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By Gerald Verbeek

There are certain concepts that seem to invite responses from some, including some in the foundation industry and even some within DFI, that are at best surprising. Business owners and their employees share the desire that their company does well and continues to operate. Maybe company growth is not always realistic but maintaining the current level of activity is in the least what they hope for. In other words, they hope that their company is sustainable, and they are fully behind that notion. But when the concept of sustainability is raised, there is, at least with some, suddenly doubt that that is a good thing. And yet, that concept only aims to achieve at a grander scale what the owners and employees desire for their company. There are many definitions of the term sustainability, but probably the most commonly used description is that framed by the United Nations in 1987. It states that sustainability is the concept of meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Arguably that definition is too abstract and does not provide the type of specific goals and targets we are used to. To help with that, to some extent, in 2015 the United Nations formulated 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to provide "a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future." And undoubtedly those SDGs are fodder for those that question the concept of sustainability in the foundation industry. How can our industry, they wonder, ensure that there is no poverty or hunger (SDG 1 and 2), and the climate action goal (SDG 13) immediately leads to the hot button topic of global warming. And maybe this is where advocates lose (some of) the sceptics of the sustainability concept, but hopefully they will continue to read this article that lays out why sustainability simply makes sense, also for the foundation industry and especially for DFI.

Nov 1, 2022

By William Auyeung

Micro-piles are small-diameter, drilled and grouted reinforced piles used for both structural support and in situ earth reinforcement. They were conceived in Italy in 1952, but have become popular in Canada and the United State only since the mid-1980s. The Province of British Columbia completed a construction of a 265-km (165 miles) four-lane highway between Campbell River and Victoria in the year of 2000. The construction of Big Qualicum Bridge was part of the above mentioned provincial government project and this bridge was made of twin cast-in-place concrete parabolic arch structures. The overall length of the bridge is 261 metres (856 feet) and the width is 24.2 metres (80 feet). The massive thrust from each arch is resisted by groups of 46 drilled micro-piles that are about 230 mm (9 inches) in diameter with No. 18 high strength Dywidag threaded bars with double corrosion protection up to 15 metres (50 feet) long. This paper will describe the micro-pile design and installation methods. The performance of the micro-piles in full scale testing in tension and compression monitored with electronic strain gauges will be presented. The impact of drilling methods on the performance of the micro-piles will also be discussed.

Jan 1, 2004

By R. A. Fraser

Large diameter (1.0 to 2.5m) bored piles have been widely used to support buildings and elevated roadways in Hong Kong. Most of these piles are founded on a hard bearing stratum such as granitic or volcanic bedrock, in the newly reclaimed areas along the water-front, the bedrock stratum can be as deep as 70-80 metres below ground surface, and construction of bored piles to bedrock in this case is difficult and unjustified. Nevertheless, Building Ordinance Regulations in Hong Kong require piles to be founded on bedrock. To overcome this problem for elevated roadways, trial piles have been designed founded on dense, completely decomposed granite. A number of piles have been constructed and subsequently load-tested to allow the rate of mobilisation of skin friction to be measured. This paper outlines the design, construction and testing method, and comments on the test results from several trial piles. GEOLOCICAL CONDITIONS The geology of Hong Kong consists predominantly of acid volcanic rocks intruded by granite. The granite has been deeply weathered, and variations in sea level have produced a drowned coastline with sequences of alluvial, colluvial and marine deposits overlying the weathered bedrock. Reclamation has extended this coastline. Typical site conditions are described later in the paper.

