Search Documents

By Brian Langdon

The DRIVEN GROUT PILE was developed in 1989 by DeWitt Construction, Incorporated. This piling essentially consists of a cost-in-place concrete piling that reacts on a steel boot that is driven to bearing. This report will describe the driven grout pile, its background and its installation. The advantages and disadvantages of this system are also discussed. Finally, the results of actual field installations are presented and discussed. BACKGROUND The DRIVEN GROUT PILE was developed out of a need for a low-cost high capacity piling (100 ton) that could be installed with ordinary pile driving equipment. This search was motivated by attempting to incorporate the material economy of an auger-cast piling with the "empirical load test" of a driven pile. Typically, the least cost material for piling in the 100 ton range is concrete (grout). A grout shaft with minimal reinforcement can withstand a compressive load of 100 tons for a material cost in the range of $6.00 to $8.00 per lineal foot. A pipe piling with a capacity of 100 tons has a unit material cost ranging to $13.00 per lineal foot. The marriage of these two advantages resulted in the DRIVEN GROUT PILE. A pile that utilizes the economy of a reinforced grout shaft and has the loading confidence of a driven pile.

Jan 1, 1990

By Peter Middendorp

Pile foundations are widely applied in the Netherlands because of the soft soil conditions. One of the popular pile types are cast-in-situ piles, which have to be integrity tested to get accepted. Integrity testing has been applied for more than 30 years, with the number of integrity test performed nowadays exceeding 400,000 per year and subsequently there is a substantial amount of practical experience with this testing method. This paper will deal with some basics of integrity testing and describe some of the techniques that have been adopted in the Dutch pile testing practice, like detection of pile head defects with a spike type hammer pulse, and the site average or pile group average for the qualitative interpretation of measured signals.

Jan 1, 2006

By Pasi Korkeakoski

There are about 400 multi-storey buildings founded on wooden piles in the city centre of Turku in Finland. Soil conditions are variable from hard rock to very soft clay. Due to the soil conditions and ground water lowering there are basically four different types of underpinning projects. Under dimensioned cohesion piles in a deep clay layer, decaying cohesion piles, a combination of these two reasons and decaying end bearing piles in a thin clay layer area. Many different execution methods have been used such as impact driving, jacking and drilling and combinations of these.

Jan 1, 2000

By G. X. Zeng

A calculation programme of finite element method has been developed in order to study the behavior of excavation with sheet piling in soft clay. Based on a series of isotropically consolidated-undrained tests (CIU) on Hangzhou clay a linear relationship between the normalized initial tangent modulus number, E1, and stress-path parameter, a, is found for four different stress paths, and stress-path dependent modulus equations derived. Meanwhile, several influence factors, such as embedment depth and stiffness of the wall and soil conditions, were taken into consideration in the programme. Some valuable conclusions were obtained. Finally, a case history was studied by the proposed method of calculation. The result of calculation and the field observation are in good agreement.

Jan 1, 2010

By M. England

Test equipment has been developed to record automatically both the displacement of the pile head and the load applied during a conventional maintained load pile test. Some systems also have, in addition, been fitted with the facility for maintaining the applied load, as set by the operator, at very constant levels. The advantages are both commercial and technical, but a well trained operator has to be in attendance to control the test. Since typical test specifications in the UK require more than 19 hours to complete, it became inevitable that at least one equipment operator remained on site to expedite the test for its duration. Although electronic measurement and data logging of load tests may be more safe than previous direct observation of dial gauges. A single person remaining on a construction site alone is not to be recommended, even if they are just supervising the test. Further development of the testing system produced equipment which will perform the entire test specification as required without operator intervention. To achieve this, full automation is employed. The patented method particularly addresses the safety requirements and by using additional sensors, detects any uncharacteristic behaviour of the pile under test or of the reaction system and the equipment takes appropriate action in a controlled and safe manner. The quality of test data returned from these automated systems is a key element when analysing pile behaviour with models such as CEMSOLVE? and TIMESETTM. These analysis methods often indicate ground disturbance resulting from installation technique and have allowed pile design to be optimised using actual field data rather than theoretical considerations alone. An additional feature is remote access, this allows the data recorded to be transferred and the progress of the test to be viewed from practically any location. This permits experts to view the data 'live' and allows rapid diagnosis of any problems with the expected pile behaviour.

