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Chinese Journal of Geotechnical Engineering

Vol.33 No.3 Mar. 2011

Open-ended prestressed concrete pipe-piles jacked into soft clay interbeded with silt
LIU Jun-wei1, 2, ZHANG Zhong-miao1, 2, ZHANG Qian-qing1, 2, XIE Zhi-zhuan1, 2
(1. MOE Key Laboratory of Soft Soils and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China; 2. Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China)

Abstract: The shortage of comprehensive research data to better understand the behavior of the jacked open-ended prestressed concrete pipe piles in soft clay interbeded with silt prompts an experiment program, in which a series of in-situ tests are conducted. Different developments of pore pressure are caused in the vicinity of the piles at different depths during pile installation. Two logarithmic correlations are confirmed to effectively express the function of the normalized peak excess pore pressure to the distance parameter. The maximum outward horizontal soil movement occurs in soft mucky clay layer with poor permeability. The vertical displacement around one pile decreases with the increasing distance, and a majority of the movement occurs during the shallow penetration. The pile annulus resistance and CPT cone tip resistance have similar development during penetration, and this relationship is independent on penetration depth and incremental filling ratio of soil plug. An open-ended pile is prone to performance in a plugged mode as penetrating into a weaker layer, whereas transition to an unplug-mode is observed on reaching an underlying harder layer. A larger diameter with a relative thinner wall for an open-ended pile leads to a higher plug length. Key words: prestressed concrete pipe pile; excess pore pressure; pile annulus resistance; soil movement; soil plug CLC number: TU473 Document code: A Article ID: 1000 4548(2011)03 0448 06 Biography: LIU Jun-wei (1983+ ), male, Ph.D. Candidate, who has been engaged in researches on the behavior of jacked piles. E-mail: liujunwei0208@126.com.

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Introduction

The technique of pile-jacking, as an environmentally friendly and economical method, has been widely used in China [1]. Compared with the traditional pile installation method, the pile-jacking is free of noise, vibration and slurry handling. White et al. (2002) [2] reported that noises and ground vibrations in

two jack-piling sites were greatly lower than those created by the dynamic method. Numerous studies have advanced understanding of pile behavior over the last several decades. Among them, Jardine et al.(1989)[3]; Randolph et al.(1994)[4]; Lehane and Gavin(2001)[5]; Pestana et al. (2002)[6]; McCabe and Lehane (2006)[7]; Zhang (2007)[8]; and Liu et al.(2009)[9]
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Received data: 2009+10+28

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LIU Jun-wei, et al. Open-ended prestressed concrete pipe-piles jacked into soft clay interbeded with silt Table 1 Geological condition of test site Thickness Natural water /m content w / % 0.3 1.3 1.2 0.5 0.7 15.0 4.8 0.9 38.7 32.2 32.4 47.3 32.0 46.4 38.2 30.5 Unit weight Void ratio Plasticity /(kN m 3) e index I P 18.29 18.47 17.25 18.48 17.29 17.71 18.51 0.965 0.943 1.341 0.937 1.327 1.134 0.918 13.6 9.8 19.3 9.8 19.1 15.7 13.4 Internal Liquidity Cohesion friction index I L angle /(!) c /kPa 0.7 0.6 1.17 0.59 1.17 0.96 0.61 15.4 26.1 12.1 27.4 11.8 13.6 15.9 18.9 10.7 16.2 10.3 15.7 16.9 21.8

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Soil layer Fill Silty clay clayey silt Soft mucky clay Silty clay Soft mucky cay Mucky silty clay Silty clay

Compressibility modulus E /MPa

S

4.8 9.0 2.1 8.6 2.0 2.5 5.4

contributed the most representative works. However, the review of literatures reveals that most concerns have been focused on the dynamically-installed process. The existing investigations into jacked piles were carried out mostly on model piles or steel piles (e.g., Lehane and Jardine, 1994[10]; White, 2002[2]; Yu, 2004[11]; Yang et al., 2006[12]; Zhang and Wang, 2009[13]), whereas little focus has been paid on field concrete pipe piles. As a result, the performance of jacked open-ended concrete piles remains a great uncertainty. To better understand the behavior of jacked open-ended prestressed concrete pipe piles, a comprehensive in-situ and laboratory test program is conducted in soft clay interbeded with silt soil site. The surrounding soils are instrumented to monitor the response of pore pressure and soil deformation induced by installations. Meanwhile, the detail of plugging phenomenon and pile annulus resistance during jack-in are observed. Test results will also be discussed and presented. It is believed that these data and analyses will be very helpful to improve the understanding of mechanisms of open-ended concrete pipe piles.

layer to a depth of 4.0 m is a silty clay, soft mucky clay and clayey silt, respectively. From 4.0 m to 19.0 m the soil changes to soft mucky clay with a natural water content of 46.4%, which is slightly greater than the liquid limit. A silty clay is present beneath the mucky clay and extended over a thickness of 4.7 m above the weathered rock. The ground-water level is at 0.3 m below the surface.

