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By Sam X. Yao

The underwater concrete technology has historically evolved largely through a trial-and-error process of constructing marine works. Many outstanding examples exist of high quality concrete placed underwater. However, failures also occurred and led to excessive cost and/or schedule overruns. These failures were largely due to improper concrete mix design or improper placement. The problems may have occurred because proper underwater concrete construction techniques and experience have not been widely disseminated. This section focuses on technical issues of underwater concrete mix design, concrete production and placement, and quality control.

Jan 1, 2013

By M. Makarchian

Existing buildings sometimes experience excessive settlement under their design loads, or due to increased foundation loading, if a change of building use is required. One of the oldest and widely numerical study has been carried out of a simple idealised problem of an underpinned rigid circular foundation to better understand the behaviour of pile used for underpinning and load transfer mechanism from an existing foundation to the underpinning piles. The finite element method has been used for this analysis, with the soil treated as a two-phase elasto-plastic material. It is found that the effect of the length of the pile becomes more significant as pile length increases. As would be expected, the earlier the pile is installed, the less is the final settlement.

Jan 1, 1996

By M. England

A method for the analysis and prediction of single pile displacement behaviour is described. It is the displacement in time, under constant load, based on the use of hyperbolic functions to characterise individual constituents of the displacement-time behaviour. Extensive use of this technique has confirmed its validity in a variety of soils and that consolidation and creep settlement appear to be indistinguishable. The algorithms employed are suitable to model the displacement behaviour from the onset of load to infinite time for all types of piles and surface foundations. Until the advent of computer controlled static load testing, analysis of the displacement-time characteristic during pile load tests has been hindered by the quality of the data recorded and inconsistency of loading. This has hitherto made the development of suitable behavioural models very difficult. Understanding the soil deformation within a proper time framework allows the subject of pile instrumentation and testing to be developed. The equipment required is basically a computer controlled loading and pile head displacement measuring system which allows accurate analysis of the settlement characteristic in almost every situation.

Jan 1, 1993

By Tariq B. Hamid

Deep excavation is commonly associated with construction of different deep below-grade structural elements (e.g., basement walls and slabs, tunnels, retaining walls, tanks, utilities, etc.) Deep Excavation Retaining Systems (DERS) are required when open cuts with safe slopes are not possible. Careful analysis, design, and planning of the DERS are required to provide safe below-grade construction and secure nearby structures from damaging effects that may result from the deep excavation. Selection and design of temporary or permanent DERS (e.g., soldier pile and lagging, sheet piling walls, secant pile walls, tie backs, etc.) can have significant impact on time, cost, and performance. In order to design DERS using conventional methods, it is necessary to obtain shear strength parameters, angle of internal friction (ø), and cohesion (c), of retained soils. Residual shear strength parameters (ø'res, c'res) obtained from drained direct shear tests and triaxial tests on saturated samples have been commonly used in practice for the analysis and design of DERS. However, there are cases where ground water table remains at or below the base of excavation during the design lifetime of DERS. In such cases, the soil above the ground water table is in an unsaturated state. Therefore, it is important to account for the unsaturated conditions of soils in order to optimize the design of DERS. This paper is focused on implementing the basic concepts of unsaturated soils mechanics including matric suction and soils-water characteristic curve (SWCC) to estimate design shear strength parameters of unsaturated soils (i.e., ø°, c', and ø') for the design of a cantilever sheet pile walls, a typical case of study of the DERS. The results of this study indicate that the determination of unsaturated soil strength shear strength parameters is simple. In addition, using unsaturated soil mechanics theories has an outstanding impact on the design of retaining systems.

Jan 1, 2006

By Andrzej Tejchman

Calculation of pile foundations should possibly truly reflect its real work, mainly with respect to the value and distribution of settlements, pile internal forces and bending moments within a slab. Many empirical and theoretical methods serving for an assessment of the settlements of pile group overestimate its actual values obtained from field measurements (see Tejchman et al., 2001). In the paper a simple engineering method for calculation of pile foundations is presented. The method takes into account the interaction between the slab and a soil together with the phenomenon of non-uniform deformation of the soil-pile subsoil, particularly under large foundations. In the method the scheme of the slab resting on one-parameter elastic subsoil is assumed. The comparison of the calculation results for existing pile foundation with the field measurements shows good agreement between those values.