Jan 1, 2002

By Paul J. Lewis

Estimation of the axial side shear resistance of drilled shaft rock sockets is directly related to the unconfined compressive strength of the bedrock. Commonly, the mean unconfined compressive strength value is calculated from a range of laboratory test results and is used to estimate the side shear of the bedrock. This paper presents the results from a full scale axial load test performed on an 8.5-feet-diameter drilled shaft rock socket, and compares measured side shear values to estimated values for two different rock strata. Measured side shear values correlated well with the design value calculated for the "strong" rock stratum, but did not correlate well with the design value calculated for the "weak" rock stratum. The mean unconfined compressive strength was used to calculate the side shear in both strata, but review of the laboratory data indicates that this value may not have been appropriate for the weak stratum due to a large variation in the laboratory test results. Also included in this paper is a discussion of the subsurface conditions, the laboratory test results, and the methodology used to design the drilled shaft rock sockets for axial and lateral resistance.

Jan 1, 2005

By M. Zanotto

[ ] A period of heavy rains caused the river Adda to flood parts of the Valtellina, one of the Alpine valleys of Northern Italy. The exceptionally high waters put under considerable strain the whole system of embankments and levees controlling the river and protecting the adjacent towns and lands. In some places the water breached and washed away the embankments, submerging large tracts of cultivated land, buildings, roads and railway tracks. The town of Talamona, in the lower Valtellina, was hit particularly hard: in its proximity the river overrun and then washed away 300 m (1,000 ft) of embankment (see vicinity map, fig. 2), depositing large amounts of riverbed debris onto over 400 hectares (1,000 acres) of fertile land.

Jan 1, 1992

By X. L. Huang

This paper deals with the experimental and theoretic study of the contact pressure beneath the deep foundation of Beijing International Hotel, The experiments have been carried out in project and in model footing 6.6m2. The result of measurements shows the contact pressure at the edge is greater than that at the center. The theoretic analysis on the base of elastic theorey is in good agreement with the test if the proposed assumption used.

Jan 1, 2010

By Saeed Salehi Malekshah

In hybrid foundation system or piled raft foundation (PRF), the raft has adequate bearing capacity and piles are usually required to ensure overall stability of foundation and also to act as settlement reducer for high rise structures. When piles are connected to the raft, a high axial stress may develop and one alternative is to disconnect the piles from raft and consider them as stiffeners for supporting soil. This system is known as disconnected piled raft foundation (DCPRF). Cushion, a compacted coarse grained soil layer, can be used beneath the raft to redistribute and adjust the stress ratio of piles to subsoil and plays an important role in mobilizing the bearing capacity of subsoil and modifying the load transfer mechanism of piles. In this study, finite element method (FEM) has been employed to investigate the effect of different parameters such as cushion stiffness, gap height, raft thickness and piling configuration on the behavior of disconnected piled raft foundation. The analysis is performed on different foundations of hypothetical and real case histories. Results indicate that increasing the raft thickness reduces the differential settlement and pile head axial stress. Concentrating the longer disconnected piles similar to connected ones beneath the central area of raft, decreases settlement of raft. With increasing cushion stiffness, vertical stress ratio of piles to subsoil increases, but settlement decreases. Increasing gap height from 0.1 m to 1 m decreases the vertical stress ratio of piles to subsoil.

Jan 1, 2011

By John E. Lens

Minutes after the Friday afternoon October 16, 2009 announcement that the 80 year old Lake Champlain Bridge was closed to traffic out of concern for public safety, emergency detour planning started at VTrans and NYSDoT. The closure severed a cross-lake link between Addison, VT and Crown Point, NY, which created a 76 mile detour and significant hardship for commuters, farmers working on both sides of Lake Champlain, and businesses relying on both traffic and employees commuting between Vermont and New York. Rehabilitating the bridge was determined to be economically and technically unfeasible and the design of a replacement bridge was accelerated for a spring 2010 construction start. In the meantime, a temporary ferry alternative was to be rushed into service beside the original bridge by February 2, 2010. This paper presents the case history of the fast-tracked ferry dock design and construction on the Vermont side. Twin 300-foot-long pile supported approach spans, a loading slip system and ice deflectors were designed, fabricated and constructed in 90 days in the fall/winter of 2009-2010. This chronicles the project from initial concepts through the extraordinary cooperation between state and federal agencies, and near round-the-clock winter construction on Lake Champlain. This project and its companion project on the New York shore succeeded by virtue of exceptional cooperation between seasoned regulatory, design, and construction participants and warrant this case-history presentation of the Vermont project to share within the industry as an example of overcoming extraordinary challenges.