Test setup and procedure

Condition of the test site

The test program is carried out in Hangzhou, China. To determine the soil properties of the test site, a series of geological explorations and laboratory tests are conducted 3 weeks before the start of piling, including cone penetration tests (CPT), quick direct shear tests (QDS) and other tests. Based on the test results, the geological data are summarized in Table 1. As seen in Table 1, from the ground surface down to the depth of about 0.3 m is a fill layer, composed of crushed stone waste and clay, which can provide a working surface for pile construction. Underlying the fill

Two types of open-ended concrete pipe piles are employed in the current study: Type A, termed PTC -500(65), has a hollow section with an outer diameter of 50 cm and inner diameter of 38 cm; Type B (PTC-400(60)) has outer and inner diameters of 40 cm and 28 cm, respectively. The jacking machine employed in this project (Model ZYC900) can provide a maximum vertical static jacking force of 9000 kN, supplied by four hydraulic jacks. The maximum penetration per jacking is 1.8 m and 1.8 m/min in the peak penetration rate. They are jacked to the depth between 24 m and 26 m, depending on the embedment depth of weathered rock. The average installation speed is about 1.5 m/min, so about 20 minutes are needed for each installation. Two groups of vibrating-wire piezometers are installed at depths of 6 m and 12 m in the pile groups, respectively. According to the geological profile, all of them are buried in the soft mucky cay layer. The continuous readings are fully recorded during the jacking process for the surrounding piles. To measure the lateral deformation of ground caused by the pile-group installation, two inclinometer tubes (S1 and S2, respectively) are installed approximately 6 m north of the pile group. It is should be noted that a row of holes 40 cm in diameter and 21 m in depth are previously

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installed to limit the influences on the neighboring buildings. The inclinometer tubes are semi-rigid polyvinyl chloride (PVC) with inner diameter of 38 mm. They are buried to the depths of about 25-26 m to enable the tube base locked within the relative stiff soil layer to provide a stable point. Four elevation posts around one pile PTC-500(65) in a row at 0.5d, 1d, 2d and 3d from pile wall, numbered as D1 to D5 respectively, are installed to measure the vertical displacements during the penetration. Two symmetrical load cells fixed to the annulus point of a single pile PTC-500(65) are employed to measure the point stress during the penetration. The cables of load cell are protected by a steel tube welded into the interior hole of the open-ended piles and leaded to a nearby data acquisition station. To identify the plugging effect, the developments of plug are observed for six piles with two different diameters. The plug lengths herein are measured during the suspension period between two jack-in strokes, and the penetration depths are monitored with the calibration painted previously on the pile skin.

further penetration, attaining a slight level when the pile-jacking is finished. This trend indicates that the rate of dissipations exceeds buildups as the pile advances deeper than the piezometer, probably due to larger permeability of the overlying silt layer. A gradual build-up in pore pressure is registered during the total jacking-in process as shown in Fig. 3. The extent affected evidently by the pile installation is approximately 16d above and beneath the piezometer elevation, with d being the pile diameter. This measurement implies that the short-term dissipation of excess pore pressure is negligible in the deeper thick soft clay.

Fig. 2 Variation of excess pore pressure at depth of 6 m during surrounding pile installation

Fig. 1 Jacking machine

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3.1

Test results and relevant discussions

Response of pore water pressure
Fig. 3 Variation of excess pore pressure at depth of 12 m .during surrounding pile installation

The buildup and dissipation of excess pore water pressure during the penetration of neighboring piles (PTC-500(65)) are recorded and plotted in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3. The negligible influence of previous jacking-in on the development of pore water pressure is not considered here. The developments of excess pore pressures in two different depths during jacking-in display considerably different tendency. Fig. 2 shows that the induced peak excess pore water pressures at the depth of 6 m are recorded as the pile tip penetrated to that elevation. The transient high pore pressure reduces rapidly with the

