Search Documents

By Roy A. Bell

A 200-foot diameter, 72-foot high petroleum storage tank was built in a hillside ravine where a portion of the site contained soft clay fill. Soil-cement piles, 40 inches in diameter and up to 38 feet long, were installed to support the tank shell and ringwall, and a portion of the tank floor by drilling into the stiff to hard underlying soils and weathered bedrock. The goal was to provide a strong enough foundation to resist the seismic tank shell loading and to minimize differential settlement of the tank shell to avoid out-of-round clearance problems between the shell and floating-roof. A cantilevered retaining wall up to 8 feet high was constructed around a portion of the tank perimeter by inserting steel H-beams into soil-cement piles. The cantilever soldier piles for the retaining wall were installed from a temporary earth embankment on the hillside directly over the top of the wall. The temporary embankment was then removed and the tank pad was cut to grade in front of the soldier piles. Some of the soil-cement piles for both the tank foundation and retaining wall could not be advanced to design depth because the drill/mixing tools could not penetrate to the required depth in the hard soils/bedrock. Smaller diameter borings (22 inches in diameter) were drilled through the centers of the short-of-design soil-cement piles to the design depth and then backfilled with concrete.

Jan 1, 1997

By Donald A. Bruce

The paper reviews aspects of the construction and performance of prestressed ground anchors installed in soils and weak rocks. Attention is focused on good practice for drilling, tendon fabrication and handling, grouting, stressing and testing. Regional variations - not always logically justified - are described. The performance of anchors in a variety of geological conditions is illustrated with reference to recent full scale test programs. 1. Introduction In the United States there has been steady growth in the use of prestressed anchors in materials other than competent or hard rock, in the years since their introduction in the late 1960's. This expansion has to a large extent been driven by specialty geotechnical contractors who both imported foreign developments and conducted their own basic researches, in locally prevailing conditions. With such data and experience, these engineers have had the confidence to promote "alternative solutions" for difficult earth support problems to receptive designers and owners. In turn, being engaged in the details of design and performance monitoring has given these parties the close exposure necessary for the real transfer and understanding of the technological concepts, and this knowledge has generated positive feedback for the contractors.

Jan 1, 1991

Case I- Timber Pile Test- 4 pages describe the pile driving record, the pile load test and the boring log. Case II- 24 inch square prestressed concrete pile-5 pages give details about the pile driving, the boring log, the pile driving record, and the pile load test. Case III- 12 inch square prestressed concrete pile- 5 pages describe the compilation of SPT blow counts for the whole project, the pile driving record, the pile load test and the detailed boring logs. The 70 foot long pile was driven by a Vulcan 08 pile hammer. Case IV- 12 BP 53 Steel H pile- 3 pages give the pile load test, the pile driving record and the nearest boring log. The 64 foot long pile has its tip at elevation 908 ft. and the ground is at elevation 972 ft. The contractor augered to elevation 959 ft. before driving the pile with a Conmaco 08 single acting pile hammer. The hammer had an 8000 pound ram, a rated energy of 26,000 ft-1b., and a 7 1/2 inch thick asbestos cushion. Dynamic measurements were made during driving of the test pile and measured a hammer energy equal to 12,500 foot-pounds.