Jan 1, 2010

By Peter Deming

"PART 1 OF 2INTRODUCTIONSlurry trenches are the least cost hydraulic barrier available, if the excavated spoils can be recycled into backfill. As such, slurry trenches are constructed where possible, sometimes at high risk. Slurry trenches are also used to install biopolymer drainage trenches, which have a low safety factor because the biopolymer slurry weight is marginally greater than the weight of water. In marginal ground the construction risk falls to both the Owner who designs and asks for the construction, and the Contractor who manages the work and promises to complete the project successfully. This paper discusses design and construction of slurry trench barriers in marginally stable ground and where groundwater chemistry invokes the need for slurry management details to obtain proper backfill placement.As a designer, Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers works for both Owners and Contractors. We are usually able to convince Owners of their responsibility for design detailing in order to obtain a working final product and to obtain reasonable bids from Contractors by disclosing construction needs and designing to reduce the contractor’s exposure. We often work for Contractors to produce designs which result in successful construction in projects where the Owner’s engineer places the responsibility of design and construction on the Contractor.This paper is intended to inform both Owner and Contractor audiences of resources which are available to reduce the risks of trench collapse in difficult ground conditions. We hope it serves this purpose.DESIGNSubsurface InvestigationsSubsurface conditions should be defined by borings focused on definition of the soil profile and soil design parameters. After general subsurface conditions are defined, barrier borings should be drilled along the final alignment.Definition of Soil Strength and CompactnessCompactness of sand and gravel strata should be defined with Standard Penetration Test N-values. The shear strength of cohesive materials should be defined by laboratory testing. Silt and fine sand strata with little cohesion should be investigated using mud rotary techniques to prevent disturbance. General strength characterization by soil layer should be used for analysis of trench wall stability."

Jan 1, 2006

By A. C. Galvis-Castro, R. Salgado, M. Prezzi, E. Ganju, R. D. Tovar-Valencia

It is generally accepted that the unit shaft resistance of piles in sands is lower for tensile loading than for compressive loading. So far, very little attention has been paid to the influence of the installation method on the tensile-to-compressive unit shaft resistance ratio. The objective of this paper is to analyze the effect of installation method on the ratio of unit shaft resistance in tension to that in compression for a model pile installed in a dense silica sand. To study installation effects, load tests on model piles were carried out in a half-cylindrical calibration chamber with digital image correlation (DIC) capability. The model piles were either jacked in one stroke using a constant rate of advance, or pre-installed into the dense sand samples. Digital images of the model pile and sand were taken during the load test and processed using DIC to obtain the displacement field in the sand. It was found that unit shaft resistance was essentially the same in tension and compression for the pre-installed pile, however for the jacked pile, the unit shaft resistance in tension was approximately half of that in compression. DIC analysis revealed that: (1) during the load test, more displacement occurs in the soil domain for the pre-installed pile compared to the jacked pile, (2) for the jacked pile, the magnitude of displacement in the soil domain is greater in tension than in compression and (3) for the pre-installed pile, the magnitudes of displacement in tension and compression are similar. INTRODUCTION Pile foundations can be categorized into two main types depending on the method of installation: displacement piles (e.g., jacked or driven piles) and non-displacement piles (e.g., bored piles or drilled shafts) (Basu et al. 2010; Salgado 2008). The response of these piles to loading can be studied in the laboratory by means of calibration chamber experiments on model piles that are either jacked into the samples, representing displacement piles (Jardine et al. 2005; Lee et al. 2011; Tovar-Valencia et al. 2018), or pre-installed in the sand sample, representing non-displacement piles(Galvis-Castro et al. 2019a; Le Kouby et al. 2013; Tehrani et al. 2016)

Jan 1, 2019

By Richard Stone, Rouzbeh Afsharhasani, Moses Karakouzian

"Caliche, a hardened sedimentary deposit of calcium carbonate that occurs worldwide, generally in arid or semiarid regions, is frequently encountered in Las Vegas, Nevada. The presence of a caliche layer in a soil profile affects the response of deep foundations to axial load. This paper studies the stiffening effect of caliche layers on the elastic settlement of a pile foundation. In order to evaluate the response in a layered soil-caliche profile, finite element analyses were performed on a typical-sized single pile and a pile group, both having constant diameter and length of the pile. The results indicate that the stiffening effect from the caliche is noteworthy, and a layer with a relative thickness of at least one pile width, regardless of its location, reduces the pile settlement for both single piles and group of piles systems by at least 50%.IntroductionThe presence of cemented materials in the soil profile influences the settlement response of foundations. One type of cemented material that can be found in arid places around the world is a sedimentary deposit of calcium carbonate called caliche. Caliche, a hardened sedimentary deposit of calcium carbonate, is common in arid and semi-arid urban areas, such as Las Vegas, Nevada (Wyman, et al. 1993).Caliche is mostly observed in lacustrine, river, and alluvial fan deposits (Jr.C.C 1970). It is also found in Central and Western Australia, the Kalahari Desert, the High Plains of the Western U.S., and the Sonoran Desert of the U.S. and Mexico.Some conditions required for the formation of caliche are that country or basement rocks must be a carbonate type, carbonate must be present in the soil zone of the area, climate regime is semi-arid to arid, there exists widespread capillary activity, and carbon dioxide (CO2) is present in the environment. As a result, caliche occurs as a product of the carbonization process (Atabey, Atabey and Kara 1998). In such areas where foundations are constructed on thin rock layers (caliche), special geotechnical design conditions should be considered, particularly if the supporting rock layer is underlain by a weaker material."

