The use of lightweight concrete piles for deep foundation on soft soils

Small scale physical modelling have been dominated by enhanced gravity modelling with centrifuge equipments. However due to its high cost and capital intensive, attempts were made to find another method with normal gravity simulation. This study was focused on clay soil dealing with finding a suitab...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sulaeman, Agus
Format: Thesis
Published: 2010
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Online Access:http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/1704/
http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/1704/1/Agus_Sulaeman.pdf
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Summary:Small scale physical modelling have been dominated by enhanced gravity modelling with centrifuge equipments. However due to its high cost and capital intensive, attempts were made to find another method with normal gravity simulation. This study was focused on clay soil dealing with finding a suitable representation to soil model. In line with the problem currently faced to reduce the cost of pile foundation in soft soil, the test case of pile loading tests (PLT) was chosen for investigation in normal gravity scaled modelling, full scale testing as well as in numerical modelling. Normal Concrete Pile (NCP), Palm Oil Concrete Pile (POCP) and Foamed Concrete Pile (FCP) were observed in Pile Loading Test (PLT) to study the feasibility of using light weight concrete piles (LCP) for deep foundations on soft soil. The PLT of various pile weights in normal gravity small scale model was previously conducted to represent the behavior of NCP, POCP and FCP. The results show that the FCP (26 kN) has about 30 % higher capacity than NCP (20 kN). This is due to the lower unit weight and stiffness of the pile. The results of ultimate capacity of each pile type were also in good agreement to the pile model, indicating that the attempt to set up normal gravity small scale modeling was satisfactory. To obtain the stresses along the pile, the piles in full scale prototype were also tested under dynamic loading. The compression stresses and tensile stresses measured from PDA test were under tolerable limit of their strength (the compression stress and compression strength of FCP were 10.4 MPa and 15 MPa and for POCP were 4.8 MPa and 25 MPa respectively. Whereas the tensile stress and tensile strength of FCP were 1.2 MPa and 1.2 MPa and for POCP were 10.4 MPa and 15 MPa respectively). As with normal piles these piles also experienced severe stresses, without any crack or damage during transportation, handling and driving. This leads to the conclusion that the use of LCPs as pile foundation of particular structures in soft soils is feasible.