Jan 1, 1988

By Mario Terceros H., Bengt H. Fellenius

"ABSTRACTFour strain-gage instrumented bored piles were constructed in a sedimentary, dense to very dense, fine to medium sand in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Two of the test piles were the normally used bored pile constructed with bentonite slurry and two piles were Bauer Full Displacement Pile (FDP). One of each pair was equipped with the Expander Body, an inflatable steel cylinder that on pressure-grouting provides an enlarged pile toe. Head-down static loading test were performed on three of the piles and a bidirectional test was performed on the fourth pile, a standard pile with Expander Body and a bidirectional cell placed immediately above the EB. The latter pile was tested in 3 phases. First by activating the cell, second, by a head-down test, and, third, by a repeat bidirectional cell test. The static loading tests proved the shaft resistance of the FDP pile to be about twice that of the standard bored pile and that the Expander Body more than doubled the toe stiffness. The strain-gage records showed that the standard bored piles had multiple bulges and neckings, which affected the evaluation of the axial stiffness and load distribution of the piles. The testing programme was used for a prediction event with 60 persons, ahead of the tests, submitting predictions of the load-movement curves for the test piles and also a capacity appraised from the curves.1. INTRODUCTIONOn April 23 - 26, 2013, the First International Conference and Seminar on Deep Foundations was held in Santa Cruz, Bolivia under the auspices of INCOTEC SRL, the UAGRM University, and the Bolivian Association of Civil Engineers and Chamber of Construction. To coincide with the conference, a research study on construction and static and dynamic testing of four instrumented bored piles was undertaken. To ""add spice"" to the conference, a prediction event was organized on the test programme. This paper presents the soil conditions at the site, the type and construction of the test piles, the outcome of the prediction event, and the results of the static tests.2. SOIL CONDITIONSGeotechnical studies comprising SPT and CPT tests with routine laboratory analysis were performed on recovered soil samples. Three SPT boreholes were put down at three of the locations of Pile TP1, TP2, and TP3, at 5.0 m distance from each other. The SPT procedure consisted of manual hoisting of the weight by three crew members pulling on ropes over a pulley supported by a tripod and letting the weight fall by gravity. The groundwater table lies at 3.5 m depth.Figure 1 shows diagrams of the SPT N-indices and the distribution of water content in the three boreholes. The SPT-indices show the soil density to be compact. The average water content is about 15 %, plus-minus a few percent."

Jan 1, 2014

By Alec C. Bloem

A 55' deep excavation encompassing almost a city block in London, Ontario required a lateral earth retention system to provide both temporary excavation support and a permanent groundwater cut-off wall for a proposed office complex. The system selected was an interlocking Drilled Shaft wall with 3-4 levels of tiebacks. The specifications required the system to be designed for movements or settlements around the excavation of ¼" max. Design to be by the Contractor with design parameters and a comprehensive soils report provided. An extensive system of instrumentation in the form of inclinometers and survey targets were used to monitor vertical and horizontal movements of the shoring system and adjacent properties. Introduction The project, One London Place, is a two phase office tower development in downtown London, Ontario. Phase one consists of a 24 storey office tower on the northwest part of the site, with five levels of below ground parking over the entire site "Figure 1". A second office tower will be constructed at a future date.

Jan 1, 1991

By Roy H. Borde

The design of foundations to support overhead signs is primarily based on providing adequate resistance against horizontal wind loads. The typically used subgrade reaction model for the load-deflection analysis of laterally loaded piles and shafts has been found to underpredict the capacity of shafts with length to diameter ratios less than five. The general applicability of an improved model incorporating the influence of shear and moment resistance at the shaft base is demonstrated. The detrimental effect of ground surface slope angle on the ultimate capacity is discussed, and a design chart for estimating the magnitude of the reduction in capacity is presented. A comparison between the predicted and measured responses of nine full-scale load tests performed within this study and sixteen external tests is presented. The models described are implemented in the computer program "LTBASE".

Jan 1, 1988

By Michael J. Brown

Load testing is important for controlling the quality of piled foundations. The Statnamic test is an alternative to existing testing methods with a load duration that lies between that for static and dynamic tests. Current methods of analysis offer excellent correlation between static and Statnamic tests for coarse-grained soils but often over-predict the capacity for fine-grained soils. Thus a calibration chamber is being used to produce instrumented beds of clay with reproducible properties. A model pile placed in the beds can be loaded at varying rates using a computer controlled servo-hydraulic system. Results from the modelling will be used to improve methods of analysis and govern the design of a full-scale study. Initial results suggest the rate effect can be represented by a power law relating pile velocity and resistance. Statnamic loading of the model pile produced large negative pore pressures in the clay bed.

