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By Eric S. White, Thomas J. Sabourin, Khuram R. Mohib

"This paper presents the challenges associated with the design and construction of a steel sheet pile cofferdam supported with one level of grouted anchors in clean to silty sand with gravel. The initial assessment of the subsurface conditions indicated loose to medium dense soil with intermittent dense to very dense layers with no occurrence of cobbles and boulders. Sheet piles were proposed to be installed to a depth of 24 m below the ground surface to limit dewatering requirements for the cofferdam. During sheet pile installation, refusal of piles occurred at multiple locations forming passages for increased flow into the cofferdam. Modifications were made in the design of the dewatering system as a result of the increased flow. Finite element modeling was used to select the necessary modifications to the dewatering system within the cofferdam. Wells were installed based on the findings of the numerical model. Model simulations showed good comparison with monitoring of the field installed dewatering system.INTRODUCTIONIt is necessary to consider the impact of the ground water, subsurface stratigraphy, strength, and drainage behavior of the soil for the design and construction of cofferdams. This paper presents a case history of the construction of a cofferdam in Northern Ontario, Canada. The project consists of the construction of a powerhouse, intake, and tailrace which will generate around 28 MW of renewable clean energy by diverting water from New Post Creek through a power house and discharge into the Abitibi River. The focus of this paper is the dewatering and excavation support required to permit construction of the powerhouse. The layout of the cofferdam is shown in Fig. 1. The cofferdam for the powerhouse is rectangular in shape with sheet piles on all four sides intended to be driven to the design toe El. 101 m. The east and west walls have a length of 46.3 m. North and south sides are 47.6 m long; and in addition, two cantilever sheet pile walls bound the tailrace on the west side and two cantilever walls were installed on the east for construction of the penstock inlet. The ground surface in the powerhouse cofferdam area, before commencement of sheet pile driving, was brought to El. 125; the ground then slopes up to the East, toward New Post Creek, and the site is bounded on the West by the Abitibi River. 186 pairs of sheet piles were used to create the cofferdam and cantilever walls. The deepest excavation is to elevation 114.4 m. Within the west half of the cofferdam footprint, the base of excavation slopes upward at 3H: 1V to facilitate the tailrace discharge into Abitibi River.SOIL STRATIGRAPHYThe cofferdam design was based on the geotechnical investigation conducted by AECOM (2014) which included two relevant boreholes near the powerhouse footprint. The ground elevation at the time of investigation varied between 131 to 129 m. The material observed to the full depth of investigation was comprised generally of coarse to fine sand and gravelly sand or a sand matrix with gravelly inclusions. Some intermittent layers of clay and silt intrusions were also observed. Generally the soils grade finer away from the river. SPT N60 values were recorded in two borings during the field investigation with values reported from 3 to 92. The in-situ conditions ranged from compact to dense with some loose and some very dense zones. Figure 2 shows the variation in SPT N60 values with elevation."

Jan 1, 2017

By Li Huimin

In this paper the step of determining the property index and the program of mixture ratio design of stabilizing agent in deep foundation construction are presented. According to the principle of computer simulation, the model and the method of computer simulation for optimum mix design are set up. Also, the precision of simulation results has been estimated and verified experimentally.

Jan 1, 1991

By Shaw-Shong Liew

This paper presents the design concept using floating piles to support 2500Ton oil storage tanks on a very soft alluvial clayey soil of about 40m thick in Riau Province of Sumatra, Indonesia. The floating piles of various penetration lengths were designed to support seven numbers of such storage tanks seating on a 20m diameter and 500mm thick reinforced concrete (RC) circular raft. The pile points have been strategically located at the RC raft. Varying pile penetration lengths have been designed to minimize the angular distortion of the thin RC raft and the out-of-plane deflection at the tank edge. Vibrating wire strain gauges were installed at different levels inside the ø350mm prestressed reinforced concrete piles to measure the load transfer profile during the static load tests and water-loading test. The installation and interpretation of the instrumentation are described and discussed. Boreholes, in-situ tests like piezocones, vane shear tests and standard penetration tests, and laboratory testing were carried out to obtain geotechnical parameters for the pile designs. Static load tests were also carried out on the spun piles of varying lengths of 24m, 30m and 36m respectively. It has been demonstrated that the floating pile system can be a cost effective design to support heavy structures on very soft compressible deposits with satisfactory performance. Finally, the design concept validated with the results of instrumentation is discussed.