Regardless of the densification caused by successive jacking-in, the ratio of the induced maximum excess pore pressure U max to the in-situ effective overburden stress vo is plotted in Fig. 6 as a function of distance parameter r/a, where r is the horizontal distance between the piezometer and the pile center, and the parameter a represents the pile radius. Obviously, the data registered at different depths seem to exhibit with similar distribution. However, the results for depth of 6

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LIU Jun-wei, et al. Open-ended prestressed concrete pipe-piles jacked into soft clay interbeded with silt

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m are somewhat larger than that of depth of 12 m. The similar phenomenon is reported by Tang (2002)[14] for vibro-pile in soft clay. Two regression curves fitted to the two part data are plotted in the Fig. 4 and mathematically expressed in a general form as u r = A B ln . (1) vo a The parameter A indicates the magnitude of maximum excess pore pressure at pile shaft, while B reflects radial attenuation rate. The values of A and B for the two regression lines for depths of 6 m and 12 m are 0.94, 0.21 and 0.31, 0.08, respectively.

installation, the peak vertical displacement reaches about 30 mm, which is somewhat smaller than the prediction by the shallow strain path method as Equation (2) developed by Sagaseta and Whittle [16]: a2 1 1 = (2) z = 2 2 2 r r +L where z denotes the surface vertical displacement; the parameter L indicates the pile penetration; the parameters a and r represent the pile radius and the horizontal distance between the piezometer and the pile center respectively, which is consistent with that in Equation (1).

Fig. 4 Variation of normalized maximum excess pore pressure ratio with distance to pile center Fig. 5 Outward horizontal soil movements

3.2

Horizontal and vertical soil movements

The outward horizontal soil movements measured by inclinometer S2 during the pile group installation are plotted in Fig. 5, similar to the results recorded by inclinometer S1. The maximum displacement is found at approximately depth of 7.0 m corresponding to the soft mucky clay layer. The peak values varies from only 5 mm on the first day to a peak value of 40 mm just after complete piling on the eleventh day. The amount of deformation diminishes rapidly with depth, and no discernible deflection is measured blow the depth of approximately 16 m. This trend is significantly different from the predictions based on the CEM [15], which presents a consistent radial movement with depth. Fig. 6 shows the distribution of the surface ground heave induced by the penetration of a 50 cm-diameter pile. It is clear that the vertical displacement decreases with the increasing distance, and the maximum heave is measured close to the pile wall. The observed heave history shows that approximately 90% of the total surface heave takes place during the shallow penetration (less than 5 m), while slight deformations are recorded during the further penetration. After the completion of

Fig. 6 Surface ground development around one pile PTC-500(65)

3.3 Pile annulus resistance The annulus resistance (qann) recorded by the load cells is plotted in Fig. 7 as a function of penetration, together with the corresponding cone tip resistance (qc). The two curves have similar development, indicating comparable penetration manner. The cone responds more sensitively to the changes in stratigraphy than the pile, which is reflected as the sharp fluctuations during penetration.

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Fig. 7 Variation of pile annulus resistance and cone tip resistance

Fig. 8 plots the dependence of qann/qc on the pile penetration and IFR (defined later). It is clear that the qann/qc ratio is relatively constant at approximately 0.6, even though the scatter in the data is found. This implies that the qann/qc is independent on the penetration and the IFR. This independence is also observed by Lehane and Gavin (2001) [5] based on model steel piles in sand. That test indicats that annular resistance is approximately equal to the CPT-qc during penetration. The lower proportion of the qc in the present test is possibly attributed to scale effect.

higher indication of plugging. It is obvious for all test piles that penetration continues in a partially plugged manner in the shallow soil until the depth of about 8 m, at which soft mucky clay layer is observed. This indicates that open-ended pile is prone to performance in a plugged mode as penetrating into an underlying weaker layer. A jump of IFR occurs at about depth of 24 m for all piles, which coincides with the increase of soil capacity according to the CPT-qc profile. Transitions from plugged to unplugged penetration on reaching a harder layer have also been observed by White (2002)[2]. The average total plug lengths are 3.45 m and 2.23 m for the PTC-500(65) and PTC-400(60) in this test, respectively. Those observations strongly reflect that the diameter appears to be one important factor that controls the plug behavior. A larger diameter with the relative thinner wall for an open-ended pile suggests a higher plug length.