Jan 1, 2002

By Felix Cheng

Extensions to the Convention Centre in Adelaide, South Australia consisted in part of construction over the existing railway system comprising nine rail lines and passenger platforms. Vibro-pile (Aust) won the design and construct tender with a solution comprising over 500 cast insitu concrete piles. The pile types were 500 to 900mm diameter non-displacement CFA piles and 400mm diameter displacement V-piles. The V-pile is a cast insitu screw pile developed by Vibropile (Aust) Pty Ltd. Both pile types were installed with minimal noise and vibration required for the project, while the displacement V-pile had the advantage over the CFA pile by developing the same pile capacity but with a smaller diameter and with minimal spoil. The latter was important in alleviating spoil removal problems near the railway tracks and disposal of potentially contaminated spoil. The results of dynamic compression load testing and static lateral load testing indicated that the performance of a 400 mm V-pile was equivalent to a 500 mm CFA for this site. The lateral load testing indicated that the surficial soils have a major influence on the load-deflection response, but despite the site containing up to 4 m of filled ground, the piles were found to carry the required lateral loads satisfactorily.

Jan 1, 2002

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 J. Osterberg

A new device has been developed for load testing driven piles and drilled shafts which consists of an hydraulic jack or bellows which has a telltale rod fastended to the bottom. The rod extends upward to the surface through a pressure pipe. When pressure is applied, the jack or bellows expands, applying an equal upward and downward load at the bottom. The downward movement at the bottom is indicated by the rod and the upward movement is indicated by the movement at the top. Thus, upward and downward load-deflection curves can be drawn. As load increases, failure will occur either in end bearing or friction. Results of field installations are described. Total loads of up to 1,100 tons metric have been used. The method obviates the need for the reaction load required for the conventional pile loading test and separates friction and end bearing. It is especially advantageous for use over water, in crowded spaces and for inclined piles.

Jan 1, 1989

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 Helmut Hass, Marco Ziller

"Abstract: 1 Sophia Spoortunnel Marco Ziller, Trevi S.p.A.:For the construction of 14 cross passages connecting the twin tunnels of the Sophiaspoortunnel the Artificial Ground Freezing technique was applied as temporary soil improvement. AGF by Brine and Liquid Nitrogen was implemented. Automatic data acquisition and recording systems were installed to monitor the variation of the temperatures in the soil during the freezing intervention in order to control the behaviour and the efficacy of the treatment.IntroductionThe Sophia rail tunnel is a bored tunnel with a length of 4.24 km, comprising two separate parallel tubes with an outside diameter of 9.45 m. The twin tunnels were excavated by a TBM equipped with hydroshield. Seven service shafts, approximately 30 m deep, were constructed in between the tunnels. From each shaft two cross passages were constructed connecting the shaft with both tubes, for a total of 14 cross passages.The Artificial Ground Freezing technique utilizing both the Brine and Liquid Nitrogen methods was used for temporary waterproofing and soil support to allow the excavation of the cross passages. The natural soil to be frozen was consisting in loose sand and clay under a hydrostatic pressure up to 250 kPa.For the measurement of the ground temperature. Automatic data acquisition and recording systems were installed to monitor the variation of the temperatures in the soil and at the contact with the tunnel lining. Furthermore, a comprehensive computerized system of sensors and cryogenic valves was designed and implemented in order to manage the whole Nitrogen process.Soil Main CharacteristicsThe soil stratigraphy is generally consisting in Clay (Holocene) from ground level to -15 m depth, followed by Pleistocenic Sand, from -15 to -25 m, and Clay below -25 m."

Jan 1, 2014

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 Aly M. Mohammad

The Delaware River Tramway will link civic and retail developments in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Camden, New Jersey. Twin 300-foot towers will anchor the cables at either side of the river. Four high capacity drilled shafts designed by the Geotechnical Department of DMJM+HARRIS support each of the towers. At the Philadelphia tower, each 6-foot diameter shaft extends 130 feet deep and terminates with a 30-foot rock socket. The shafts are situated within the footprint of an existing relieving platform, which complicates the typical construction sequence. Also, the subsurface conditions at the site provide a unique challenge in both the design and construction of the drilled shafts. During the construction of the four-drilled shafts for the Philadelphia tower, a 6000-ton Osterberg load test was performed on the first shaft to verify design assumption and confirm the shaft capacity. The results of the test were utilized to establish load transfer characteristics and develop foundation design parameters suitable for the site conditions. By doing so the Design Engineer was able to reduce the length of the rock sockets on the remaining production shafts by approximately 5 feet per shaft. As a result, the test provided a significant cost saving to the Owner by eliminating 15 feet of rock drilling from the construction costs. This paper presents a description of the unique design and construction methods adopted for the foundations, also on the Osterberg load test including equipment used, number and locations of strain gages, and interpretation of results. The results and findings presented in this paper could benefit both the design and construction industries because it provides a comparison between geotechnical design assumption and actual field measurements; which has always been a challenge particularly for rock formation.