Jan 1, 2002

By J. -L. Briaud

This presentation shows the results of laboratory and field tests to date for the NCHRP project entitled "Downdrag on Bitumen-coated Piles". This project required to test a variety of bitumens in the laboratory to determine their properties and then to establish a field testing program to verify the bitumens effectiveness. Figure 1 shows an organizational chart that gives an overview of the agencies involved in the project. The first part describes the laboratory testing program in which bitumen samples of various types were obtained from a variety of manufacturers. Initially, classification tests were performed to verify the manufacturers' specifications. Additional tests were then developed and performed to determine the bitumens behavior under the various conditions that they may be exposed to in the field. The test results were analyzed and their usefulness for design purposes were determined. The test results are presented in either graphical or tabular form. The second part describes the field testing program which was designed to test the effectiveness of various bitumens under a wide range of soil, temperature, and construction conditions. The first site was in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where a construction project was to take place in the winter of 1989-90. This was ideal for the cold temperature extreme that was needed. The soil conditions were conducive to downdrag problems: an embankment placed over soft clay underlain by dense sand resulting in end-bearing piles. The other site was in New Orleans, Louisiana. The part of the project involving this downdrag study was to be carried out in the summer of 1990. The hot summer temperatures and extremely soft soil conditions (resulting in friction piles) gave the other extreme needed for this study. Each site is discussed in

Jan 1, 1991

By M. England

Keywords: Bi-directional tests, Osterberg cell, O-cell®, static load tests, Timeset® Static load testing, where loads are applied vertically to the top of the pile and often referred to as 'top down testing', has been used for many years and has become a 'standard' test for the world of foundation engineering. The method, although well developed, cannot be used under certain circumstances, magnitude of load being a particular issue. There is a finite limit to the load capacity that can be applied with either kentledge, the use of reaction piles or anchors, and as the loads increase, the costs escalate dramatically. A novel test method seeks to overcome all the associated problems of large scale and restrictive area "top down testing", utilising static load testing techniques. The method requires the foundation element to be divided into two or more sections and these can be loaded axially as required using a portion of the foundation element as a reaction. This paper presents some recent applications and developments in the use and application of the bi-directional testing technique using the Osterberg Cell or O-cell® and outlines some of the many advantages of the system. Recent bi-directional test loads applied to bored piles have mobilised capacities of 279 MN and with flight auger piles up to 25 MN.

Jan 1, 2006

? Hollow Stem Auger ? Drill Bits ? Leads/Torque Arm ? Hydraulic Gearbox ? Hydraulic Power Unit ? Grout Pump ? Crawler Crane