Fig. 9 Development of IFR of piles with two different diameters

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Fig. 8 Development of qann/qc with penetration depth and IFR

Conclusions

3.4

Observation on soil plug

The IFR represents the change of plug length with respect to the increase of penetration depth. The IFR equals zero and 100%, representing the fully plugged and the fully coring mode, respectively. The penetration of soil plug into pile may best be quantified in terms as IFR (De Nicola and Randolph, 1997[17]). The profile of IFR with the penetration depth is plotted in Fig. 9 for the six typical test piles with 26 m in length. The general trends of IFR for two types are somewhat similar, whereas pile PTC-400(60) shows a

The Behaviors of open-ended prestressed concrete piles jacked into the soft silt-clay have been studied in this paper through a comprehensive test program. The leading test results can be summarized as follows: (1) The pile jacking caused different development of pore pressure in the relatively far surrounding soil for different depths. The excess pore pressure increases to a peak just as the pile reaches the level of transducers at the depth of 6.0 m, and reduces significantly during further penetration. However, the gradual build-up in the pore pressure is registered in 12.0 m during the total installation process. Two logarithmic correlations are

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LIU Jun-wei, et al. Open-ended prestressed concrete pipe-piles jacked into soft clay interbeded with silt piles in sand[J]. G!otechnique, 1994, 44(3): 427+448.

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confirmed to effectively express the function of normalized peak excess pore pressure at different depths to the distance parameter during installation. (2) The maximum outward horizontal soil movement reaches 40 mm after pile group installation. This peak value is observed about 7.0 m in depth, corresponding to the soft mucky clay layer with poor permeability. The vertical displacement around one 50 cm-diameter open-ended pile decreases with the increasing distance, and most of the displacement occurrs during shallow penetration. The peak ground heave reaches about 30 mm after installation adjacent to the pile skin, which is somewhat smaller than the prediction by the shallow strain path method. (3) The cone tip resistance and annulus resistance of an open-ended pile have similar development during installation. The ratio between them, independent of the pile incremental filling ratio (IFR) and the pile penetration depth, is relatively constant at approximately 0.6 in soft clay- silt layer. (4) The multilayered ground induces the change of plugging rate for a pile during the penetration. An open-ended pile is prone to performance in a plugged mode as penetrating into a weaker layer, whereas transition to unplug-mode is found on reaching an underlying harder layer. A larger diameter with a relative thinner wall for an open-ended pile suggests a higher plug length. References
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[5] LEHANE B M, GAVIN K G. Base resistance of jacked pipe piles in sand[J]. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng, 2001, 127(6): 473+480. [6] PESTANA J M, HUNT C E, BRAY J D. Soil deformation and excess pore pressure field around a closed-ended pile[J]. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng, 2002, 128(1): 1+12. [7] MCCABE B A, LEHANE B M. Behavior of axially loaded pile group driven in clayed silt[J]. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng, 2006, 132(3): 401+410. [8] ZHANG Z M. Pile foundation engineering[M]. Beijing: China Construction Industry Press, 2007. (in Chinese) [9] LIU J W, ZHANG M Y, ZHAO H F, et al. Computational simulation of jacking force based on spherical cavity expansion theory and friction fatigue effect[J]. Rock and Soil Mechanics, 2009, 30(4): 1181+1185. (in Chinese) ) [10] LEHANE B M, JARDINE R J. Displacement pile behavior of s in a soft marine clay[J]. Can Geotech J, 1994, 31(1): 181+ 191. [11] YU F. Behavior of large capacity jacked piles[D]. Ph D thesis, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, 2004. [12] YANG J, THAM L G, LEE P K K, et al. Observed performance of long steel H-piles jacked into sandy soils[J]. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng, 2006, 132(1): 24+35. [13] ZHANG L M, WANG H. Field study of construction effects in jacked and driven steel H-piles[J]. G!otechnique, 2009, 59(1): 63+69. [14] TANG S D, HE L S, FU Z. Excess pore water pressure caused by an installing pile in soft foundation[J]. Chinese J Rock and Soil Mech, 2002, 23(6): 725+729,732. (in Chinese) [15] VESIC A S. Test on instrumented piles, Ogeechee River site[J]. J Soil Mech Found Div, 1970, 96(2): 561+584. [16] SAGSETA C, WHITTLE A J, SANTAGATA M. Deformation analysis of shallow penetration in clay[J]. International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, 1997, 21(10): 687+719. [17] DE NICOLA A, RANDOLPH M F. The plugging behavior of driven and jacked piles in sand[J]. G!otechnique, 1997, 47(4): 841+856.