Search Documents

By José Carlos A. Cintra

This paper addresses a new experimental procedure to measure the shaft friction and the base resistance of bored piles during static load tests. It is proposed that a set of polystyrene foam discs, placed between the shaft and the base of the pile, be used instead of the usual instrumentation. Throughout the initial stages of the loading test, the foam discs will allow only the mobilization of the shaft friction. The load x settlement curve clearly shows that the shaft friction vanishes at low settlement values. As the load test proceeds, the base resistance is also mobilized. This procedure was used in two belled piles bored at the Experimental Foundation Field of the University of São Paulo, at São Carlos, Brazil. Both piles were 8 m long and had a shaft diameter of 0.6 m. The enlarged base had a diameter of 1.5 m and a height of 0.9 m. Twenty foam discs with a thickness of 20 mm each were placed between the enlarged base and the shaft of the pile. The load tests indicated ultimate shaft frictions of 28 and 30 kPa for measured settlements of 8.98 and 7.39 mm. Base resistance values at failure were 617 and 499 kPa, for a chosen settlement of 10% of the pile base diameter. The proposed approach seems to be straightforward, efficient and inexpensive.

Jan 1, 2002

By Fred Tarquinio, Giovanni Bonita, Lars Wagner

"A new embassy for the Peoples Republic of China is under construction in Washington, DC. The 475,000 square feet (44,125 m2) structure has five levels below ground and four above, making it the largest embassy in Washington DC. A vertical soil nail wall was used as the primary support of excavation system for the project. The soil nail wall was irregularly shaped, benched in areas, and up to 98 feet (29.9 m) in height. The soil nail and shotcrete system consisted of approximately 1,600 soil nails and 50,000 square feet (4,645 m2) of exposed shotcrete wall surface. Design and construction challenges included soft soil conditions, inside wall corners, underground utilities, seismic impacts from blasting, and logistical and political factors. Overall, wall movements were lower than expected, with maximum horizontal movement less than 0.25% of the total height of the excavation. INTRODUCTIONThe proposed Embassy of the Peoples Republic of China in Washington, DC, will consist of about 475,000 ft2 (44,125 m2) of building space and contain up to four fl oor levels above ground and fi ve levels of basement (Figure 1). When completed, the building will be the largest embassy in Washington, DC. The architect for the project, Pei Partnership Architects, along with the world-renowned architect I.M. Pei, made effi cient use of the site by inserting the building into the existing slope. Consequently, excavations reach heights up to 98 feet (29.9 m) on the southern side of the property and 42 feet (12.8 m) on the northern side.The soil nail and shotcrete system consisted of approximately 1,600 soil nails and 50,000 square feet (4,645 m2) of exposed shotcrete wall surface. The location of the building relative to the property line called for tight excavation requirements, including precise wall positions and shotcrete tolerances. Design and construction challenges included soft soil conditions, inside wall corners, arched walls, underground utilities, seismic impacts from blasting, and logistical and political factors."

Jan 1, 2007

By Unnikrishnan Nair, Sandeep S. Nikam, Sanjay D. Patil, Prabir C. Basu

"Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) entrusted to implement Monorail Systems in various parts of Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) with the objective to supplement the present transport system in MMR. The stretch of Monorail is starting from Sant Gadge Maharaj Chowk (SGMC) and extending up to Chembur Railway Station, divided into 2 phases. Construction of Phase 1 (Chembur to Wadala Depot) is complete and Phase 2 (Wadala Depot to SGMC) is under construction.Monorail runs on prestressed girder (guide beam) of span ranging from 20m to 28m supported on pier founded upon group of end bearing piles embedded in rock, pile group ranging from 2-4 piles of diameter 1000mm each.For the purpose of site characterization, geo-technical investigations were carried out along the alignment of Monorail system as mentioned above. These investigations included field and laboratory tests. The subsurface strata mainly consist of silty sand, gravel, underlain by marine clay extending up to stronger basalt rock with volcanic breccia. Overburden consisting of mainly marine clay ranging from 5.5m to 11m at all locations within the influence zone of settlement.The existing rigid pavement along of Sion-Koliwada and Anik-Wadala were constructed about 5 years prior to the construction of Monorail piers. Before laying the rigid pavement, to improve the geotechnical strength of subsoil (mainly marine clay), ground improvement using stone columns was undertaken by MMRDA. In light of limited right of way, the Monorail piers have been constructed in the median portion of the road. The line became operational on February 2014, in few months it was noticed that, in the vicinity of the Monorail piers, along Sion-Koliwada link and Anik-Wadala link, the Road Pavement Quality Concrete (PQC) panels adjacent to the Monorail piers started showing distress in form of nonuniform settlement of the concrete panels.Effect of pile foundation on pavements/PQC slab distress and possible causes of distress were investigated. Initially the distress was thought to be upheaval of monorail pier cap, but further investigations revealed the same to be soil settlement occurring over time. This paper describes the investigation carried out for identifying the cause of this settlement."