Jan 1, 2011

By E. E. De Beer

This paper describes a method for the determination of the settlement of an individual H-bearing pile, based on the results of CPT-tests. As implied by the nature of the problem, no analysis performed on one pile can be regarded as generally valid for a whole piling foundation project because, even on one site, the pile behaviour varies from one pile to another. Consequently, no precise mathematical analysis has been established; the proposed procedure represents a simple model for the determination of the probable settlement behaviour of an H-pile under a compressive load. Prior to the settlement computations, the rupture load and the resistance distribution along the pile have to be determined. Since the method for the determination of the H-pile bearing capacity from the results of CPT tests has been described elsewhere (de Beer, 1971, 72; de Beer et al., 1982; Arbed, 1985), no details will be given in this paper. The proposed method is valid for both uniform and non-uniform H-piles. The computed results have been satisfactorely compared to the static loading tests performed on different types of piles in clayey and sandy soils during an ECSC research program on H-bearing piles (1983-1987).

Jan 1, 1987

Jan 1, 1993

By David J. White

The decreasing availability of land in urban areas, and the increasing demand for urban development is leading to the construction of taller and heavier buildings at increasingly marginal sites. Such structures usually require founding at depth and modern construction methods are making the economics of piled foundations ever more attractive (Salgado, 1995). However, the urban environment is not suited to pile driving. Conventional dynamic installation techniques (i.e. drop hammer or vibro-piling) induce vibrations and settlement in a zone close to the pile, and cause noise and dust pollution. Damage to existing structures resulting from pile driving vibrations is not uncommon (Tomlinson, 1986).

Jan 1, 2000

GENERAL CONTRACTOR: ALEXANDER CONSTRUCTORS, INC. STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: CAGLEY & ASSOCIATES, INC. GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEER: F.T. KITLINSKI & ASSOCIATES, INC. PILE FOUNDATION CONTRACTOR: L.G. BARCUS AND SONS, INC. PROJECT PROFILE: 108-10 in. diameter AugerPiles installed to an approximate depth of 32 ft. Piles were installed through Stiff Clayey Fill and Medium-Dense Sands to Decomposed Shale. Piles were drilled to a refusal criteria of 1 ft. / 3 min. Piles were installed using a Barcus Mantis AugerPile rig which is large enough to install piles 25 to 50 ft. long outdoors. The Mantis is also ideal for indoor and low overhead installations. On top of being extremely versatile, the Mantis is also very economical to mobilize. The existing structure is supported on H-Piles. The AugerPiles were furnished and installed for less than the material price of the H-Piles. Design loads were under 40 tons which eliminated the need for a load test. AugerPiles were selected for minimal vibration, limited noise, and economy.

Jan 1, 2001

By Rudolph P. Frizzi

Quality control is essential for augered cast-in-place (ACIP) piles (also known as continuous flight auger (CFA) piles outside the United States) and drilled displacement (DD) piles since the pile is constructed below the ground surface out of the direct sight of the personnel constructing and inspecting the pile. ACIP piles are being successfully constructed to support high-rise structures, hospitals, arenas and stadiums, mass transit systems, and power and industrial facilities. The use of DD pile technology is also gaining ground in the United States, typically utilizing proprietary systems such as Omega (currently utilized by Richard Goettle Inc., and LG Barcus and Sons, Inc.), Berkel, and DeWal (currently utilized by Morris-Shea). Different types of ACIP/DD pile installation equipment are shown in Figures 1 and 2. ACIP piles are installed into granular and cohesive soils, and soft rock to lengths currently approaching 130 ft (39.5 m), with diameters up to 24 to 36 inches (610 to 915 mm), and sustaining design loads approaching 900 kips (4000 kN). Current DD pile installation equipment in the United States is capable of installing up to 79-ft-long (24 m) piles with diameters ranging from 12 to 18 inches (305 mm to 460 mm).