Jan 1, 2000

By B. Soundara, A. Suganya, S. Selvakumar

"Expansive soils have a potential for shrinkage or swelling under changing moisture content. Attempts were made to reduce the swelling potential of expansive soils with conventional additives such as lime, cement, etc. and non-conventional additives such as industrial wastes. In this research an attempt is made to study the feasibility of using granulated waste expanded polystyrene (EPS) as an additive to expansive soil to control swelling. To investigate the effect of mixing waste EPS granules with expansive clays, three expansive soils with different plasticity index were manufactured in the laboratory by mixing sand with sodium bentonite of various proportions. A series of standard proctor test, California bearing ratio (CBR) test, one dimensional free swell and swell pressure tests were performed on these soils. Test results show that the inclusion of EPS granules significantly reduces the percent swell and swelling pressure when subjected to one-dimensional free swell conditions. The dry density and CBR values decrease with increase in EPS content and increased plasticity of the soil.INTRODUCTIONExpansive soils cover an area of about 257 Million hectares on the earth’s surface (Dudal et al. 1965). In India, the area covered by expansive soils is nearly 20 percent of the total area (Mohan et al. 1961). Movement is usually in an uneven pattern and of such a magnitude as to cause extensive damage to various structures, especially lightly loaded structures or pavements (Chen 1975). Stabilization is one of the methods of treating the expansive soils to make them fit for civil engineering purposes. The variety of stabilizers may be broadly divided into three groups (Petry et al. 2002): (a) traditional stabilizers (lime, cement etc.), (b) by-product stabilizers (fly ash, quarry dust, phosphor-gypsum, slag etc.) and (c) non-traditional stabilizers (sulfonated oils, potassium compounds, polymer, enzymes, ammonium chlorides etc.). Apart from these, a number of other ground improvement techniques such as sand cushion technique (Satyanarayana 1966); cohesive nonswelling (CNS) layer technique (Katti 1978) were adopted for the stabilization of expansive soils. Expanded polystyrene (EPS) is a polymeric foam normally available in white colour and is a wellknown packaging material. The geotechnical specialists recognize EPS as the most commonly used geofoam material, a type of cellular geosynthetic which has been in consistent use in geotechnical applications since the early 1960s (Horvath 1995). EPS has very low thermal conductivity and nearly 98% of the volume is air (Lye et al. 2002). EPS has many exceptional properties such as being lightweight, thermal insulating, shock-absorbing and having low-water pick-up, etc. EPS find its applications in geotechnical engineering as light weight fills in the form of blocks (Refsdal 1985, Karpurapu et al. 1992, Zou 2001, Ikizler et al. 2008). EPS can be used as compressible inclusion and as a vibration damper (Horvath, 1994&1995). EPS is also used in lightweight concrete owing to its lightweight, excellent heat preservation and sound insulation properties (Ravindrarajah et al. 1994; Miledet al. 2004 and Babu et al. 2005). Waste EPS granules have been used in with horticultural soils to improve a number of soil characteristics like improving drainage, lightening heavy soils and improving water uptake capacity of soils (Scheirs 1998). Furthermore, it was also used as sub-base materials for pavements and railway track beds (Hanna 1978; Duskov1996), construction materials for floating marine structures and fenders in offshore oil platforms (Bagon et al. 1976), sea beds and sea fences; as an energy absorbing material for buried military structures, (Perry et al. 1991)."

Jan 1, 2017

By Matthias Pulsfort, Markus Herten, Rolf Breitenbücher, Claudia Fierenkothen

"Secant bored pile walls are frequently used as retaining walls in watertight excavations to cut off ground water aquifers and are subsequently exposed to ground water pressure loading in addition to earth pressure loads. To avoid extra loading from ground water pressure in soils with limited permeability, it can be useful to arrange drainage windows within secant bored pile walls by means of single primary piles filled with porous concrete without reinforcement cages, which usually have to be placed within casings in submerged conditions. This concrete may serve as a horizontal arch between the reinforced secondary piles, but it must however enable vertical draining between load carrying construction beams and the bottom of the excavated pit. In the present submission, the results of several material tests with different mix designs of porous concrete with certain admixtures are presented together with first and important experiences with a wellsuited placement technique for porous concrete casings in small- and large-scale laboratory tests. It can be shown that the usual placement technique of employing a tremie pipe is not suited for this type of unsaturated concrete. Instead, pouring with a particular kind of cone and an open conductor pipe has proven successful.Additionally, special testing methods are currently developed for judging the suitability of the desired concrete mix design in preparation for an upcoming real-scale experimental pile installation in Germany.1. INTRODUCTIONRetaining walls are often built as secant bored pile walls in order to cut off aquifers saturated with groundwater against deep building pits. In soil types with relatively low permeability, however, seepage flow may be permitted, because the quantity of groundwater to be pumped is limited, and the range of influence due to dewatering is not reaching far. Thus, the hydrostatic water pressure on the retaining wall can be considerably reduced, leading to a more economic design (see Fig. 1).In unsaturated soils, the dewatering effect can be achieved by means of porous pervious concrete with a uniform grainsize distribution of aggregates typically placed in a borehole under dry conditions. With regard to the use of porous concrete to be placed at the ground surface in road pavement applications, experience is sufficiently available as shown, for instance, by Neithalath et el. (2010). However placing the porous concrete in a bored pile using a tremie pipe under submerged conditions is a challenge and a completely new approach, because there is a considerable risk of segregation of the fresh concrete, separating the cement lime paste from the aggregates when in contact with water and leaving only neat gravel on the one hand as well as a tight cemented area at the bottom of the pile on the other hand. If this concrete placement is successful, additional dewatering by means of extra wells behind the retaining wall can be avoided. Of course the seepage flow in the adjacent soil needs to be regarded seriously."

