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By Dan A. Brown

The foundations at the Huey P. Long Bridge in New Orleans presented special challenges for construction due to the requirements for very deep drilled shafts in the Mississippi River beneath the existing bridge structure. Drilled shafts were constructed to depths of approximately 200ft in alluvial soils using a rotator system with full-length segmental casing, and base grouted to improve axial resistance. This paper describes the design and construction of the work platform to provide access to the restricted-access site beneath the existing bridge, the approach used to construct the drilled shafts, and the results of a load test program to verify the axial resistance.

Jan 1, 2010

By Z. C. Chen

Based on the analysis of load test data of long floating piles in soft soil regions, the expressions of load-transfer function of pile shaft and tip for soft soils are presented in this paper, and the data of cone penetration test are suggested to use for calculating the parameters of load-transfer functions. For the loads of pile within the range of the working load of pile, the estimated pile stiffness by the suggested method in this paper are in satisfactory agreement with the results of load tests. The current Vijayvergiya's method and Satowa's method also are used to calculate pile stiffness in soft soil for comparison.

Jan 1, 2010

By Madhira R. Madhav

In an alluvial deposit consisting of layers of sandy silt with clay and kankar nodules, driven cast in situ piles are provided. The piles end on a stiff bearing stratum To verify the available design capacities, compression, pull-out and lateral load tests are conducted in situ. The elastic continuum approach is used to estimate the equivalent modulus of deformation of the deposit. A comparison is made of the values from the three types of tests.

Jan 1, 1996

By Michael Arnold, Robert Bachus, Michael Bracher, Jamey Rosen, Robert Roff

"For a high hazard USACE facility, the Center Hill Dam in Tennessee, several disparate streams of data were compiled into a single geospatial and relational enterprise data management system to store, analyze, visualize and distribute the data collected during installation of a deep cutoff wall. These data streams included historical drawings and pre-construction plans and grouting records; geological data from boreholes; attributes of barrier wall elements; element verticality data analyzed from multiple measurement methods; and concrete field and laboratory analytical data. A previously developed data management system developed by the authors, WallTracker, was extensively modified to also include manually collected and real-time measurements from several types of dam monitoring instruments. The system now uses enterprise database technologies with Geographical Information Systems capabilities to manage and relate these data streams into a common platform and allows access to the raw and interpreted data via web and desktop-based interactive tools, including interactive map and cross-sectional viewers and other graphical and tabular reporting tools. One of the primary benefits of this system is the neartransparent interaction that is possible with the Nashville District of USACE on the project. These techniques can now be effectively incorporated into systems that address the unique construction and data management tracking requirements for dams, dikes, and levees.IntroductionThe Center Hill Dam rehabilitation, as with other deep foundation installations, requires the contractor to collect a substantial amount of information over the course of the project, both for internal quality control of construction progress and methods, and for demonstrating compliance with owner specifications. This paper discusses techniques used at Center Hill Dam for consolidating, visualizing and analyzing construction and instrumentation data using relational database and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology, collectively referred to as an Information Management System (IMS).The remainder of this paper presents the needs and objectives of the IMS, the components and data flows involved, the capabilities and user interfaces of the systems, and the benefits for the end users."