Jan 1, 2015

By K. S. Ho

With the aid of the advanced electronic devices and micro-processors, the quality control of deep foundations can be carried out by Non-Destructive Tests (NDT). Three methods are presented here: the Sonic Logging, Vibration and Stress Wave Analysis Methods. The principles, equipments used, testing procedures and applications are fully described. The correlation of these methods with the conventional tests (mechanical coring and loading test) are studied to give a better understanding of the methods. Several case histories with the test results obtained from a number of sites in Hong Kong and overseas are discussed to show how the pile quality can be examined and especially, how to confirm the effectiveness of remedial works on a defective pile. Recommendation on the percentage of piles to be tested are given at the end of the paper by using statistical method.

Jan 1, 2010

By Roy Jennings

The Discovery Expedition of St. Charles, MO chose to build its two-story museum in the flood plain of the Missouri River, near the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Should the lower level be inundated at flood stage, plans call for the replica riverboats to be moved by trailer to higher ground. The museum's design required an open span structure with heavily loaded footing or piles. Spread footings could not be used due to the compressible soil profile. The location, in a historical district, precluded dynamically driven piles. Sixty-three uncased Helical Pulldown Micropiles were driven to the bearing stratum to support the museum with minimum disturbance. There were no spoils to dispose of during construction and the piles were completed in eight working days with minimum impact to the environment and neighborhood. The maximum working load required was 84,000 pounds (374kN). Test results are given in the form of installing torque.

Jan 1, 2003

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 J. P. Burland

The paper describes a number of recent case histories in the United Kingdom where field instrumentation and measurements have played a major role in the design and construction of excavations, piles and foundations. It is shown that the design and construction procedures for deep excavations in London Clay are based almost entirely on the results of field measurements. Examples are given of successful application of such measurements. The present understanding of the behaviour of bored piles in stiff clays and their design is based on a number of instrumented pile loading tests. The results of these tests have led to a radically new concept of pile design in which the piles operate at their full shaft capacity under working loads thereby resulting in considerable savings in design and construction. Some examples of the successful application of this concept are given. Finally it is shown that the present knowledge of the stiffness properties of chalk is based entirely on field observations. An example is given of how direct field measurements were used to solve a foundation problem at the base of a coffer-dam in chalk.

Jan 1, 2010

By William D. Spielvogel

The Massachusetts Highway Department awarded the Porter Street Outfall Project to the J.M. Cashman Company in November 1991. Timely completion of the Project in one and one half years is critical to the start of the subsequent Third Harbor Tunnel North Approach project. Existing subsurface conditions and the Project's location at Boston's Logan International Airport significantly increases the difficulty of construction. The major contractual work involves relocating a reinforced concrete double box culvert supported on a continuous wood pile foundation. This existing culvert crosses and interferes with the future Third Harbor Tunnel North Approach alignment. Two parallel culverts constructed approximately 20 feet from either side of the future Third Harbor Tunnel alignment replace the existing double box culvert structure. Under the original contract design, approximately 3,100 feet of 14 ft. by 15 ft. reinforced concrete culvert is cast in place adjacent to the west side of the Third Harbor Tunnel and is located in the center of the Airport's main service roadway, Harborside Drive. This culvert is the Porter Street Combined Sewer, PSCS, which handles a combined flow of sewerage from the East Boston community and storm water runoff from Logan Airport. In addition, approximately 2,230 feet of 17 ft. by 15 ft. reinforced concrete culvert is cast in place adjacent to the east side of the Third Harbor Tunnel and is within 20 feet of an active aircraft taxiway and heliport. This culvert is the Bird Island Flats Storm Drain, BIFSD, which handles storm water runoff from the Logan Airport airfield. The existing outfall, on the west side of the Third Harbor Tunnel alignment is to remain in service and is to be connected to the new PSCS and BIFSD culverts. Therefore, a portion of the BIFSD culvert is designed as a bridge to span 128 ft. across the Third Harbor Tunnel excavation during construction.

