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SONIC DIRECT PUSH TECHNOLOGY

Sonic drilling is a drilling method that improves both drilling production and minimizes formation or borehole disturbance.

Sonic relies on high frequency vibrations that are applied to the drill rod, casing, or sampling devices relieving the skin friction on the outer walls of the steel tubing.  This effect helps to free up the formation out a couple of millimeters thus reducing the side-wall friction. There is no smearing and compaction of the borehole wall that you might see with Augers, Hammer Direct Push or CPT Rigs. Sonic thus allows for rapid penetration of the borehole, increasing daily production, better soil sample recovery and allowing for the water bearing zones to stay open and free to give up groundwater at specific sampling interval.

Why Better Than Hammer Direct Push (Geoprobe type)?

Similar to Hammer Direct Push (Geoprobe, etc.) rigs-

1. Same or faster penetration rates
2. No cuttings- except for sample core
3. Sonic single wall soil sampler – same as macro core with 1.77” by 5’ long PVC liner
4. Both have dual tube systems.

NOTE.-Geoprobe has developed a sonic rig and sold its first ones 2010.

Advantages of  Sonic  over Hammer DP rigs (AMS, Geoprobe, Diedrich..)

1. Better sample recovery- because of greatly reduced wall friction.  Thus our sonic retrieve 5’ long sample cores and longer.   
2. Soil Sample depth accuracy-Soil samplers occupy more than 50% of the hole volume. This 50% of cuttings must be pushed into the surrounding formation.  Unfortunately in many formations this volume is push down, ahead of the sampler which cause compaction and cause future sample results to come from an upper depth.  Sonic has little disturbance on the borehole walls and won’t push hole volume deeper.  NOT THE COMPACTION.
   For example -we had one job with our CME 75 auger rig which followed a Geoprobe rig where the contaminated soil at 0-5’ entered the Geoprobe sampler randomly down to 18’.  So the property owner’s former consultant thought the contamination was to 18’ instead of down to 5’.  This was a 3 acre site- so the ramification were huge. 
3. Water sample accuracy- compaction around the borehole will force the Hammer Direct Push driller to go deeper to get groundwater to enter the borehole.  Hence the groundwater sample will come from a deeper depth than the static groundwater level.
4. Aqua-lock discrete soil sampler- can take a 5’  discrete soil sample at any depth.  For example,  if want a soil sample at 80’ – then vibrate sampler in closed position to 80’, then open sampler and sonic 5’ and then retrieve to surface.  This gives a 2” diameter sample, 5’ long.
5. Relative QUIET-  no sound of a jack hammer,  just the regular engine sound
6. No cross contamination with water samples -  Rig hydraulically tightens each rod.  This creates water tight joints and hence no groundwater can enter interior of rods when taking water samples through rods to Hydopunch sampler. 

Compact Sonic rig vs. Big Sonic rig

Our rig is similar to big Sonic rigs in that we vibrate at high frequency (up to 150 Hz) which reduces wall friction creating better recovery and fast penetration rates

Different from big Sonic rigs
            1.-No rotation in sonic mode- only vibrates
            2.-No heating of the soil sample-because lower power input and no rotation.
            3.-Reliability-this is not an experimental head.  Over 190 of these sonic heads are in use around the world. 

Disadvantage-
            1.- Cannot penetrate rock formations.

Aqua Lock Piston Discrete Soil Sampler-

"This is an incredible discrete 5’ soil sampler with 2” cores".

The AquaLock is sealed at the cutting shoe with an o-ringed piston prior and during advancement to the targeted collection depth.
This ensures that samples are collected only from the desired depth.
Upon reaching the desired sample interval, the valve is opened and the piston can move as the core is collected.
The piston and valve create a seal and vacuum once the core has moved up into the barrel as the sampler is advanced into the formation.
Upon extraction the vacuum holds the core in place, greatly improving sample collection and recovery.

                  

 

What makes the Aqua Lock unique?

• The sampler can be advanced directly to the targeted depth and pre-coring or drilling is not necessary
• Long, uncompacted and minimally disturbed samples are collected in both saturated and unsaturated formations, e.g. great in saturated sands.
• The piston-created vacuum retains the core during tool retrieval
• The piston extrudes the sample with sonic vibration and then is positioned for immediate re-use
• A closed system eliminates the collection of slough or cross contaminated materials
• Can be deployed inside a cased borehole or casing can be advanced over the AquaLock
• Versatile in many applications for geo-construction, geotechnical, environmental, archeological and mineral sampling
• High volume, great recovery and long lengths increase drilling production

Ground Water Sampling

Traditional groundwater sampling devices can be used such as Hydropunch style, screen point sampling and profiling systems for multiple depth discrete samples.  Rods can be deployed using the sonic rig with a drop off tip attached to an adapter at the bottom of the rod.  Once the targeted depth is reached the sonic rod is vibrated back to allow for the expendable tip to drop off.  This allows for the exposure of an internal PVC screen  1” diameters.

The sonic rods can be pulled back 6-inches or more to allow for the groundwater to infiltrate. The sonic rods can temporarily stay in the borehole to act as a seal for the upper portion of the borehole or can be completely pulled out should the conditions warrant allowing the rig to continue on to the next borehole and complete another location.  At this time the field geologist or technician can sample the temporary screen using a small bailer, bladder pump, foot valve or tubing system.

The temporary screen can also be modified as a temporary well point for longer duration by building the screen with a pre-pak filtration or adding a filter sock to improve water quality and reduce solids in each sample.

Upon completion of the groundwater sampling, the PVC screen can be used as a tremie pipe for borehole abandonment with the injection or top pour method of adding bentonite or neat cement.  This facilitates the grout being added from the bottom of the borehole as the tremie pipe is pulled back out of the boring

Well Building with Sonic

Sonic Drilling is a great means of creating a clean and straight borehole and more importantly is the best method of soil coring. Both of these features aid in building a high quality well.

Wells can be built with either the traditional build as you go method or utilizing a pre-pak screen method.

Pre-Pak Screens

Traditional Well Sets

Sonic provides the additional benefit of settling the sand pack, bentonite seal or grout seal through the vibrations applied to the casing. This insures a high quality well installation

Health and Safety:  All personnel have current 40-hr OSHA health and safety training and participate in a medical surveillance program.  We provide our own PPE.