Jan 1, 2017

"Premissas BásicasCaracterísticas do concreto centrifugado(Spun concrete characteristics)Aplicação em obras de engenharia de fundações(Application engineering works foundations)Logística de fabricação e transporte(Manufacturing logistics and transportation)Emendas x uso de aplicação(Amendments x use application)Geologia brasileira, da região costeira a presença de grandes bolsões de argila mole(Brazilian geology, coastal region the presence of large pockets of soft clay)Influencia do sistema de cravação(Influence of driving system)Transferência da Energia Aplicada(Applied Energy Transfer)Estacas longas(long piles)Controles executivos (diagrama de golpes, nega, repique elástico, ensaios de carregamentodinâmico, provas de carga).(Executive Controls (blows diagram, sets, elastic rebound, dynamic load tests, load tests).)ECD – aplicação da metodologia do DIETECD - application of the methodology DIETBrazil has a highly variable geology all along its coast that directly influence the choose of foundation type, being too employed the use of reinforced spun concrete piles initially ranged in diameter from 60 to 80 cm. Over the past 10 years with the advent of investment in marine works projects began to demand a new range of piles with diameters greater than 100 cm and in the absence of amendments.On land is also very remarkable the presence of regions with large layers of soft clay, in prime areas that have been explored. A classic example is the Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro that has suffered from the housing boom growing toward these regions. In these regions it has been very common driven lengths of about 40.0 meters, which basically go through thick layers of soft material or unconsolidated and they will find strength in depth with residual soil layers or even the bedrock.The spun concrete has great qualities for application in deep cuttings resulting from the production process, which gives a redistribution of fresh concrete mass collaborating with the particle size distribution effective loss of water that is thrown to the center stake being subsequently discarded. Consequently this contributes to a reduction in the factor a/c that is directly connected to increase strength.The fact that there is a sort of concrete helps to reduce voids in the mixture, which increases the durability characteristics. This condition made it possible to employ the spin technique on poles, which are directly linked to aggressive media in large urban centers.Another very attractive feature is that the centrifuge process can work with concrete with the lowest percentage of mortar and more gravel. This concrete mix directly contributes to increasing the specific modulus of elasticity, thus allowing a greater capacity to absorb the energy of the blows transferred with less deformation.Despite the great potential of land application of prefabricated spun concrete stakes there are only three factories and its limitation is the cost of transporting manufactured for the various regions, since all transportation is done by road.For its transportation is carried out exclusively by trucks, this limits the size of cuttings being produced commonly in length from 11.0 to 12.0 meters in length and smaller compositions. For use in long piles of works is resorted to amendments in the form of metal rings, concreted near the ends of the stakes, with the transfer through steel bars in CA-50 welded to the ring. Usually run in steel ASTM A-36. Later in the work these rings are welded with coated electrode.In the case of maritime stakes are very used to drowned splicing technique, which basically consists during the spin process leave one end with the armor of the apparent stake and work together two elements and make specific, with superior resistance to the prefabricated stake.This study in addition to briefly introduce the process of manufacturing, design and logistics presents a detailed study of applicat"

Jan 1, 2015

By Pier Luigi Iovino

As Technical Director of the Naples, Italy based Fondedile, a geotechnical construction firm specializing in static restoration of structures, Fernando Lizzi, Ing., devoted over 30 years to the pursuit and advancement of static restoration and subsoil strengthening. Seismic events, construction of new structures on polluted and/or unstable soils in urban areas, and a need to carefully preserve and restore delicate, war-damaged historical structures, manifested the need for underpinning projects. Traditional construction methods and approaches, such as underpinning with additional foundation masonry, were not suitable and would have further jeopardized the stability of the structures. The introduction of the palo radice (root pile) revolutionized the field of underpinning. At the time of the first application of micropiles, the industry standard was driven piles. The drilled micropile was conceived and first implemented in the early 1950s, as an innovative means to underpin sensitive, historic structures and structures in urban areas. Specifically, the new construction technique was conceived as a less expensive alternative, designed to accept structural loads, be installed in limited access areas, in varied working and sub-surface conditions, which did not involve changing soil characteristics, and had minimal disturbance to the structure being underpinned, or to adjacent structures.

Jan 1, 2003

By Mohammad T. Izadi

Piles are, often, used for transferring load from the super structure through soft consolidating strata onto relatively stiff uncompressible soils. Downward movement of the soft soil strata develops negative skin friction and dragload around the pile shaft, with time. Traditionally the induced dragload is considered in determining the pile bearing capacity. On the other hand, field measurements on instrumented piles show that negative skin friction is reduced by the magnitude of applied live load. A method for calculating the pile bearing capacity, driven through soft consolidating strata is presented. In this method, two allowable load-bearing capacities are calculated for each pile, live load plus dead load and dead load. The proposed method, substantially, increases the allowable load bearing capacity of piles compared to calculated values by the traditional methods.

Jan 1, 2001

By Anand J. Puppala

This paper provides information on various evaluation studies conducted to assess the CPT based interpretation methods. Salient findings from these evaluations are summarized. Additionally, a comprehensive evaluation study on both LCPC and European methods was performed on twenty-four driven piles selected from four different states. This evaluation showed that the LCPC method predictions are close to measured pile capacities. The European method provided good predictions for driven steel piles. Overall, both methods' predictions show high values of coefficients of variations, which are in agreement with other studies. Overestimation of driven concrete pile capacities is attributed to large estimations of unit point resistance. Suggestions to consider appropriate CPT based pile capacity interpretation methods are presented.