Jan 1, 2002

By Kazuyuki Matsuzawa

A series of plate loading tests were carried out on a loam ground in order to investigate the influences of the plate size and the loading rate on the observed load-settlement relations. Two circular plates having diameters of 0.3 m and 1.0 m were used. Three types of loading methods were employed; 1) static cyclic maintained load test, 2) static continuous load test, and 3) rapid (dynamic) plate load test. An interpretation method called non-linear damping method was used to estimate a static load-settlement relation from the rapid plate load test signals. The derived static load-settlement relations match well with the measured results from the static load tests.

Jan 1, 2006

By Mohammed Sakr

This paper presents the results of a full-scale axial compression and tension (uplift) testing program executed on large-capacity helical piles installed in very stiff to very hard clay till soils (i.e. cohesive soils). A total of ten tests including six axial compression tests and four tension (uplift) tests were carried out. The results of the axial compressive and tensile pile load tests and field monitoring of helical piles with either a single helix or double helix are presented in this paper. Helical piles are traditionally used to support light to medium loads (i.e. loads up to 500 kN or 56 tons). However the results of the present study confirmed that helical piles can support significantly higher axial compressive loads up to 2450 kN or 275 tons, which is about 5 times traditional design loads. The study also demonstrated the high tensile capacities of helical piles which was as high as 85% of their compressive capacity. Hence helical piles can provide a viable design option for foundations supporting relatively heavy loads.

Jan 1, 2012

By Zhou Lu-Jian

The Port of Shekou is situated at Shenzhen Bay on the east bank of Lingding Ocean. Its coastline is about 6 km long and the water depth near the shore is Favourable. Across the bay is the ' New Territories " of Hong Kong. The port is at a distance of 22-23 seamilesaway from center of Hong Kong and 80 seamiles to Huangpu Harbour of Guangzhou, its highway links with Shen-Guang Highay. Since 19 79 China Merchants Group of the Transportation Department, began to set up Shekou Industrial Zone, the port has been developing and flouri­shing in business. With 15 large or small berths in all, the present portline is 2600 m, and the annual cargo throughout is over 3,000,000 tons and the annual passenger traffic is about 2,000,000 persons. Equalling a medium-scale seaport, it has been officially approved as an oceangoing transit port by the ministry of Transportation. The construction of Shekou port is chara-terized by the self-collected funds and the short construction period. In view of this, the optional plan of the port structure must serve the requirements of simplicity in struture, economy in mate­rial and speed in construction. That accounts for the most application of the sheet piling type to the port in Shekou. Once the project was approved, the cons­truction started. Only within an average period of 7-8 months, a deep water pier was completed and put into operation, which covered series of processes from exploration, designing, tender for con­struction to completion.

Jan 1, 1991

By Jiwei Duan

The deformation and load transfer behavior of a single soil-cement column are studied with the finite element method. The results show that there is an effective length for a soil-cement column. Beyond this length, the settlement of the column is approximately equal to a constant. The effective pile length is introduced to the concentric cylinder approach (Randolph and Wroth 1978), and an analytical formula for estimating the settlement of a single flexible pile is presented. A second analytical formula for determining the effective pile length of a soil-cement column is obtained and an example shows that the calculated and measured results are in quite good agreement.

Jan 1, 2002

By Steven R. Musselman

The bending strength and flexural stiffness of a micropile at its threaded connection is less than its intact strength and may fail due to thread slippage or by fracture through the pin (reduced cross-sectional area of male threads in the threaded zone of the casing). The mode of failure depends on the reduction in cross-section necessary for machining the threads, and details of the threaded connection such as the length of threaded connection, size and shape of threads, and the thread density (threads per inch). Based on data from bending tests conducted on 9-5/8 inch diameter micropile casing, a method has been developed to predict the ultimate moment capacity and initial bending stiffness of round threaded micropile connections. Two modes of failure were observed from four-point bending tests conducted at the University of Illinois on 9-5/8 inch casing with round threads. Threaded micropile casing connections with an effective thread length of 1.35 inches typically failed by slippage at the threads (jump out), while connections using an effective thread length of 1.89 inches failed by fracture of the pin. These two failure modes were described by W.O. Clinedinst in his report to the American Petroleum Institute on tension tests of threaded pipe casing. Clinedinst developed an empirical formula to determine the tensile strength of threaded connections. A method to predict moment capacity for threaded micropile connections by modeling the micropile cross-section and applying Clinedinst?s equation to determine the max tensile stress along the threaded connection while satisfying force equilibrium is proposed. The predicted moment capacity for threaded connections using this approach is within ten percent of measured for both modes of failure observed from the bending tests.