Jan 1, 2002

By Z. Y. Ding

This paper emphasize two points in piled wharf design which are important than structure calculation. First, during design of piled wharf on soft stratum, the bank slope stability is the first important item. Second, the live load, the backfill and the original ground's settlement will influence the wharf structure causes cracks. Two practical examples were illustrated.

Jan 1, 1991

By Bruno Gemmi

A new warehouse built with prefabricated components over an area underlined by soft marine soil deposits started showing differential settlements well before its completion. Its 103 spread footings carrying up to 4,000kN (450t) axial loads had been cast on jet-grouted columns extending and penetrating a layer of sand at a depth of 10m (33ft). Investigations performed to assess the wholeness and consistency of the jet-grouted columns revealed a state of loose jet-grouted masses and uncontrolled, off target migrations of the jet-grouting. Most of the jet-grouting itself was settling. The following remedial solutions were suggested: 1. Construction of new and better controlled jet-grouted columns. 2. Cement-based soil grouting. 3. Expanding resin injections. 4. Minipiles drilled-through the existing footings and reaching into a denser layer of sand existing at 23m below grade. Remedial solution 1. was immediately discarded due to cost and the possibility of a repeating failure in this non-granular and highly compressible soil. Tests of remedial solutions 2. and 3. were carried out. The outcome of the grouting was monitored by Electro Resistivity Tomography (ERT) (Bares et al., 2003), an innovative 3D electro tomography procedure showing where grout had been actually placed and its migrations off target. A successful 4,000kN (450t) load tests confirmed the validity of the solution. Finally, upon the completion of a successful load test, solution 4. was chosen. It supplied the highest degree of reliability thanks to the ease of controlling the final and actual location of the minipiles and to the higher safety factor provided. All remedial work to install the minipiles was eventually performed inside the building. Additional load tests and settlement measurements confirmed the adequacy and success of the chosen solution.

Jan 1, 2011

By R. T. Stain

Integrity testing of deep foundations is now common practice in Europe, indeed in the City of London such testing is a contractural requirement on every site. This paper is in two parts: Part 1 describes the most commonly used test methods and their applications. Part 2 presents a case history where both of the above techniques were used.

Jan 1, 1987

By Mario A. Terceros H., K. Rainer Massarsch

"ABSTRACTThe Expander Body (EB) technology has been used successfully to increase the pile toe capacity of bored piles in loose to medium dense soil. An important advantage of the EB system is the ability to monitor the EB expansion process, which provides important information regarding soil strength and soil stiffness. This information, obtained for each installed pile, can be used to determine the actual shape and pile toe area. The expansion pressure can be used to design the pile base capacity.The Expander Body system has been recently improved by incorporating the possibility of post-grouting of the soil below the expanded pile toe. This improvement measure provides additional strength and stiffness to the pile toe and reduces pile settlement.The shaft bearing capacity of bored piles can be increased by using a soil displacement auger, which avoids soil decompression and increases lateral soil stress. This paper describes the principle of the EB system. During the past 20 years, a large number of EB piles have been installed in Bolivia and elsewhere, providing a sound database. Results from field loading tests are presented. A comprehensive study of test piles with and without EB base has been carried out which demonstrates the improvement effects that can be achieved by the EB pile system and the combination with the displacement auger pile method. A design concept for the EB pile system with the full displacement auger pile is presented. A high degree of quality control can be achieved by monitoring the entire pile installation process, including the displacement pile and the Expander Body.1. IntroductionIn many regions of South America, soil deposits consist often of predominantly loose to medium dense sands and silts, often with high groundwater table. In the Santa Cruz area in central Bolivia, such soils are frequently quaternary sediments, deposited by the river Piray. The city of Santa Cruz is located at the right bank of the river.The most common deep foundation method during the last 30 years has been cast in situ piles, augered and concreted under support of bentonite slurry. The design of such piles has been based on SPT results. However, SPT is often performed without quality control and the reliability of geotechnical data is therefore often poor. Traditional methods of pile installation with simple well drilling equipment of insufficient capacity are frequently used. Such methods lack basic requirements of quality control. Such piles have usually low toe resistance and work mainly by shaft resistance . Although the construction process and materials are cheap, the final product has variable and limited capacity. However, the most serious deficiency is that actually achieved pile capacity and pile settlement can be erratic and difficult to predict, leading to uncertainties with regard to actual foundation performance."