Jan 1, 2002

By Jorj Osterberg

550 load tests of up to 150 MN have been completed on driven and bored piles using the Osterberg Load Cell. Because the test measures side shear and end bearing separately, much can be learned about the forces on the pile as it is loaded to ultimate capacity. At working loads side shear almost always far exceeds end bearing, with the distribution of shear and bearing greatly affected by disturbance occurring during drilling operations. Since much less movement is required to mobilize side shear than end bearing, most of the bearing develops after the working load is exceeded. Thus with insufficient bottom cleaning, safety against excessive settlement can be considerably reduced. Improved methods of drilling, hole cleaning, rebar cage installation and concrete placement are discussed. For rock socket piles it has been found that the ultimate test load far exceeds the working loads in most cases. This is almost always due to greater penetration into the rock than is required for adequate safety against excessive settlement. Factors affecting rock socket capacity are discussed. Increase of side shear and ultimate capacity with time is discussed. Case histories for driven and bored piles in soil and rock sockets are described.

Jan 1, 2001

By S. Y. Zhou

Excavation with earth retaining is one of the main technological means in deep foundations and underground engineerings. Several construction methods which have been used in China are introduced here with some examples from engineering practices in Shanghai, including foundation pit protected by steel or RC sheet piling or D-walls, open caissons and pneumatic caissons, shield tunnel and pipe jacking, etc. This paper also discusses the prospect in development and utilization of underground space in China and the challenge to which the engineers specialized in deep foundations have to face.

Jan 1, 2010

By Charles M. Wilk

"Mass stabilization involves mixing binding agents into marginal or contaminated soil to improve the subject material’s physical and/or chemical properties. This paper concentrates on the principles of soil mixing and benefits and application to new and existing rail right-of-way. Successfully applied in Scandinavia and other European countries, the soil mixing is now being applied in right of way in the northern latitudes of the U.S. and Canada. These regions have significant areas of “peaty” soils that can complicate construction and maintenance of rail and structure foundations. Mass stabilization can be used to improve the bearing strength of these soft soils for subsequent construction of railroads, pipelines, roads, and buildings. In civil engineering, the technology is often used to improve the construction properties such as bearing strength, of a marginal soil. In environmental engineering, stabilization is remediation treatment technology that protects human health and the environment by immobilizing hazardous constituents within the treated material. . The treatment is conducted while the subject material remains in-place (insitu). Mass Stabilization is often used to accomplish both civil and environmental purposes on the same project effectively addressing marginal soil while eliminating the expense of soil removal and replacement.This paper presents the principles of mass stabilization technology, implementation in the field and recent completed railway projects.The example rail projects will present the various benefits that soil mixing provides to railway construction and maintenance. Bench-scale studies and full scale implementation as well as soil construction properties before and after mass stabilization will be discussed. The paper and presentation will include information on the advantages of mixing methods and binding agent delivery systems.INTRODUCTIONNew or existing railroad right-of-ways may cross ground with low bearing capacity. Right of way subgrade undergo deflection (strain) as loads (stress) are applied (1). The amount of strain or deflection of the subgrade caused by loading of a train is proportional to the stiffness of the subgrade materials. Some soils, such as tamped ballast, are very stiff and resist loads well. Other soils such as soft clay, peat, or loose sand have low stiffness and undergo substantial movement under loads. It is very desirable to have the stiffest possible material in a track subgrade. Stiff subgrade material limits deflection under load, reducing track roughness and occurrence of track defects. Mass stabilization is a geotechnical method that can be used to improve the bearing capacity or stiffness of soil in these right-of-way. Mass stabilization involves mixing binding agents into soil subject to treatment while the soil remains in-place or insitu. Variations in the design or areas subject to treatment can be used to address transmission of vibration to adjacent structures."