Jan 1, 2015

By David S. Graham, Paul J. Axtell

Crosshole Sonic Logging (CSL) non-destructive integrity testing identified anomalous readings near the base of a 6.5-foot diameter drilled shaft rock socket. The anomaly was confirmed to be a defect by subsequent coring and core hole camera inspection. A large void and exposed rebar were visually observed in one of the core hole camera inspections. The center of the shaft was then excavated initially with 3-foot diameter tooling and subsequently with 4-foot diameter tooling as part of the remedial actions to address the defect. While excavating with 3-foot diameter tooling, the shaft defect was not encountered. Excavation with 4-foot diameter tooling revealed the defect, a significant void around the majority of the shaft circumference. The void extended radially from the circumference of the 4-foot diameter excavation to beyond the reinforcement cage to the exposed wall of the rock socket around approximately 80 percent of the shaft circumference. CSL results and observations made during remedial shaft investigation and excavation are in good agreement. The shaft defect, located primarily outside of the reinforcement cage, was effectively identified by CSL testing. Although the defect was confirmed by investigative coring, the remedial excavation demonstrates how the investigative coring could have easily missed the defect. This paper shows how CSL results compare to physical observations made during a rare opportunity to characterize the full extent and nature of a drilled shaft defect originally identified as an anomaly by CSL testing. INTRODUCTION The case history presented here pertains to a drilled shaft for a multi-shaft bridge pier in the Midwestern United States. However, the observations presented in this paper are not a result of unique site conditions or the particulars of the project. The lessons learned from this case history are applicable to almost any drilled shaft constructed in the wet. The overall length of the subject shaft is 22 feet including approximately 12 feet of permanently cased, 7-foot diameter shaft extending to bedrock and approximately 10 feet of uncased, 6.5-foot diameter rock socket. The shaft is designed to resist axial and lateral loads and considers the contributions of side and base resistance in the axial design. Six, 2-inch diameter steel Crosshole Sonic Logging (CSL) tubes are include in the shaft. The bedrock at the shaft location includes beds of sandstone, shale, and limestone. The shaft was drilled using conventional drilling equipment and tooling, and water was used as the drilling fluid. Conventional drilled shaft concrete appropriate for underwater tremie-placement was placed via a 10-inch diameter open hopper tremie.

Jan 1, 2019

By Kiyotaka Ohno, Nobushige Yasuoka, Yosuke Hioki

"The diameter of improved columns adopted by the original DJM Method had been 1000 mm, however, in order to comply with the social need for construction cost reduction, the Expanded Dry Jet Mixing (EX-DJM) Method with maximum column diameter expanded to 1300 mm was developed between 1998 and 2001 and has been widely applied since then. From the first application of EX-DJM in January 2002 for a first construction project, the total volume of improved soil has reached 325,000 m3 in 17 projects up to September 2014. Because of the advantages of the EX-DJM such as reduction of construction costs and periods leading to reduction in the number of improved columns, adoption of this method is expected to increase in the future. This paper describes the advantages of the EX-DJM, its construction results and case examples including those applied to restoration projects after the Great East Japan Earthquake, 2011.1. BACKGROUND OF DEVELOPMENTThe Dry Jet Mixing (DJM) Method is a soil stabilization method in which a powdery or granular binder is pneumatically fed into and mixed with soft soil to induce chemical reactions that stabilize and strengthen the soil. It was developed by government - private collaboration in Japan between 1977 and 1979. Up to March 2014, the total volume of soil improved by DJM method reached 33,500,000 m3. The initial diameter of improved columns of the original DJM Method was 1000 mm. In order to comply with the social need for construction cost reduction, the Expanded Dry Jet Mixing (EX-DJM) Method with maximum column diameter 1300 mm was developed between 1998 and 2001.2. ADVANTAGES OF EX-DJMThe construction equipment for the EX-DJM consists of two major parts, which are DJM machine and binder plant are shown in Fig. 1.The construction machine is of double mixing-shaft type with its column diameter expanded to 1200mm or 1300mm. In association with the increase in the column diameter, the binder feeder has also increased its discharge rate by approximately 1.69 times. Same as the increase rate of the area of original diameter 1000mm to diameter 1300mm are shown in Fig. 4."

