal of Ge-
otechnical and Environmental Engineering. ASCE, 2002Vol. 128
The comparison shown on Fig. 9 and 10 of measured n°4, pp. 283-291.
values obtained with both systems lead to the following [13] Reiffsteck P., Benoit, J., Bourdeau, C., Tacita J.-L., Desanneaux
conclusions: G., Enhancing the geotechnical model using drilling parameters,
J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 2018, Vol. 144, Issue 3,
• According to the drilling machine the range https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0001836
of variation can differ (test 1 and 3 have the [14] Reiffsteck P., Benoît J., Hamel M., Vaillant J.-M., Application
same machine – type 1, differing from test 2 and tentative validation of soil behavior classification chart based
on drilling parameter measurements, Intern. Conference on Site
– machine type 2).
Characterization ISC5, Brisbane, Australia, 2016, 4 pages
• On machine type 1, pressure loss and
compressibility of the hydraulic circuit
induce divergence of measured value from
ASFOREC sensor values, giving in high
pressure a more horizontal cloud of points.
• On machine type 2, the hydraulic circuit
seems more “rigid” and an increase of
pressure lead to an immediate variation of
torque or pressure, inducing a more vertical
scattered plot.

7. Conclusions
At this stage of developpement the concept has
shown its pertinence. A further stage will be a more
compact design to limit the length of this special "rod"
and an optimisation of the measuring range of the
various transducers.

8. Acknowledgement
The authors thank their colleagues and clients who
give them access to the sites.

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