Jan 1, 2017

By John D. Thornley

Alaskan villages typically store a one-year supply of fuel to reduce significant delivery costs. Alaska Village Electric Cooperative (AVEC), an electric utility cooperative providing power to 51 Alaska villages, has made a concerted effort to upgrade and improve their undersized and aging facilities. The Village of Stebbins, located south of Nome on Norton Sound is receiving upgrades to its AVEC bulk fuel facilities. Stebbins offered unique challenges from a foundations perspective due to the nature of the soil. The geotechnical investigation found the soil below roughly a third of the footprint of the bulk fuel facility to be thawed with seasonal freezing and the remainder was found to be warm permafrost with ground temperatures of between 30°F and 32°F. This is a unique and challenging arctic engineering design issue because foundations are designed differently for frozen ground conditions. Driven piles were selected because of site constraints, such as the design flood elevation and the change from thawed to frozen ground conditions. The pile design specified that the pile embedment depths would be selected based on the results of pile driving analyzer (PDA) testing during construction in the thawed ground and maintained within the frozen ground portion of the footprint. Difficulties during pile driving in the frozen ground resulted in several piles becoming severely damaged, requiring subsequent removal. This resulted in a reevaluation of the means and methods for pile installation. Additional fieldwork was performed to further characterize the subsurface soils and their frozen nature. Options for installation of piles in difficult areas were evaluated including ground thawing, predrilling, and reducing embedment depths. Presented within this paper are the findings from the initial and subsequent field explorations, discussion of the design methodology, and the decisions that led to successful installation of piles at this challenging remote village.

By John D. Thornley

Alaskan villages typically store a one-year supply of fuel to reduce significant delivery costs. Alaska Village Electric Cooperative (AVEC), an electric utility cooperative providing power to 51 Alaska villages, has made a concerted effort to upgrade and improve their undersized and aging facilities. The Village of Stebbins, located south of Nome on Norton Sound is receiving upgrades to its AVEC bulk fuel facilities. Stebbins offered unique challenges from a foundations perspective due to the nature of the soil. The geotechnical investigation found the soil below roughly a third of the footprint of the bulk fuel facility to be thawed with seasonal freezing and the remainder was found to be warm permafrost with ground temperatures of between 30°F and 32°F. This is a unique and challenging arctic engineering design issue because foundations are designed differently for frozen ground conditions. Driven piles were selected because of site constraints, such as the design flood elevation and the change from thawed to frozen ground conditions. The pile design specified that the pile embedment depths would be selected based on the results of pile driving analyzer (PDA) testing during construction in the thawed ground and maintained within the frozen ground portion of the footprint. Difficulties during pile driving in the frozen ground resulted in several piles becoming severely damaged, requiring subsequent removal. This resulted in a reevaluation of the means and methods for pile installation. Additional fieldwork was performed to further characterize the subsurface soils and their frozen nature. Options for installation of piles in difficult areas were evaluated including ground thawing, predrilling, and reducing embedment depths. Presented within this paper are the findings from the initial and subsequent field explorations, discussion of the design methodology, and the decisions that led to successful installation of piles at this challenging remote village.

Jan 1, 2017

By John Dunn, Matt Hawley, Kashif Butt, Nicholas Gura

"This paper presents the results of a static load testing program completed on helical pile foundations for the replacement of high voltage transmission line tower structures. The foundations were part of the Northeast Grid Reliability Project (NGRP) for the Public Service Electric & Gas Company (PSE&G) near Newark, New Jersey. Structure foundations “anchor bolts down” was a design build contract model with the superstructure as bid-build.The soil stratigraphy along the alignment generally consisted of fill over about 10 ft of organic deposits underlain by up to 260 ft of normally consolidated glacial lake clays and silts. Additional project challenges included working under/adjacent the existing live high voltage lines, narrow site access due to environmental permits, foundations in a tidally influenced area, and pile projections in the order of 10 feet to meet the 10 year flood level requirements.The helical piles were constructed of 12.75 inch diameter open ended pipe piles with 36 to 40 inch diameter helices. A total of seven static load tests (compression and tension) were completed on 60 ft and 90 ft long piles, using both welded and mechanical pile splices. To evaluate pile-soil setup in the sensitive fine grained soil and determine representative longer term installation torque factors (Kt) for the production piles, the static load tests were performed 7 to 49 days after pile installation.Helical piles were found to be the most cost effective foundation alternative for this project. The required length of helical piles was less than other alternatives for similar allowable axial capacity. Helical piles with mechanical splices were installed for the varying structure foundations including tangent and heavy deadend, to a deadend monopole. Installation of 448 production piles (34,320 linear ft) was completed in three months. The installation timeline was critical to meeting the semi-annual PSEG outage for switching the old and new structures. Helical piles employing a mechanical splice resulted in an efficient and effective foundation solution for the conditions encountered on the project."