Jan 1, 2015

By Piotr D. Moncarz

As major urban areas begin to run out of "good-terrain" for their expansion, they begin to claim high water-table areas within or adjacent to water fronts or swamps. Similarly, major infrastructure projects encroach on or cross high organic content areas. The associated major structures often require deep foundations located in soils investigated through core samples removed at a discrete number of locations. The investigation is nearly always preoccupied with soil mechanical properties, sometimes with soil non-organic chemistry for concrete and metal corrosion, seldom, if ever, for organic-chemistry and bio-conditions as related to concrete longevity. Not surprisingly so, bio-corrosion of concrete is one of the least understood phenomena by practicing civil engineers. This paper shows how low-iron, organic-rich sediments may trigger sulfate degradation of concrete, even when standard pre-construction chemical analyses indicate only a moderate sulfate level. The discussion is illustrated with a case of a pile foundation in the United States driven into marine channel sediments and sediment-derived fill material. The concrete piles lost their structural integrity due to secondary ettringite formation and depletion of iron in the cement paste. Disintegration of concrete occurred only where it contacted superficial marine sediments and sediment-derived fill material. Concrete in direct contact with seawater or native sand and silt materials appeared to be sound. Sediments in contact with the degraded concrete were highly anoxic and had a history of sewage contamination, contained low concentrations of total iron (<2%), Fe(III) (<0.3%) and moderate levels of sulfate (1500ppm), and exhibited high bacterial activity. This environment resulted in the microbial dissolution of Fe(lll)-rich ferrite in hardened cement paste. Iron depletion in the cement paste had made the concrete vulnerable to degradation by sulfate, even at moderate levels of sulfate concentrations in the sediments.

Jan 1, 2002

By James P. Hambleton, Sam A. Stanier

A perceived advantage of screw-type foundations is the ability infer aspects of foundation performance from quantities measured or observed during installation, especially the installation torque. A particular concept widely used in practice is to correlate installation torque to ultimate capacity. This notion has proven useful as a field verification technique despite the absence of validated models that relate key variables of interest, such as installation torque, axial (crowd) force, geometrical parameters, and soil strength. This paper considers previous work by the co-authors and collaborators on analytical, numerical, and physical modelling of screw piles to relate the quantities measured or controlled during installation (e.g., installation torque) to the ultimate capacity and soil strength. Attention is given to saturated clay as a particular soil type amenable to simplified analysis. An analytical model for a single-helix pile is considered as a means of directly relating the ultimate capacity and undrained shear strength to the installation torque, crowd force, plate pitch, plate diameter, shaft diameter, installation depth, and surface roughness. The connection between the installation variables and ultimate capacity—and the sensitivity to crowd force in particular, a quantity that is typically not measured during field installations—is also discussed. The theoretical predictions are compared against data obtained from small-scale laboratory experiments that suggest the installation torque relates to the remolded strength of the soil. INTRODUCTION Screw piles are deep foundations that are twisted into the ground through an applied torque. Advantages over driven piles or drilled foundations include the relative silence of the installation, with low ground vibrations, and the possibility of being easily decommissioned by reversing the direction of twisting. Screw piles are now routinely encountered as a flexible, low-cost solution for numerous applications (Figs. 1 and 2), and they are also being considered for applications in offshore energy production due to limitations being imposed with respect to decommissioning and underwater noise. Also known as “screw anchors,” “helical piles”, or “helical anchors,” screw piles consist of helices or helical plate elements attached to a central shaft. Figure 3a shows the components of a single-helix pile and key variables. The diameters of the shaft and helix are denoted by d and D, respectively, and p is the pitch of the helix. Variable H denotes depth of the helical plate, and T and N denote the torque and axial (crowd) force applied during installation. In typical applications, the pile includes multiple helical plates, and the shaft is composed of segments that allow for it to extend to large depths into the soil.