Jan 1, 2017

Jan 1, 1989

By R. H. Wright

This paper describes the design philosophy and methods employed in constructing the foundation elements for the Little Britain Project in the City of London. The Contract is a design and construct package for the foundations of a 3-storey basement which will be built using "top-down" construction techniques and is to be carried out by Fairclough Piling and Marine on behalf of Wimgrove Nominees. The Project includes 8000 sq.m. of diaphragm wall and barrettes 139 No. large diameter piles ranging from 900mm to 3000mm in diameter and up to 45m deep, and 9 No. cruciform barrettes for the heaviest column loads. Major factors influencing the design of these foundations include differential settlement, heave analysis and a fast track construction approach. Little Britain will provide 43000 sq.m. of space in two linked buildings which will bridge a new road joining London Wall to Newgate Street. The foundation contract is well advanced and the building is due for completion in the Summer of 1990.

Jan 1, 1989

By Richard Deakin

This case study describes aspects of the design of bridge foundations using 320mm diameter steel tube piles in the vicinity of Montréal, Canada. In this area, these piles are a very commonly used and cost effective solution for deep foundations. Typically they are driven through thick Champlain Sea Clay to bear onto stiff, strong rock. However, in some locations there is a layer of glacial till between the base of the clay and the rock which cannot always be fully penetrated by the piles. There is currently little published information, about the bearing capacity of these piles in the local till, and this paper presents and discusses some pile-test data from a recent project. The nature of the glacial deposits in the study area is presented using information gained from published geological data, the project ground investigations and site observations. The design approach and assumptions are discussed, together with the aims and outcomes of preliminary field driving trials and pile tests. The paper then discusses the results of dynamic tests undertaken on production piles. Bearing capacity factors are back analysed from the dynamic test results and compared against values assumed within the design. Observations are made that designers of future foundations in similar conditions may find informative.

Jan 1, 2011

By Frances Badelow

This paper describes a design process for piled raft foundations supporting high-rise buildings. The design process comprises an initial stage of geotechnical site characterization using the results of investigation boreholes to prepare a subsurface model and derive geotechnical parameters for raft and pile design from empirical correlations. Following this a preliminary analysis is undertaken using a combination of elastic theory and allowances for non linear behaviour of the piled raft system to assess the viability of such a foundation system and any potential advantages of a piled raft over conventional fully piled foundation systems. Finally, a detailed analysis is undertaken using the GARP8 computer program. Case studies where this design process has been successfully used to design a more efficient piled raft system that has resulted in significant cost and time savings compared to conventional bored pile foundation options are also described.

Jan 1, 2006

By Peng Jiahong

With ultrasonics application during checking the large diameter cast-in-situ pile body, it is usualy applied the statistical method of probability and PSD. This paper presents a converse probabilistic-analytical method which can identify important anomalies, both strong and weak, during interfered situation. So the inhomogeneity in concrete pile may be ellectively distinguished. In order to ensure the capacity of bed rock support layer under large diameter pile, a test-in-situ is conducted to determine the compresive strength and shear force inserting rock of the support layer, so the compresive strength and modulus value of elasticity of bed rock tested will closely tally with the actual situation.