Jan 1, 1994

By C. Van der Veen

The use of the quasi static (Dutch) Cone Penetration Test (CPT) is described as a tool to predetermine the ultimate bearing capacity of the pile point. An analysis is given why a purely theoritical approach does not meet with success. A practical method is explained of extrapolating the cone resistance to predict the pile point resistance. The method has been calibrated against the result of 32 selected high standard loading tests on pile points in the Netherlands.

Jan 1, 1989

By Martin J. Pedley

The use of soil nailing has grown steadily in the UK over the last 15 years and it has recently become more popular in the Republic of Ireland. This paper presents three soil nailing temporary works case histories where the technique has been used to support steep excavations in difficult ground conditions. It demonstrates the effectiveness of soil nailing when applied in appropriate conditions. Details of design methods and construction techniques are described and those aspects of soil nailing that will benefit from further study and development are identified.

Jan 1, 2000

By D. X. Xu

A pump station was constructed at the food of a steep mountain, very close to a riverside. To protect the pump station from being washed out, and to guarantee the stability of the steep hillside behind the pump station and the safety of the foundation pit when the station was built, cast-in-place R.C. diaphragm walls (Fig. 1) were clesigned in front of and on both sides of the pump station. This wall was 130m long, 0.8m wide and 29m deep. The diaphragm walling on both sides of the pump station served to prevent landslides and to fix anchor piles. The 55m long diaphragm walling in front of the pump station served as a temporary shuttering which kept earth and prevented water from permeating when the pump station was under construction. After the pump station project was finished, static blasting method was used to blow up the wall body which was 10m beneath the ground so that the water from the river could come into the pump station. The remaining wall body below this level was kept to prevent soil from being washed out. [ ]

Jan 1, 2010

By Raffaella Granata, Wesley Schmutzler, Matteo Bertoni

"The Lower Wood River Levee system, at the confluence of the Wood River Creek and the Mississippi River, in East Alton, Illinois, has been plagued with underground seepage and, in 2010, remediation was deemed necessary by the Southwestern Illinois Flood Prevention District Council and the United States Army Corp of Engineers (USACE). The experts enlisted by the council produced a design that provided for constructing a cutoff wall approximately 2,000 feet long and up to 140 feet deep, through alluvial and outwash soils, and embedded in bedrock. This paper will describe the challenges faced by the Quality Control (QC) and Quality Assurance (QA) teams due to the complex nature of the project in conjunction with an extremely thorough QC/QA program.INTRODUCTIONThe “American Bottom” is an area of 453 km2 (175 square miles) in Southwestern Illinois, extending from Alton south to the Kaskaskia River, which is home to 156,000 people. In the 1940s and 1950s the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) designed and built a 120 kilometer (74 mile) long levee system to protect the area from a 500-year flood event on the Mississippi River, which flows through it. The levee system has been plagued by under-seepage for several years. The phenomenon has worsened to varying degrees, depending on location, to the point that remediation was needed.The Southwestern Illinois Flood Prevention District Council (SIFPDC), to obtain Federal Emergency Management accreditation, in June 2010 commissioned a team lead by Amec Foster Wheeler for the design and management of the required levee improvements. The team presented in 2011 the project’s first set of drawings showing proposed design features throughout the levee system. The project was subdivided in four areas, based on the controlling levee districts, one of which, the Wood River Drainage and Levee District, was split into three subdivisions: Upper Wood River, East-West Forks of Wood River, and Lower Wood River.The project included the installation of a cutoff wall at the confluence of the Wood River and the Mississippi River in East Alton, IL (Fig. 1). The Engineer of Record (Amec Foster Wheeler) considered the cutoff wall as the only viable solution to stop the severe under-seepage that was undermining the integrity of the Lower Wood River Levee. The Lower Cutoff Wall (LCW) project is the subject of this paper."