Jan 1, 2019

By G. Stuart Littlejohn

In spite of recent concerns in certain European countries, I believe that silicate-ester grouts will continue to be employed in practice, unless more cost-effective inorganic grouts are developed for the treatment of fine sands. It is also noteworthy that over the past 40 years, there has been a record of good experience where silicate-ester grouts have been used in ground improvement. Nevertheless, there is now a need via the European Standard EN 12715 (2000) "to assess the environmental impact, particularly the toxicity of the grout and grout components, and their effect on ground and drinking water should be considered before grouting." "When testing the grouting material for environmental impact, the following aspects should be considered: ? Whether during processing, transport or grouting, substance can be generated or released which could be hazardous to the environment or the grouting crew; ? Whether noxious substances can spread upon mixing with ground water; ? Whether reaction products can be produced or released which influence the water quality; ? The type of particles eroded from hardened grout; ? Chemical reactions between hardened grout and the ground water."

Feb 10, 2003

By Saba Mohan

This study presents results based on the Pile Installation Demonstration Project (PIDP) that was conducted as a part of the East Span San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Seismic Safety Project. For the three full-scale pile installations, two different high-energy hydraulic hammers were selected for the installation. However, these hammers may not have sufficient energy to drive these large diameter piles at their ultimate capacity following long-term set-up. Nevertheless, these hammers were selected because, soil plug behavior, the generation of excess pore pressures and remolding of soil during driving were expected to reduce the shaft and end bearing resistance, and therefore reduce the energy required to drive these piles to design penetration. Data collected during continuous installation driving and after a series of re-strikes at different set-up times ranging from 1 to 33 days were used as input data for CAPWAP. These results were used to estimate the soil resistance along the pile length and at the toe of the pile, and the soil pile set-up behavior. Validity of the procedures used to predict the soil resistance to driving and predicted blow counts were verified with the field observed blow counts and the energy that was delivered to the pile. Based on combined CAPWAP analyses, the soil pile set-up with time was estimated and compared with results of other methods currently available in the literature for predicting the soil pile set-up rate.

Jan 1, 2002

By B. Philip Shull, Allen W. Cadden, Johanna M. Simon, Michael S. Senior

A 670 linear meter (2,200 linear foot) large-diameter sanitary sewer interceptor installation at depths ranging from 3 to 10 m (10 to 30 ft) below existing grade in an area with a high water table requires careful attention to design and performance of the system during construction. Highly variable soil and rock conditions at the site necessitated the design and construction of various excavation support systems along the alignment. In addition to the subsurface condition challenges faced at this site, the proposed sewer pipe was to be installed between an existing active combined sewer main and a high pressure gas main feeding the nearby city. What better way is there to monitor performance of the system than to require a detailed instrumentation system? Instrumentation system specifications and designs are becoming more commonplace in the industry, but it is always important to sit back and take a look at the whole picture. What are you looking to gain from your monitoring? What pieces of information are useful? What interpretations can you derive from the instrumentation you have selected? This paper will address the instrumentation system used to monitor the 670 m (2,200 ft) excavation from the specification requirements to the implementation and interpretation. This case history will delve into the challenges faced and methods used to overcome those challenges on this particular support of excavation (SOE) project. A combination of soldier pile, lagging and sheeting, and shoring systems was used to achieve the necessary excavation support. In designing the systems, attention was given to the configuration of the bracing system to allow the sections of largediameter pipe to feasibly be installed in the excavation while maintaining the SOE system.