Jan 1, 2014

By José L. M. Clemente, John R. Davie

"Abstract An extensive pre-production static and dynamic pile load testing program was conducted for a coal-fired power plant. The static load testing program included axial compression, uplift (tension), and lateral load tests. Three types of piles were tested: Monotube, closed-end pipe, and step-tapered. The load tests were used to (a) determine pile driveability characteristics for each pile, (b) verify pile load response behavior, and (c) provide data to support the selection of a cost-effective piled-foundation system for the plant. A recent publication (Clemente and Lewis, 2013) describes the compression load testing program, the interpretation of instrumentation measurement results, and pile selection criteria. This manuscript describes site subsurface and groundwater conditions and installation of probe piles for testing, focuses on the uplift and lateral load testing program, and provides a comparative interpretation of the load test results.INTRODUCTIONThe pre-production probe pile load testing program described here was conducted for a 202-megawatt, coal-fired power and steam generating (cogeneration) facility. A schematic layout of the main plant (power block area) is shown in Figure 1, which also includes the locations of clusters of preproduction probe piles and boreholes drilled near these clusters.The load testing program included 24 pre-production probe piles driven throughout the power block area. The probe piles were driven at locations T-1 through T-8, shown in Figure 1. Three types of piles were driven at each location: Monotube pile; closed end, straight shaft pipe pile; and step-tapered pile. At each location, the three piles were driven in a row with the pipe pile at the center, and the center-tocenter spacing between piles was equal to about 1.5 m (> 3.5 pile diameters for the largest pile). No pile cap was used to connect the three piles, and the three piles driven at locations T-1 through T-8 will be referred to as pile clusters. A complete suite of static load testing (compression, tension, and lateral) was performed on each individual pile at Cluster T-2 and on the step-tapered piles only at Cluster T-8, shown in Figure 1.Clemente and Lewis (2013) provide details of the compression load testing program, the interpretation of instrumentation measurement results, and pile selection criteria. This manuscript focuses on the uplift (tension) and lateral load testing program. A brief summary of the site geology and existing subsurface and groundwater conditions in the vicinity of the test pile clusters is presented, with emphasis on T-2 and T-8. Probe pile driving results at T-2 and T-8 are also presented. Descriptions of the static uplift and lateral load test program at T-2 and T-8 are given along with a comparative evaluation of the load test results."

Jan 1, 2014

By Basem Sh. Hazzan

In the last four decades significant effort has been devoted to designing piles in expansive clay soils. Nevertheless, only a scant effort has been devoted to the elimination of heave forces acting on the upper part of lightly loaded piles. For this purpose, an investigation site was established in Karmiel in Northern Israel. On this site sixteen unloaded cast-in-situ piles, both uncoated and coated, were installed in a moderately expansive clay soil in the end of summer 1996. The piles were executed to different depths ranging between 2m and 7m and were observed over a period of 27 months. Another nine unloaded cast-in-situ bored piles were installed at the end of summer 1998 for carrying out pullout tests. These piles were embedded two meters from the ground surface. Results obtained from observations and from full-scale static pull out tests showed that separating the piles from the surrounding clay in the active zone by a twin walled sleeve eliminated the heave forces significantly. The scope of the work is, determining of the elimination degree of the heave forces due to the provision of the above sleeve.

Jan 1, 1999