Jan 1, 2007

By Hayel M. El-Naggar, Sherif A. Akl

Although grouted piles have been used for several decades since the idea was proposed in the 1970s, their design is mostly based on experience and unpublished proprietary methods. There is little research on grouting drilled shaft tips and even less on grouting shaft sides. This paper presents the analysis of 4 instrumented pile loads tests on base and shaft grouted piles from different sites in Egypt; with emphasis on one of the tests, to demonstrate the analysis process. The data from the tests are analyzed to model the development of unit side friction (USF) with relative displacement. A numerical model using the finite element software PLAXIS is used to investigate the effect of grouting on the surrounding soil stress state. The paper combines the observations from full scale pile load tests and results from the numerical model to suggest an idealized behavior of side friction development with relative displacement of the grouted part of the shaft. The suggested model considers an envelope of Unit Side Friction (USF) with relative displacement, initially dominated by the grout resistance then at higher relative displacements, the friction with radially pressured soil takes over. The grout provides very high USF values up to a relative displacement of 2mm. Then, the USF drops to a typical pile soil side friction behavior; however, this friction is affected by the contact stress between pile and soil, which significantly increases due to compaction grouting. INTRODUCTION Base and shaft pile grouting has been significantly developing in recent years to accommodate the unfavorable conditions in major projects such as the high loads in high rise building and founding on problematic soil formations. Grouting aims to decrease settlements and increase the capacity of the pile under axial load. The technique is first introduced by Kraft (1974) but gained popularity in the 1980s. Typically there are two types of grouting; compaction, and permeation. Compaction grouting is more common in pile foundations practice, and many researchers have provided case histories of pile load tests on base grouted piles and base and shaft grouted piles (Gouvenot and Gabaix,1975; Stocker, 1983; Ghazali et al., 1988; Fleming, 1993; Kusakabe et al., 1994; Robson and Wahby,1994; Joer and Randolph, 1998; Hamza and Leoni, 1998; Mullins et al. 2000; Littlechild et al., 2000; Suckling and Eager, 2001; Dapp and Mullins, 2002; Ho, 2003; Fu and Zhou, 2003; Brettmann and NeSmith, 2005; Ruiz, 2005; Mullins, 2006; Dapp and Brown, 2010; Beadman et al., 2012; Nguyen et al., 2013; Miller et al., 2013; Sinnreich and Simpson, 2015; Hui and Lin, 2015). Compaction grouting is meant to densify the soil around the pile and below the base rather than permeate this soil and increase its cohesion. Research showed that grouting increases the capacity of the piles by a factor of 2~5. The variation in capacity increase depends on pile type, grouting process, and especially grouting pressure. Although there are many case histories of pile load tests on grouted piles but there is no well-defined agreed-upon method to predict grouted pile capacity as typically done in ungrouted piles. Few lab experiments discussed the shaft grouting effects on the soil especially the compaction grouting. The experiments concluded that the compaction grouting forms a homogeneous layer between the pile and the soil, and a residual effective stress is achieved simultaneously with a significant densification of the soil around the pile with noticeable decreasing in void ratio. (Fattahpour et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2015). Recently, studies used numerical analysis to investigate the behavior of the grouted piles and the changes in the surrounding soil (Chiang et al., 2013). That study presents a simulation of the base pressure grouting with a simple FE model and predicts the reduction of the pile settlement by 10 to 20%. Another numerical study using a complex model conducted by Zhou et al. (2017), pr

Jan 1, 2018

By John A. Dal Pino

This paper describes two independent building underpinning projects during the construction of the Los Angeles Metro Rail System. The first project involves pinpile underpinning of a building along the Red Line which is the main heavy-rail portion of the system. Vertical and inclined friction pinpiles were constructed, using drilling equipment in a low-overhead height space, to support underpinning grade beams. This underpinning permitted the demolition of the building caissons so that the subway tunnels could pass beneath the building unimpeded. One of the piles was statically tested in compression. The second project involves the use of traditional pit piers for the underpinning of historic buildings along the Pasadena Blue Line, which is one of the light-rail branches from the Red Line. The piers were designed for various loading conditions and to minimize differential settlement of adjacent foundations. The piers will be internally braced with steel struts to be designed by the contractor.

