Three Years' Experience With the Offshore Self-Boring Pressuremeter "PAM"

The Offshore Self-Boring Pressuremeter (PAM) has been developed by the Institut Francais du Petrole for geotechnical investigations in water depths up to 1000 meters. The PAM was first presented at the 1981 OTC. It mainly consists of a seabed frame from which a self-boring pressuremeter probe is operated. To date, the PAM has totaled nearly 450 meters of borehole depth and more than 200 pressuremeter tests. Investigations have been performed in a wide variety of soil types. The latest deepwater campaign was carried out successfully in the Mediterranean at a water depth of 625 meters. Extensive geotechnical information is obtained from a PAM boring operation. The use of the pressuremeter method for offshore investigations and foundation designing should open up very interesting prospects.