Jan 1, 2017

By K. Oshima

In Japan, earthquakes are experienced frequently. Many buildings and structures in Japan are supported on pile foundations. For these pile foundations, the joint section between the piles and footing (hereinafter referred to as "Pile Head Joint"), where the load of the superstructure is transmitted to the ground through the piles, is important in both the design and construction of works particularly under seismic conditions. This paper discusses the state in which the force is transmitted to the Pile Head Joint, and introduces the basic construction of the Pile Head Joint, based on experimental investigation. Steel pipe piles

Jan 1, 2010

By R. Chowdhury

The relevance of reliability studies for deep foundations is considered in this paper with special reference to pile foundations. Attention is drawn to uncertainties related to applied loads, the load-carrying capacity and the safety margin of a pile foundation. The essential steps in a reliability study are outlined. An essential goal of any study is the determination of the Reliability Index or Safety Index under different conditions of loading and operation. Calculations concerning probability of failure or success require an assumption to be made concerning the probability distribution of the safety margin. The significance of this and other assumptions should be clearly understood. Reliability approaches should be used to complement conventional deterministic studies.

Jan 1, 2010

By Paul J. Sabatini

Between 2008 and 2009, more than 6,000, 23-m long deep mixing method (DMM) elements were constructed to support 124 concrete mats comprising the foundations for the process trains for an LNG facility. The Owner requested first-of-its-kind analyses and assessments to confirm the quality and reliability of the DMM foundation. This paper provides information on these assessments and the procedures used to ultimately conclude that a fit-for-purpose foundation system was constructed. During early phases of construction, several DMM test cores revealed nodules of unmixed clay in upper core samples. A comprehensive review of available DMM core information was undertaken. It was concluded that the amount of coring being conducted as part of the contractor?s QA/QC program should be increased to achieve a foundation system with the required level of reliability. Three-dimensional finite element analyses were completed considering various distributions of defects in the DMM elements and the effects of potential downdrag on DMM elements. Calculated mat settlements and mat stresses were compared to cases without defects in the DMM elements. Various distributions of loaded and unloaded mat areas and number and position (both in the subsurface and laterally) of defects were considered. Four (of the 124) mats were identified as potentially ?at-risk?. The settlement performance of these mats is currently being monitored and, to date, performance has been acceptable.

By Gilbert Chuah, Peter Middendorp, Joost Bakker, Soon-Hoe Chew

"The Rapid Load Testing (RLT) of foundation piles has been applied worldwide since 1984. Several International and national codes are available, such as the Japanese Code of Practice (2002), ASTM D7383-2010, German recommendation on Piling (2012) and Eurocode (2015). RLT methods like Statnamic and StatRapid are gaining popularity in Asia, Europe and North America. For checking the performance of piles, they are more economical, faster and environmentally friendly than Static Load Testing (SLT), while yielding good correlations with SLT results through an objective analysis method. To date (October 2016) hundreds of piles have been successfully tested by RLT method in Singapore. A number of these RLT tests were coupled with static load testing correlation tests, some of them with instrumentation for shaft load transferred. Examples of some correlation results for foundations installed in various geological formations in Singapore are presented in the paper. The findings from these results indicate that loading rate effects are negligible for Rapid Load Test results when foundations are socketed in competent non-cohesive soil layers and derive most of their capacity from these soil layers.INTRODUCTIONRapid Load Testing (RLT), by which a quasi-static load is applied to a foundation pile, is used increasingly as an alternative to Static Load Testing (SLT) for cast in-situ piles, such as drilled shafts or bored piles. It is recognized nowadays that the determination of the pile capacity with Dynamic Load Testing (DLT) through signal matching techniques such as CAPWAP, TNOWAVE and AllWave-DLT, yield a wide spread of results for cast in-situ piles (Stahlmann et. al, 2012), making it practically very difficult, if not impossible to calibrate the DLT results with SLT results. This spread is due to the empirical and subjective assumptions that are used to interpret the test data, especially for cast insitu piles (Holeyman et al. 2001, Viana da Fonseca in 2008, Herten et al, 2013). This is further complicated by the inhomogeneity of the concrete and variable cross-sections over the pile length for the cast in-situ piles."