Jan 1, 1996

By Z. Q. Zhou

It is the first worke in design of pile foundation to determine the carring capacity of single pile, and a static loading on site is considered to be the lost derect and reliable way. All values P and settlements S induced can be plotted as a broken-line. Since soil is a kind of elasto-plastic and cohesive material, the increasing of settlements is generally greater than that of loads. Different value Pu nay be given by different tester on his P-S diagram, because of erroys in the test and complicated, characteristics of soil. The analytical method of exponential equation shown in this paper derives a specified solution. After using an exponential curve to regress values of loads P and corresponding settlements S from on-site test, coeficients A and B of exponential equation can be obtained. With this curve an ultimate carrying capacity of single pile can be determined. The resistant forces of pile shaft and pile tip can also be defined by the tangent of the calculated knee point, as it is called (tangent method). At last, an example is given to show how the ultimate carrying capacity of f 500mm bored pile is obtained with this method for a project in Kunming.

Jan 1, 2010

By E. R. Wang

This paper outlines the engineering properties of shallow soil in Shanghai area. The main points that should be paid attention to during deep foundation investigation, and general conditions of experimental soil engineering are discribed.

Jan 1, 2010

By Mark M. Petersen

As part of the addition of eight new combined cycle generating units at the Florida Power & Light Sanford Plant, 2,129 piles were to be installed. The existing plant elements were supported on driven piles, and the variation in pile lengths during previous work, as well as available subsurface information, indicated a complex stratigraphy. At the request of the owner, the designer/construction manager developed a program to evaluate the use of pressure-grouted displacement piles. A pre-design load test program in areas that represented the apparent extremes in subsurface conditions indicated that the system was feasible; however, the presence of existing features that were to be demolished later precluded the clear delineation of subsurface conditions in advance of construction. A contract was negotiated with the pile installer based on the best estimate of potential pile lengths, with modifications to pile lengths to be set based on additional exploration. A total of 52 cone penetration soundings and five load tests were performed immediately prior to and during pile installation to establish correlations between the CPT data and pile performance. Pile depths were set based on these correlations. Pile installation was completed 6 weeks ahead of schedule and 15 percent under the original budget estimate. This paper documents the evaluation of pressure-grouted displacement piles as an emerging technology, and illustrates the benefits of a close working relationship between the owner, designer, and pile contractor at a site with variable subsurface conditions.

Jan 1, 2002

By J. Stacho, Frankovská. J.

"Abstract The use of continuous flight auger (CFA) piles in Slovakia has increased significantly in recent decades. High-rise building of administrative centre Lakeside Park in Bratislava is based on piled-raft foundation. The technology of CFA has been used due to the advantages of this technology in comparison with driven and bored piles in local geotechnical conditions. Piles have been designed in accordance with Eurocode 7. Resistance of piles was calculated by using an analytical calculation model for bored piles according to Slovak technical standard and CFA technology has been taken into account by coefficient equal to 1.1. Settlement of piles was calculated by using a calculation model which is being used in Czech Republic and Slovakia. Two well instrumented static load tests were carried out to verify the pile design. The results of static load tests showed that the design was conservative. The paper presents analysis of numerical modelling of CFA pile and static load tests. Load-settlement curves and load distribution curves over pile shafts are compared. Software Plaxis 2011 has been used for numerical modelling. Hardening soil model allows considering over consolidation of Tertiary Silts and water pressure in deep sandy lenses. The article also presents the parametric study where the influences of pile-soil interface reduction factor, over consolidation ratio and material models of soils are analysed. The results of numerical modelling showed that the most appropriate results have been obtained when the interface reduction factor equal 0.9 and real behaviour of groundwater were considered. The conclusion of the paper confirms that mechanical behaviour of the ground can be better understood and determined by using FEM than analytical methods.1. IntroductionPiles are among the most frequently used elements of deep foundations. Piles transfer loads down to a suitable bearing stratum when the soil immediately below a construction is unsuitable. Piles are also used to reduce settlement of structure. At present, the requirements of limit settlement of structures are more stringent. Examples of these structures are commercial and administrative centres that form a complex of different tall buildings. High-rise buildings cause greater contact stresses than connected low-rise buildings. Pile foundations in such cases should be placed under the high-rise buildings to achieve an appropriate settlement.Resistance of piles can be determined from static load test results, in-situ tests and empirical experiences or calculations. Static load tests give the most reliable results, but these tests are also the most expensive. This is the reason for constant development of computational methods. Especially numerical methods give more accurate results by using more sophisticated material models e. g. hardening soil or hypoplastic model."