By Adnan A. Malik, Tadashi Maejima, Jiro Kuwano

"The use of steel screw piles has greatly increased in recent years because of the advancement in the installation mechanism and its performance under compressive, uplift and lateral loads. In a steel pile system, the strength of pile material limits the end bearing resistance of the pile due to strong subsurface conditions. The installation mechanism of screw pile can reduce the end bearing resistance due to the torque and axial force. However, if the installation mechanism does not reduce the bearing resistance of the pile, another important factor that can reduce its performance is the strength of the helix/wing plate. In this study, the effect of wing plate deformation on the performance of single helix/wing plate pile bearing resistance investigated. A model ground was used to investigate the effect of wing plate deformation. Dry Toyoura sand was used as a ground material and was compacted to denser states of 80% and 92%. The shaft and wing plate material of the pile was the same to actual piles that are used nowadays in Japan. A series of load tests were performed with different wing plate diameters and thicknesses. It was observed that deflection in the wing plate reduces the bearing resistance of the pile. The increase in the thickness of the wing plate was seen to restore the reduced pile resistance due to deflection. It was also observed from the experimental results that the ratio of wing plate diameter to shaft diameter (Dw/Ds) greatly affects the deformation of wing plates, which ultimately affects the end bearing resistance of the pile. The results obtained in this research suggest that the outstand length (Lw) of wing plate should be less than 5.6 times the thickness of wing plate for piles having a large Dw/Ds ratio under strong ground conditions.INTRODUCTIONThe first use of screw pile was almost 180 years ago by Alexander Mitchell. He patented his invention in 1833 with the name “Screw Pile”, and used it for ship moorings. The use of screw piles has since been adopted in various areas such as lighthouses, fencing for agriculture and marine structures. The use of screw piles in civil works started in 1985, after the invention of the hydraulic torque motor, as it eases the installation process. Nowadays, screw piles are used in the foundation of transmission towers, elevators, buildings and many other civil structures.Screw pile has an edge over other steel pile systems due to its high bearing, uplift and lateral resistance. The end bearing resistance of screw pile depends on installation, strength of subsurface material and the pile material. The screw pile is installed by applying torque and axial force. The pile torsional strength should be more than the applied torque and axial force to avoid deformation before reaching the final depth."

Jan 1, 2015

By David T. Farber

"Stabilization of an existing cellular tower foundation system without dismantling the tower or compromising the existing foundation system was accomplished by installation of a jet grouted pile system. The tower was originally designed to be placed on a steep hillside and to be supported by a mat foundation founded on existing bedrock. The as-built conditions of the tower foundation system showed it to be constructed on a combination of loose fill of varying thickness and native stiff silts and gravel material. To avoid the potential of differential settlement, a jet grouted pile foundation system was installed to the top of bedrock. The jet grouted pile system was rapidly installed over a two-day period so as to not delay operational permitting of the tower.INTRODUCTIONA tri-legged lattice cellular communication tower was constructed on the side of a steep hill located in a mature hard wood forest. Access to the site as well as available work area was limited to small track type drill rigs and equipment. The original tower design required the tower to be supported by a mat foundation bearing directly on bedrock. Based on a review of the foundation construction and results of a subsurface investigation, it was discovered that the foundation was built directly over a loose fill material that varied in thickness from 0 to 4.27 meters (0 to 14-ft). Because of the uncompacted nature and varying thickness of the loose fill materials, the tower would be susceptible to differential settlement which, could lead to tower instability.The objectives of this project included the following:• stabilize the mat foundation against differential settlement without removing the existing tower structure or foundation system• rapidly complete stabilization activities to allow operational permitting of the towerSOIL CONDITIONSThe subsurface soil conditions that the tower mat foundation rested on were evaluated by installing three borings in a row from the inward slope portion of the mat foundation (B-1) to the outward slope portion of the mat foundation (B-3). Figure 1 illustrates the subsurface soil stratigraphy. The three borings encountered the following subsurface conditions:"

Jan 1, 2005

By Toshio Yonezawa, Helmut Florian, Herbert Kuh, Masamichi Aoki, Takao Koono, Franz-Werner Gerressen