Jan 1, 1900

By Arash Saeidi-Rashk-Olia, Dunja Peric

Energy piles are gaining increased popularity due to a growing demand for clean energy. To further advance the understanding of soil-structure interaction in energy piles, recently-derived analytical solutions have been implemented to investigate the impact of stratigraphy on the soil-structure interaction. This was accomplished by comparing the measured and predicted head displacements, axial strains and stresses in an energy pile embedded in the actual homogeneous and layered soil profiles, as well as into synthetic homogeneous soil profiles. The analytical solutions for homogeneous soil profile captured the smooth experimentally observed response versus depth very well. In the case of a layered soil profile, the corresponding analytical model was capable of capturing nuances in trends of axial stress and strain versus depth at the interface of different layers. The analytical predictions for the layered profile appear to be slightly less accurate than for the homogenous profile. The experimental data obtained from the layered profile appear to be a bit more scattered than those from the homogeneous profile. In the former case, the interplay of the individual soil layers with the pile occurs while maintaining the continuity of the pile stress and displacement at the interface of different layers. The response throughout each layer of the layered profile is quantitatively different than the corresponding homogeneous response. Nevertheless, qualitatively the response throughout each layer of the layered profile is similar to the response of the pile embedded in the corresponding homogeneous layer.

Sep 8, 2021

By Tomohide Takeyama, Binh T. T. Nguyen, Masaki Kitazume

"Deep mixing columns are widely used to support embankments constructed on soft ground area. Researches on the stability of deep mixing columns were done by some authors when the columns do not simultaneously fail but individually fail at different time. A layer of shallow mixing is proposed to reinforce these columns as a group to increase the stability as well as loading capacity of columned improved area. Two centrifuge model tests were done to observe the effect of shallow layer on reducing embankment displacement as well as on failure pressure of improved ground. Acrylic piles were used as deep mixing columns in the centrifuge tests to avoid unexpected internal failure of columns. The results of centrifuge tests were also simulated by 2D FEM to back-analyze the centrifuge experiments. A good agreement between the centrifuge experiments and the numerical simulations shows that by using a shallow layer reinforcing individual columns, the horizontal displacement at the embankment toe reduces by 60 % and the tilting failure is clearly indicated in columns without shallow layer. Although, no significant failure was observed under the current centrifuge condition, the failure pressure of improved ground was significantly increased with the columns reinforced by shallow layer.INTRODUCTIONCement or lime and soil mixing technique was firstly used in Japan and Nordic countries since 1970s. The technique is used to improve soft soil by increasing its mechanical properties including strength and consolidation characteristics (Kitazume and Terashi 2013). Various researches were done to investigate the characteristics of mixing material due to various factors including types of binder, condition of soil, mixing condition and curing condition (Terashi 1997). On the other hand, many studies focused on the application of in-situ mixing technique such as supporting embankment and underground structure as well as working as the foundation of building and factory (Kitazume and Terashi 2013). In term of embankment supporting, column-type improvement is taken into account for huge applications. Due to loading from embankment, the deep mixing columns tend to fail either external failure (Kitazume and Maruyama 2006) or internal failure (Kitazume and Maruyama 2007). However, the deep mixing columns do not fail simultaneously but instead one by one at different time (Kitazume and Maruyama 2007). Because the deep mixing columns work and fail individually, the strength and stiffness of all columns cannot be mobilized simultaneously. By using a shallow mixing layer fixing the top of deep mixing columns, individual columns may work simultaneously. A combined technology of shallow stabilization and floating-type cement treated columns is used to reduce settlement of a high embankment on soft ground (Ishikura et al. 2007). A research on effect of surface improvement layer on internal stability of group column type deep mixing improved ground under embankment load was reported in the Port and Airport Research Institute, Japan (Kitazume 2011). However, the failure pattern of shallow and deep mixing combined structure has not well studied. This research focuses on the external failure mechanism of the combined structure by centrifuge model tests and back-analyzed simulation using 2D finite element method. The effect of shallow layer on embankment displacement and the yield point of the improved ground is also discussed in this study."

Jan 1, 2015