Jan 1, 2017

By Christian B. Woods, Joe C. Drumheller

"Kenneth A. Huber, P.E., Langan Engineering & Environmental Services, New York, New York, USAThe dream to bring New Jersey Devils hockey to the largest city in New Jersey became a reality in the summer of 2005, when construction began for the Prudential Center in downtown Newark. The Prudential Center site encompasses an entire city block that had a varied history of uses ranging from a cemetery in the late 18th century, to a rail yard and train station for the now-defunct Central Jersey Rail Road in the 19th and early 20th centuries, to commercial development in the latter half of the 20th century. Each of these prior uses presented challenges to the design and construction of the Prudential Center that required innovative engineering solutions, including: archaeological investigation and exhumation of the former cemetery occupants, protection of historic buildings surrounding the site, and extensive demolition to remove old train bridge foundations.The design team was required to develop potential foundation systems for the arena. Several foundation concepts were evaluated for cost and constructability, including: driven piles, drilled shafts, and shallow foundations on improved subgrade. Following a detailed cost analysis and value engineering exercise, the decision was made to support the arena on spread footings following the completion of a multi-phased ground improvement program consisting of a combination of dynamic compaction and removal and replacement. To evaluate achievable allowable bearing pressure as part of the design, a dynamic compaction test section was performed within the building footprint prior to the start of production work; this resulted in an increase of the allowable design bearing pressure from 2 tons per square foot (tsf) to 3 tsf. This reduced the expected foundation costs by 30% and gained sufficient time in the schedule to allow for the completion of the arena in time for the New Jersey Devils 2007- 2008 hockey season.BACKGROUNDThe dream to bring New Jersey Devils hockey to the largest city in New Jersey became a reality in the summer of 2005, when construction began for the Prudential Center in downtown Newark. After several years of negotiating between the City of Newark, local landowners, area developers, and the Devils themselves, a deal was finally struck to erect Newark Arena, now known as the Prudential Center, right next to City Hall. This is not to say, however, that once the site location was finalized, that no further challenges were encountered in the construction of Newark’s new crown jewel."

Jan 1, 2015

By Dan A. Brown

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

Jan 1, 2010

By Peter Middendorp, Gerald E. H. Verbeek

"This paper will describe a brief history of the method of characteristics as an accurate solution of the wave equation, and the author's experiences with the method of characteristics over a period of 30 years.As a result of the offshore pile driving activities associated with the development of the North Sea oil fields in the 1970's, two Dutch companies initiated extensive research efforts. Heerema started to research the dynamic behavior of soil during driving and HBG (Hollandsche Seton Groep) extended the method of characteristics with a straightforward theoretical solution for the shaft friction along a pile.The research institute TNO started the development of the wave equation program TNOWAVE in the late 1970's based on HBG's friction model extension for the method of characteristics. Today the program has a worldwide application in the field of pile testing. This paper will describe its development and application over time and its relation to today's applications for driveability studies for impact hammers (PDPWAVE) and vibratory hammers (VDPWAVE), signal matching for Dynamic Load Testing (DL TWAVE), Pile Integrity Testing signal matching (SITWAVE), and Statnamic simulation (STNWAVE).The paper will highlight that these developments have been the result of multi-disciplinary and multi-national efforts and encourage geotechnical engineers to seek further developments of the wave equation program in a similar manner. Finally, the paper will indicate some areas where such further developments are required."

Jan 1, 2005

By Masaru Sakakibara, Ngo Tuan Anh, Mitsuo Nozu

"In the southern region of Vietnam and the southern United States, numbers of Deep Mixing (DM) columns have been installed to increase the stability of slopes and mitigate ground settlement. However, in some cases, there were some quality problems for in-situ cement mixing such as inclusion of unmixed lumps. According to the investigations by the X-ray diffraction analyses, electrical conductivity (EC) test, and careful observations of in-situ mixing quality, it has been observed that the existence of expansive soil and its high EC value cause the insufficient in-situ mixing. The countermeasures to address these problems have been taken.INTRODUCTIONIn South Vietnam, under the guidance of numbers of references and standards (Miki, 1998, JGS, 2000, Kitazume et.al., 2001, BS 2005), Deep Mixing (DM) has been used in recent years for soft clay improvement to increase the stability of slopes and to reduce consolidation settlement (Nozu 2005, Tung et.al., 2009, S. T. G. Peng et.al, 2009). However, at the initial phase of the DM operation, the authors have encountered some unusual phenomena such as (1) lower strength and inclusion of unmixed lumps (Figure 1), (2) less amount of up-heaved soil, and (3) sticking of large lumps of clay to the mixing blades. In regard to the above (3), Photo 1 shows one of the countermeasures against the sticking. By means of the placement of additional plates, the stuck clay has been reduced significantly.Subsequently, we have noticed that the quality of DM columns has not been so good, which meant that there have been some unmixed lumps in the column despite high cement dosage such as more than 300kg/m3. The authors also have encountered the similar incidents in Vietnam and United States during the deep soil mixing work. For example, Photo 2 is the core samples taken from the DM test column in northern Vietnam adopting cement injection during penetration (CIDP) procedure. To solve this problem, various tests and investigations have been performed so far (Nozu 2010, 2012)."

