Pressuremeter test

Pressuremeter testing was invented by Louis Menard in France in the mid 1950’s. The standard “Menard” pressuremeter is a cylindrical instrument fitted with a flexible rubber membrane, which is lowered into a pre-bored hole and then expanded against the borehole sidewalls. The pressure and volume changes are recorded at the surface by reading burettes and pressure gauges, generally by hand.

The engineering case, Shanghai Minhang pressuremeter test

Pressumeter Test DHMİ – Antalya Airport Operations Building

The TEXAM pressuremeter is a reliable instrument for the evaluation of most ground engineering problems. It is used to run routine in-situ loading tests at various depths. The well-proven method developed by Louis Menard is used to interpret the test results for calculation of: bearing capacity of shallow and deep foundations, settlement of all types of foundations, deformation of laterally loaded piles and sheet piles, resistance of anchors.

Pressuremeter HyperPAC® has been developed in order to conduct very high pressure tests in rocks and very hard formation. HyperPAC® makes the whole process easier to conduct for the operator, reinforces the reliability of the results, and reduces the time of preparation. HyperPAC® is available in 2 versions : 250 bars or 500 bars.

Figure shows the loading curve produced by a self boring pressuremeter in newly deposited waste. The test is relatively shallow, and the drilling was conducted from the surface through about 1 metre of capping clay. The material is unsaturated, will compress during loading and strength parameters cannot be derived using conventional analyses that depend on deformation being purely shear.

The Ménard pressuremeter widely used in France is an example of a pre-bored device. In the UK the High Pressure Dilatometer (the terms "dilatometer" and "pressuremeter" are interchangeable in this context) is available and is used in rocks, hostile materials such as boulder clay, and dense sands.

The pre-bored pressuremeter is an in place test procedure consisting of positioning a cylindrical probe at depth into a pre-bored hole and then inflating the probe with either air or fluid while measuring the amount of fluid introduced to the system and the resulting pressure in the probe. These two measurements along with the probe geometry provide the information required to develop an in place stress-strain relationship for the soil at the location of the test.

The TRI-MOD-S pressuremeter is a reliable and effective tool used to measure in-situ the strength and stress-strain properties of stiff soils and soft rocks. It quickly and economically provides a large volume of data encompassing the variability of the geotechnical conditions on a site.

The Lugeon test, sometimes call also Packer test, is an in-situ testing method widely used to estimate the avarage hydraulic conductivity of rock mass. It is indeed In situ test of formation permeability performed by measuring the volume of water taken in a section of test hole when the interval is pressurized at given pressure (10 bars). It is used primarily in variably permeable formations under evaluation of fracturating.