Jan 1, 2004

By Jogeshwar P. Singh, Ahmed AlaaEldin, Mohamed Ashour

The presented methodology allows the determination of the response of laterally loaded battered long piles in sandy soils based on the soil-pile interaction. The Strain Wedge (SW) model which was originally developed for laterally loaded vertical piles is modified to assess the behavior of laterally loaded battered piles with the consideration of soil and pile properties. The method predicts the pile-head response and associated p-y curves. The presented soil-pile model accounts for the variation of the direction and magnitude of the batter angles from the vertical position. Unlike current practice, the proposed technique also provides the p-y curves for battered piles in sandy soils based on soil and pile properties (i.e., sand relative density, friction angle, pile geometry, etc.). The proposed methodology has been validated through a number of comparisons with full/model-scale pile load tests. INTRODUCTION The influence of pile battering on the lateral response of piles is rarely studied in the literature. Over the last decades and as suggested by Kubo (1962) and Zhang et al. (1999), a p-y multiplier is applied to predict the response of laterally loaded battered piles from an equivalent vertical one. Several researchers conducted model-scale piles load tests to understand the behavior of battered piles subjected to lateral load (Juvekar and Pise 2008; Meyerhof and Ranjan 1973; Meyerhof and Yalcin 1994). However, such tests were conducted on model piles with diameters less than 30 mm which may not have reflected actual soil-pile interaction. Battered piles are generally categorized as positive or negative battered piles according to the angle of pile installation as shown in Fig. 1. From the small-scaled and numerical models of battered piles, it was found that the lateral capacity of negative battered piles is larger than that of vertical ones. On the other hand, the positive battered piles have lower lateral capacity when compared to vertical piles (Fan-ren and Ji-Ming 2011; Juvekar and Pise 2008; Manoppo 2010; Reese et al. 2004; and Reese and Van Impe 2011).

Jan 1, 2018

By Shahid Islam, Lucian Bogdan

There is a rapid expansion of world’s infrastructure and simultaneously existing infrastructure is aging. The maintenance of infrastructures has been of particular concern to the engineering community. Monitoring and evaluating the structures have become more significant than ever. Ground anchor is an important part of the structure where it is installed. Unfortunately there are limited testing methods available to assess the force in the pre-stressing steel. High cost, complicated equipment and limitation of space often prevent these methods from being implemented. DYNA Force sensors have been developed to measure the force in the pre-stressing steel during construction and at any time during the lifetime of the structure. These sensors make use of the magneto-elastic properties of ferrous materials. A readout unit is designed to magnetically energize the steel through the sensor and measure the response of the steel to the process. The readout unit then converts the response into a direct force reading. They can be used for bare, epoxy- coated, galvanized and greased-sheathed steel in the bonded, un-bonded, grouted or un-grouted length of the tendon. It measures the force of the steel element at the location where it is installed and can be recorded manually, automatically, or remotely. The sensor is robust, requires no maintenance and it is expected to have a similar service life to that of the surrounding structure. Sensors have received attention in terms of accuracy, performance, ease in installation, durability, and cost effectiveness. Sensor readings provide a second measurement, in conjunction with the jack pressure gauge, of the post tensioning force during initial testing procedure for ground anchors. This paper describes its application in tie-back and tie-down anchors and force monitoring of retaining walls, bridge abutment and dams where the data were collected manually, automated and remotely. INTRODUCTION Our infrastructure is expanding and the existing infrastructure is aging. Some structures are expensive to maintain and some occasionally fail. There is a large demand for implementing health monitoring of structures. Many tie-backs, retaining walls, dams and other geotechnical structures are post-tensioned and many of them need repair using a post-tensioned system. On many occasions during construction and service life of the structure, it is useful to know the force in the post-tensioning and anchor system. Many piles and drilled shafts are designed using reinforcing steel and the compressive forces in reinforcement are unknown. Although there are many methods to measure the tendon force, most of them are cumbersome, expensive, and the accuracy varies depending on the method used.