"To increase the bearing capacity of the ground, soil improvement technique is often adopted. One advantage of soil improvement techniques is the fact, that the impact to the environment is low, as the system utilizes the existing soil. Recently, compressive strength of soil improvement gets more into the focus for the use of building foundation. To prevent brittle fracture, which is a weak point of soil improvement, fiber reinforced soil improvement has been developed. Laboratory tests were conducted to examine the fibers suitable for reinforced soil improvement, and examine the optimum mix design for fiber cement slurry. Based on the laboratory tests, polypropylene fiber and cellulosic viscosity admixture was selected. For the laboratory tests a scaled model of CSM mixing head was used to examine the dispersion of the fibers in the ground. Using the CSM mixing head, the outer periphery fibers of soil improvement seemed to be arranged in the vertical direction, toughness performance of the soil improvement could be improved. Furthermore, full scale field test was performed using actual CSM unit, modified to enable the use of fiber mixed slurry. The validity of the material as well as the toughness performance of the soil improvement, determined from lab test results, was confirmed. In addition, it was confirmed that fiber reinforced soil improvement can be constructed appropriately by CSM method.2 INTRODUCTIONSoil improvement technique to improve the strength and deformation performance of ground has been used for a long time. Cement improved methods, with the increase of the deep Mixing Method, which has been disseminated since the 1970's, was often used since. Cement used soil improvement technology has been utilized to stabilize excavations, slopes in embankment and much more. Recently, it can be used for preventing liquefaction by building soil improvement in a grid (Suzuki et al. (1996)), and also as basis of the structure by increasing the compression strength of soil improvement (Yamashita et al. (2011)). Cement used soil improvement method, a technique for mixing the in-site soil and cement, can effectively utilize natural resources, and it can be expected that its use will increase further in the future. Therefore, soil improvement technique will be able to minimize the impact on the environment. Cement improved soil is a mixture of soil particles and cement with high compressive strength but low tensile strength. Since tensile strength of soil improvement is low, brittle destruction occurs. Therefore, it is not possible to use soil improvement in conditions acting with bending stress. If a horizontal impact force occurs in the improved soil, the width of the soil improvement needs to be increased to reduce the bending stress. If preventing the brittle fracture of soil improvement, the width of soil improvement could be reduced, then less resources would be needed. In order to increase the tensile strength of the soil improvement, several studies for the mix of fiber and soil were performed. Victor (1992) indicates cracking deterrent effect by fiber based on laboratory tests. Moreover, based on laboratory tests, Hayasaki (1982) illustrated the effect on the tensile strength of the fiber types, the type of fiber, the diameter of and the length of fiber."

Jan 1, 2015

By D. Dreher Whetstone, Paul M. Blakita, Christopher M. Reith, Ravi P. Malviya

"Micro-piles are small diameter (5 to 10 inches), cast-in-place piles which can develop high load capacities by bonding with soil or rock. Micro-piles are particularly well-suited for moderate to heavily loaded structures requiring deep foundations in difficult subsurface conditions, such as karst, bouldery mine spoil, or unsuitable fills with concrete debris or other obstructions. Attempts to install conventional deep foundations including driven piles, drilled piers, or auger-cast piles are likely to be fraught with construction difficulties and disputes, delays, cost overruns, and may be unfeasible in some cases. Micro-pile installation equipment is very effective in installing foundations through such overburden or rock materials.This paper presents case histories of Micro-pile installations on two projects with difficult soil/rock materials. The project sites are located in Charles Town, West Virginia and Masontown, Pennsylvania.Charles Town, West Virginia ProjectThe Charles Town project entailed construction of a four-story pre-cast concrete garage. Triad Engineering, Inc. performed a geotechnical investigation for this project (Triad, 2001). The subsurface, geologic, and project specific information described in th is paper are largely based on the aforementioned geotechnical report.Ground ConditionsThe project site is located in Jefferson County, West Virginia, and is mapped to be underlain by the Elbrook Formation. This formation is described as argillaceous, dolomitic limestone with beds of dolomite and aphanitic and algal limestone (Dean, et al. , 1990). The carbonate rocks at the site were characterized as ""moderately solution-prone, highly calcareous and weathers differentially to produce a pinnacled or ""sawtooth"" top of rock profile. (Triad, 2001 )"" Overburden soils consist of low to high plasticity, fine grained residual soils formed by weathering of the parent carbonate rock. The residual soils include variable proportion of sand and rock fragments."