Jan 1, 2014

By Fabian Kirsch

Cyclic behaviour of axially loaded piles has been an issue since studies revealed that the capability to transfer skin friction into the ground is highly depending on the level and the number of load cycles the pile is subjected. It has been shown that degradation of skin friction due to axial cyclic loading leads to accumulating displacements and a severe reduction in pile capacity. In Germany the DIN 1054 as well as the Recommendations of the Working Group 2.1 ?Piles? of the German Geotechnical Society (EA-Pfähle) require the consideration of cyclic loading for the assessment of both the displacements and the capacity. Up to now no broadly accepted design method exists, which enables the engineer to give a reliable judgement on the pile capacity under axial cyclic loading and the displacements respectively. Instead numerous design charts make it possible to distinguish between stable and instable loading levels in order to ensure a design on the safe side. A newly developed design approach based on engineering models is presented which delivers a calculation algorithm for the remaining axial pile capacity after a defined number of load cycles to allow for the analysis of stability of the foundation. Furthermore the computation of accumulating displacements is made possible. The results are verified with pile load tests undertaken at Dunkirk, France and showed that the axial capacity after cyclic loading calculated with the newly developed design approach predicts actual capacity with an accuracy of ±20%.

Jan 1, 2011

By Bengt H. Fellenius

The bearing capacity equation?"the triple N formula"? is now about 50 years old. It was developed from theory of plastic resistance of metal to a cone being pressed into the surface of the metal, superpositioned by resistance due to shear in an interparticulate medium (soil; note, we are not dealing with metallurgy), and tempered by work necessary to move the footing into the medium. The equation (and its coefficients) was "confirmed" by tests on small footings placed at or near the surface of the soil. The equation is a basic tenet of every geotechnical textbook, manual, and code. Over the years, innumerable variations of the N-coefficients and adjustments to the equation have been published. The main assumption behind the bearing capacity equation is that a shear plane develops between two essentially otherwise unaffected bodies: the main soil body and a body comprised of the footing with some soil. Moreover, the notion is that a model footing placed at or near the surface of a soil would behave proportionally or similarly to a full-scale footing, or to even a same size footing (pile toe) placed at some depth in the ground. This is not in agreement with factual observations. It is suggested that the behavior of a small or large diameter footing as well as a pile toe is governed by compression of the soil below the footing or pile toe and not by "bearing capacity".

Jan 1, 1999

By Scott D. Thomson

The client for this project specializes in the use of state-of-the-art technology to fabricate and assemble composites and metal-bonded structures for commercial and military aircraft programs. One of the key components for this operation at the client's plant is a highly precise computer-numerical-controlled router known as the Shoda Machine. This machine tool was installed at the plant in July 1998 for the manufacture and inspection of aircraft parts, and it is extremely sensitive to deflections. To monitor the occurrence of deflections, an internal laser system continuously checks the machine calibration. Deflections in excess of 5/1000-inch in the foundation on which the machine rests require costly periodic re-leveling and recalibration of this tool. Therefore, a significant problem arose when measured deflections during machine operation were as large as 20/1000-inch. In addition, the foundation was cracked in at least three places as a result of elastic foundation movement caused by dynamic loading as well as shrinkage and loss of base support. Deciding on a remediation procedure to alleviate or eliminate these problems involved the following important considerations: (1) achieving the client's need for reducing deflections to less than 5/1000-inch, (2) minimizing the repair cost as much as possible, and (3) reducing the time required for implementation of the foundation remediation solution. After evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of several alternatives, jet grouting was selected as the most suitable solution. The jet grouting program provided columnar elements of soilcrete to remediate the Shoda Machine foundation.

Jan 1, 2003

By Lin Daoyi

In this paper, we have adopted the high pressure jet-grouting curtains to seal the sea-water, and to consolidate the wall of the well for deep foundation diteh, make a pladge of building and construction of deep foundation was primarily on progress without water. This paper, we have been given a test for pumping water under mainly the circumtances of sealing condition and to report in advance the capacity of seawater seeping into the gam curtains in the process of building and construction of deep foundation.

Jan 1, 1991