Jan 1, 2015

By Ryan T. Smith, Anthony Sahj, Alexander T. Darnell

Every second can count when trying to board a departing flight or catch a ride-share to your final destination. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is in the midst of a project that aims to cut about 13 seconds between automated people mover trains (Plane Train) that move passengers between the terminals and concourses. The project involves extending the Plane Train tunnel west from its existing terminus under the domestic terminal. Working from inside non-public areas of the terminal, Keller North America, Inc. (Keller) incorporated systems of micropile-supported steel beams and grillage to both underpin existing columns prior to tunneling and support open-cut excavation at the tie-in of the new to the existing tunnel. Dewatering aided in mining a challenging section at the start of the drive of the mixedface, sequentially excavated tunnel and an automated instrumentation system monitored the performance of the construction and its impact to the terminal. Cut and cover egress and ventilation tunnels required braced support of excavation.

Oct 1, 2022

By Bengt H. Fetlenius

The "Pile Prediction Event" at the ASCE GeoInstitute's Deep Foundation Conference in February 2002 involved prediction of drivability and capacity of three 14m long, 324mm diameter, closed-toe pipe piles driven into loose to compact fine sand to slightly silty sand. Predictors were provided the results of two soil borings and three cone penetrometer tests, as well as type and model of hammer to be used for the pile driving. A total of 33 persons submitted predictions. As to penetration resistance distribution, many predictions were far below actually observed values. As to capacity in compression, the predicted values ranged from 270KN through 2,340KN with a mean of 1,070KN. As to capacity in tension, the predicted values ranged from 100KN through 1,650KN. The maximum load applied to the compression pile in the static loading test was 1,25OKN, at which no more reaction load was available. The reaction system for the tension test failed early in the test. CAPWAP analysis on End-of-Driving blows showed capacities at the end of the driving for the push and pull piles of 670KN, and 710KN, respectively. No restrike tests were made. Additional CPT soundings indicate that the pile driving had densified the soil. Static analysis and calculations from the CPT indicated that capacities ranged from 1,000KN through 2,000KN. The paper presents the data and discusses the various methods of determining pile capacity and addresses influence of set-up Lessons useful for future similar events are indicated.

Jan 1, 2004

By Nicolas Moscoso, Gerald Verbeek, Marcel Bielefeld, Rob van Dorp

Upon recently, most offshore foundations were based on a number of driven piles that were installed with an impact hammer. With the increase in offshore windfarms two major developments have occurred: the shift from jackets to monopiles, leading to increase of the diameter of the foundation piles, and a shift from impact hammers to vibro hammers. As the use of vibratory hammers is becoming more and more common practice, the need for accurate vibro-driving simulation software has increased, which requires that the soil modelling is enhanced to address soil fatigue during pile driving and to predict reliably the soil behavior and resistance during pile driving. In addition pile driving monitoring, which is routine for piles driven with an impact hammer, needs to become common practice. This paper addresses advances in soil modelling that allows more accurate pile driving simulation as well as the application of Vibro Driving Analysis (VDA) or Monitoring (VDM) to validate the simulation results. This is illustrated by a case study of the test pile for the Delft Offshore Turbine project, a 28 m long monopile with a diameter of 4 m that was driven 15 m into dense sand layers using a vibro hammer. After some 6 months the pile was extracted, and pile driving simulations and VDA were done both for the installation and extraction phase. 1. INTRODUCTION At the end of 2017, the total worldwide offshore wind power capacity was 18.8 GW [1]. The vast majority of offshore wind farms are currently in Northern Europe, which together account for over two thirds of the total offshore wind power installed worldwide, followed by East Asia, while developments in North America are still in very early stages.

Jan 1, 2019

By Robert B. Bittner

The new gated dam on the Monongahela River at Braddock, Pennsylvania, was built for the US Army Corps of Engineers using an innovative ?In-the-Wet? technology. A key feature of this technology involves construction of the foundations through the water and later mating the completed structure or a shell of the structure to the pre-installed foundation. This paper presents a description of the structure, its foundation, construction sequence and design details required to successfully implement this technology.

Jan 1, 2013