Jan 1, 2005

By Adel M. Hanna, Ibrahim M. Mashhour

"Collapsible soil is known as one of the difficult soils, which possesses considerable strength when it is dry and significantly reduced when inundated. In practice, in case of a thick layer, pile foundations are often used to penetrate the collapsible soil to firm soil/rock strata. Inundation of collapsible soil is accompanied by a large and sudden settlement, which may significantly increase the negative skin friction and accordingly the drag loads on the pile’s shaft. Inundation may take place from the running surface-water or raising the groundwater. In case of surface water, the amount of settlement varies, depending on the extent of the wetted zone and the degree of saturation in the soil, while rising groundwater will produce full saturation in the ground and accordingly larger settlement.In the literature, there is lack of reports dealing with the prediction of the drag load on piles in collapsible soils subjected to inundation. This is due to the complexity of modeling collapsible soil analytically. Alternatively; the results of a sophisticated experimental investigation may guide the researcher to develop a model to predict the drag load on these piles.This paper presents the results of a small-scale experimental investigation tailored to measure the soil collapse during inundation and the associated drag load on an endbearing pile’s shaft. Based on the results of the present investigation, the effect of the soil collapse potential and the pressure acting on the soil during inundation on negative skin friction is presented.INTRODUCTIONCollapsible soil is a metastable material, traditionally defined as unsaturated soils that experiences a radical rearrangement of particles and significant reduction of volume upon wetting with or without loading (Bara 1976; Houston et al., 1988). A wide range of soils fall into the category of collapsible soil, including naturally existing types of soils such as: Alluvial flood plains, mud flows, residual soils, colluvial deposits, fans, aeolian or wind-blow deposits sands and silts (loess), volcanic tuffs, gypsum, dispersive clays, loose cemented sands , sodium rich montmorillonite clays (Clemence and Finbarr 1981).Soil wetting and soil saturation may take place as a result of urbanization or natural causes, such as: groundwater level rise, landscape irrigation, broken water pipelines or sewer lines, poor surface drainage, groundwater recharge, cut/fill construction, and moisture increase due to capillary rise. The severity of the outcome depends heavily on the so called collapse potential of the soil, which depends mainly on; soil type, compaction effort, initial water content and stress level at soaking (Houston and Houston, 1997; Ayadat and Hanna, 2007)."

Jan 1, 2015

By Md. Nafiul Haque, Murad Y. Abu-Farsakh, Chris Nickel

"This paper presents the results from a pile load testing program for a bridge construction project in Louisiana. The testing includes two 54-inch open-ended spun cast concrete cylinder piles (OECP), one 30-inch open-ended steel pile (OESP), and two (30-inch and 16-inch) square prestressed concrete (PSC) piles driven at two locations with very similar soil conditions. All the test piles were instrumented with vibrating wire strain gauges to measure the load distribution along the length of the test piles and the skin friction and the end bearing were derived from strain gauge measurements. High strain dynamic load tests (HSDLT) were performed on all test piles at different times after pile installations to quantify the amount of setup with time. Static load tests were also performed on the PSC and open-ended steel piles. Due to expected large pile capacities, the statnamic test method was used on the two open-ended cylinder piles. The pile capacities of these piles were evaluated using various CPT methods (such as Schmertmann, De Ruiter and Beringen, LCPC, COFS methods). The result showed that all the methods can estimate the skin friction with good accuracy; but not the end-bearing capacity. Setup was observed for all the piles, which was mainly attributed to increase in skin frictions. The setup rate parameters “A” [The “A” parameter is defined as the rate of increase of pile capacity ratio (Rt/Rto) per log cycle of elapsed time] were back-calculated for all the test piles and the values were between 0.31 and 0.41.INTRODUCTIONDue to greater efficiency (capacity to weight ratio) of the pipe piles, open-ended piles are a viable option to solid piles. However, the behavior of open-ended piles is more complicated compared to the close-ended piles owing to possible formation of “soil plug” inside the open-ended pile. Many researchers have analyzed the behavior of both types of piles for different purposes; however, very few studies in the literature offer the side-by-side comparison of the close-ended and open-ended piles."

Jan 1, 2017

By Saba Mohan

For the three full-scale pile installations, two different high-energy hydraulic hammers were selected for the installation. However, these hammers may not have sufficient energy to drive these large diameter piles at their ultimate capacity following long-term set-up. Nevertheless, these hammers were selected because, soil plug behavior, the generation of excess pore pressures and remolding of soil during driving were expected to reduce the shaft and end bearing resistance, and therefore reduce the energy required to drive these piles to design penetration. Data collected during continuous installation driving and after a series of re-strikes at different set-up times ranging from 1 to 33 days were used as input data for CAPWAP analyses. These results were used to estimate the soil resistance along the pile length and at the toe of the pile, and the soil pile set-up behavior. Validity of the procedures used to predict the soil resistance to driving and predicted blow counts were verified with the field observed blow counts and the energy that was delivered to the pile. Based on combined CAPWAP analyses, the soil pile set-up with time was predicted.

Jan 1, 2002