Jan 1, 1991

By J. M. Mitchell

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is underlain by karstic limestone. Firm clays, mudstones and siltstoncs of the Kenny Hill Formation overlie the limestone for about two thirds of the city. The remaining third has deep deposits of very soft alluvium, or tin mining slimes, overlying the limestone. It is only recently that large buildings have been constructed in the area. Arup Jururunding have been concerned with several projects located on the limestone, although space here only permits the description of four sites in detail. The experience has allowed the development of a design approach for the foundations. The aim is to make the architectural scheme compatible with the geology. This is not always possible, and examples are given of both situations. The case histories give examples of compensated foundations, and piled foundations include steel H-piles, precast concrete piles, micropiles, bored piles with rock sockets, and barrettes up to 90m deep.

Jan 1, 2010

By Charles Pol Vuillier

Piling work for modification to the Charles Grimes Bridge in Melbourne, Australia required piles to be installed through 15 to 20 m thickness of very soft to soft silty clay overlying 10 m of stiff clays and sands in turn overlying siltstone. The presence of an old sewer founded at depth in the soft clays demanded that vibrations be kept to a minimum. Two pile type were used by Vibro-pile (Australia) to provide the client with the most economical piling price. The two pile types were CFA piles of 750mm diameter founded in the weathered rock and a full displacement concrete injected screw pile developed by Vibro-pile called the "Z" pile, founded on the rock. The development and features of the "Z" pile are briefly discussed, including the perceived applications and advantages of the pile type. On board instrumentation comprising a computer was used to monitor all aspects of the construction. The rig instrumentation provided an important quality control measure that gave confidence in the pile installed. Pile performance was proved on the cast in situ piles by dynamic load testing methods. Initially tests performed with a 120 kN drop hammer, which was not capable of mobilising the required loads. The performance was then satisfactorily proved by using a drop hammer of 20 tonne mass delivering blows drop heights of 1.5m. Low strain integrity tests on a number of piles were also used to confirm the structural integrity of the piles.

Jan 1, 2000

By Steven Dapp

A new hyperbolic model for generating P-Y curves is developed for use in lateral analyses of cemented soils (a ?C-F? soil with both cohesive intercept and friction angle), and includes degradation of the static loading soil response to model the effects of load cycling (repeated loading) with load cycle number. The p-y curves, for both static and cyclic loading, were derived from full-scale lateral test results conducted on a set of six drilled shafts in a loess deposit at the Kansas DOT test site. Values of the model parameters obtained from the load testing at this site are presented, as well as a discussion of the model parameters effect on the results such that the model may be rationally applied to other sites with C-F type soils. A step-by-step procedure is presented to illustrate the application of the model. Correlation of the model to the CPT cone tip resistance (qc) from CPT testing is made, as this was found to be the most reliable; However, the model is applicable to other methods, both in-situ and laboratory, of assessing the soils strength.

Jan 1, 2011

By Arturo Ressi di Cervia

From the times when men in lacustrine environments drove wooden piles into the mud to elevate their dwellings, until the beginning of the twentieth century builders reacted to the conditions found in the location of their proposed structures by attempting to distribute their loads in ways that could be supported by the foundation's soils; or, if those were unsuitable, by moving the structure, whenever possible. While many major structures were built on stable ground (the pyramids were founded on rock), others were built on [ ]