Jan 1, 2018

By Roger A. Archabal, Omar A. Conte, Gustavo Langoni

This international case study focuses on the rigorous geotechnical interaction and results of a soil improvement program utilized to mitigate consolidation settlements of over 1.5 m [5.0 ft]. The extreme settlement results from very deep, nearly normally consolidated clay and the required high floor loading of a new Logistics Park near Bogota, Colombia. The general subsurface conditions consist of very soft clay extending to depths beyond the 50 m [164.0 ft] explored. A required 1.2 m [3.9 ft] thick fill combined with high floor loads resulted in an applied areal load of approximately 7 ton/m2 [1300 psf] (equivalent to about 4.5m [15.0 ft] of fill). Langan recommended performing a test section to validate the initial consolidation settlement calculations and evaluate possible optimization of the prefabricated vertical drain (PVD) spacing and length. The test section sizing was designed to accurately represent the stresses at depth of the future structures. Extreme settlements of over 1.5 m [5.0 ft] in the center and large differential settlements of over 0.6 m [2.0 ft] were measured between the center and corners of the test section over a relatively short test time. Discussion on the methodology, instrumentation, measured results and future optimization are presented. The recommended soil improvement varied from the standard approaches typically utilized in the area. PROJECT LOCATION AND DESCRIPTION The project site is immediately north-northwest of the city of Bogota in the Bogota Valley. The site is bordered with, and has historically been, farming land bordered to the south by the El Rosal-Bogotá highway. The overall site encompasses about 570,000 m2 [141.0 acres] of gross area and about 484,000 m2 [119.6 acres] of net buildable area. The warehouse complex will consist of 10 very large warehouses with footprints ranging from about 15,000 m2 [3.7 acres] to 30,000 m2 [7.4 acres]. The total building area is about 210,000 m2 [51.9 acres] with most of the remaining areas being paved principal drives, truck parking or administrative parking. The topography of the site is relatively flat and close to final grade in roadway areas. However, the warehouse floors will be raised about 1.2 m [3.9 ft] (equivalent to about 2 t/m2 [370 psf] considering engineered fill) to allow for truck docking. In addition, the design floor loads are heavy and estimated to be up to 5 t/m2 [930 psf] and equivalent to about 2.5m [8.2 ft] of fill. Geotechnical conditions at the site are very weak at depths of 50 meters [165 ft] or more, with soft compressible clays comprising the majority of the soil profile. The Bogota Valley is composed in some areas of very deep alluvial deposits. These deposits have been classified as an important challenge and limitation to the development of high/heavy structures such as the project in question for many years (Orozco, 2006). Soft clay deposits have been encountered even beyond depths of 100 meters [328 ft] in some regions of the Bogota Valley (Sanz, 1994). Extreme settlements can be expected if extensive and high permanent loads (above preconsolidation stress levels) are supported in these thick alluvial deposits.

Jan 1, 2018

By Marius B. Wechsler

There are considered deep piles which are fixed in blocks of rotating machinery foundations. A mathematical background is developed for determining the behavior of this kind of piles for motions caused by horizontal and vertical oscillations, as well as by roc-king and twisting. It is assumed that the piles come across a top soil layer of depth c, not capable of lateral support, and penetrate over a length b, in a bottom firm soil layer, or in a bottom soft soil layer in which vibrations can produce voids around the piles. With respect to b and c, as well as to the elastic properties of piles and soils, the analysis leads to the maximum bending moments and shear forces subjecting the piles, to the maximum lateral bearing on the bottom soil layer, as well as to the deflection of the pile and the displacement of the foundation block. The results of the performed analysis can be applied to seismic loads too, and they are illustrated by a numerical example.

Jan 1, 1987

By F. Schlosser

The extension of Montparnasse Station in Paris required the construction of supports of very high unit capacity to support a particularly rigid super-structure. The majority of the site is characterized by the existence of old limestone quarries at a depth of approximately 20 metres. These workings have been backfilled in some places, have collapsed in some places and have given rise to local subsidences in the marne layers above them. This paper addresses the steps taken by the group of companies and their consultants to evaluate the equivalent stiffnesses of the supports necessary for the design of the superstructure, and gives details of the construction techniques chosen by the foundations specialist to adapt to the particular conditions encountered on this site.

Jan 1, 1989