GB1310403A - Apparatus for investigating soil properties - Google Patents

Abstract

1310403 Probe testing soils SHELL INTERNATIONALE RESEARCH MAATSCHAPPIJ N V 26 June 1970 31102/70 Heading G1S A base or anchor box 1, Fig.1, provided with a suction line 5 and a pressure line 24 may be clamped to the soil surface e.g. sea bed by applying vacuum to line 5, a sieve plate 3 preventing soil from entering the line. Pressure is then applied to line 20 to exert pressure on a piston 11 to extend a probe 10 and force it into the soil. When the piston 11 reaches abutment 13 the probe is arrested from relative movement with respect to its cylinder 8, see Fig. 2. Further pressurization. now causes cylinder 8 to extend relative to cylinder 7 until the piston 9 reaches the abutment 14, see, Fig.3. The desired soil properties are measured by a sounding pin 12. The pin and probe may be retracted by applying pressure through conduit 24. Annular jets 25, 26 provided to clean the probe and so on are fed via opening 19, space 18, space 17 and conduit 15. In Fig. 4, (not shown) a multiplicity of telescopic cylinders are provided and the probe is held in the extended position by fluid trapped above the piston (48) by a valve (47). The sounding pin (51) may be connected by means of an electric cable to a cable winding device the amount of unwind of which may be used to indicate the depth of the pin, and the apparatus may include means for measuring the direction of and deviation of the axis of the sections.