Jan 1, 2000

By Aminul Islam, Vinay M. Kumar

"About 100 Hectares of land reclamation over the very soft to soft marine clay at Uran Creek in Maharashtra is planned. The depth of marine clay varies from 10m to 24m as observed from the geotechnical investigation. The marine clay was treated with Pre-fabricated Vertical Drains (PVD’s) installed from the elevation of +5.5mCD (chart Datum) and preload/placement of surcharge. A Settlement of soft soil mud under the reclamation was monitored using magnetic extensometer (M) and ground settlement maker (S2). These instruments are installed after constructing working platform at around +5.5m CD. Based on the field instrumentation data, the consolidation parameters were adjusted to match the theoretical and actual settlement plot. The author called this approach as “Back analysis method”. The objective of this paper is to present a case study of instrumented preloading treatment for a thick marine clay deposit. The degree of consolidation in clay strata was determined from magnetic extensometer and ground settlement marker data. Authors also determined degree of consolidation as Asaoka method, Hyperbolic method and Back analysis method and compared the results.INTRODUCTIONExpansion of Container terminal with port buildings, rail container depot, roads and utility buildings at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) is planned over a reclaimed land of 100 hectares. Uran creek predominately consists of the estuarine deposit of very soft to soft marine clay. They are characterized by low shear strength, very low bearing capacity and exhibit large settlement when subjected to loading. The additional load causes the significant magnitude of consolidation settlement over a considerable period of time. Thus for development projects on top of soft soil, the postconstruction settlement would be of primary concern.To accelerate the consolidation pre-fabricated vertical drains (PVD) were used. Pre-loading procedure was adopted to minimize the post construction total and differential settlements. PVD’s were installed at 1.0m and 1.2m c/c triangular pattern. Locally available borrow material is used as a reclamation material. The reclamation material has been placed over the existing sea bed level by land based method/end tipping method and created the working platform. The level of working platform is decided based on the tide data and it has been selected such that work should be affected during highest high water level. The PVD has been installed from the working platform and subsequently all the field instruments have been installed from the same level. Five different types of field instruments are installed to monitor ground improvement works."

Jan 1, 2017

By M. J. Preim

Two case histories are presented on the evaluation of static bearing capacity of piles driven in soils that exhibit time dependent strength changes. Under consideration are a steel and a concrete pile driven into soils generally consisting of silty and clayey fine sand. Pile dynamic measurements and analyses were performed on both piles during initial installation, and also during restrike one week later. This information was used to predict each pile's long term capacity (defined as 14 days after initial drive), which was then compared to that measured with a static load test. Agreement between predicted and measured capacities were remarkably good, with an average error of only 4.5 percent. Two weeks after driving, total pile capacities were three times those at the end of drive. If only the skin friction was considered, however, it increased by an average factor of 16. The increase in pile capacity was determined to be linear over the time period considered.

Jan 1, 1989

By J. Tanner Blackburn, James R. Gingery, Lisheng Shao

Rigid inclusions consist of grout columns installed using displacement auger or vibrated tooling. The columns are typically installed in an array to provide support for footings, mats, or embankments. Due to the relative small column diameter and low replacement ratio, the surrounding soils typically have minimal densification or improvement. A gravel load transfer platform is commonly used above the rigid inclusion head to distribute stresses more broadly to the supported structure. The axial stiffness and geotechnical engineering mechanics of rigid inclusion design are similar to those of deep foundation systems, but they are typically only lightly- or un-reinforced and are not structurally connected to the above-grade structure. The popularity of rigid inclusions is increasing in the Western U.S., where many urban areas are subject to moderate to high seismic hazard levels. However, the performance of rigid inclusions under seismic loading is poorly understood, and seldom addressed in current designs. The elements are brittle, with limited or no ductility and relatively low moment capacity, and therefore may be prone to damage under seismic loading. Three modes of seismic loading should be considered: inertial loading from the structure, kinematic loading from vertically propagating shear waves, and kinematic loading from ground failure- related permanent ground deformation. This paper focuses on the first two modes. A simplified procedure for evaluating kinematic and inertial loading of rigid inclusions is described, and its use is illustrated through application to a site in Southern California. The results show that moderate to severe kinematic loading can generate plastic hinges in the rigid inclusions. Engineering consequences of this hinging could include settlement or bearing failure. INTRODUCTION In this paper the term ‘rigid inclusion’ (RI) refers to grout or grouted aggregate columns that are installed using either drilled or vibration displacement techniques. They are commonly installed in arrays to support vertical loads from footings, mats, or embankments. RIs are not structurally connected to footings they support. Rather, it is typical for a dense gravel load transfer platform (LTP) to be installed as a cushion between the RI head and supported footing or new fill. In cases of RI support of fill embankments, the LTP may be reinforced with horizontal layers of geogrid.

Jan 1, 2018