Synopsis of

Performance comparison of pre-cast pre-stressed

concrete piles over steel tubular piles in off-shore jetty
structure

A thesis

to be submitted by

Mr. Bhavdip Shah

For the award of the degree of

Master of Technology in Structure Design

CEPT UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF BUILDING SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Kasturbhai Lalbhai Campus, University Road,
Navrangpura, Ahmedabad – 380009
India.
Objective/Aim: This thesis aims to check the possibilities of use of prestressed concrete
(PSC) piles in Indian marine environment in comparison to steel piles in terms of strength,
serviceability, bearing capacity and costing.

In the results PSC piles are found to be efficient than steel tubular piles in structural carrying
capacity. PSC piles are found more economical in costing also, even after considering
imported PSC piles from neighboring countries like China and Malaysia due to unavailability
of the manufacturing facility of spun piles in India. PSC piles also have other non-structural
benefits like being more durable - due to high grade concrete, controlled production at
factories and prestressing. As well as, PSC piles required low maintenance in marine
environment comparing to the steel tubular piles.

Technical details: During this study not enough materials are available to design the PSC
piles, hence a spread sheet is developed for the design of PSC pile by the use of strain
compatibility method. Its validation is also check by comparing it with the published work of
Anderson & Moustafa in ACI-1970 with the topic of ‘The ultimate strength of slender PSC piles
subjected to axial loads and bending’. One of A comparison table is represented below for reference.

1371.6(O.D.)/1117.6(I.D.)mm hollow round pile 38-strands, f’c = 48.3≈ 50Mpa

Reference chart ΦPn (kN) ΦMn (kN.m)

Anderson and Moustafa chart 13788.8 3390

Developed chart (for Φ 0.75 to 1) 14370 3520.4

Developed chart (for Φ 0.7 to 0.9) 13412.13 3285.7

Diff. with same Φ factor 376.67 104.3

It is need to notice that unit system of both the works were different, published Anderson &
Moustafa work are in metric units where as developed spread sheet program is in SI units, again
there is one more variation between two works; the diameter of strands used. It is stated in
Anderson and Moustafa chart that they used ½ in. diameter strands where as in this chart it is used
the all strands of 12.55 diameters. For the member design the area of strands used is affect the
design which is not specifies in the Anderson and Moustafa work. Hence, some variation of result
may be also occurring due that reason. Still it was observed that results of both works are very
nearer to each other.

By the using this spread sheet behavior of PSC piles was studied, some of this study results are
shown below:
 Effect of prestressing in pile
on BM & Axial compression
capacity
14000
Max. Bending

Load(kN) & moment (kN.m)

12000 capacity with fpu
10000 = 1860

8000 Bending cap with

fpu = 1725
6000
4000 Max Axial Load
2000 Cap.with fpu =
1860
0
Axial cap with
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
fpu = 1725
fpc prestressing in member (Mpa)

Effect of prestressing force on axial compression & BM capacity of the pile

Effect of prestressing in pile

on BM & Axial tension
capacity
2000.0
Related bending
1000.0 moment capacity
Load(kN) & moment (kN.m)

for fpu = 1860

0.0
Related bending
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 moment capacity
-1000.0
for fpu = 1725
-2000.0
Max Axial Load
-3000.0 Cap.with fpu =
1860
-4000.0 Axial cap with
fpu = 1725
-5000.0
fpc prestressing in member (Mpa)

Effect of prestressing force on axial tension + BM capacity

After study of PSC piles, comparison work start and first some hypothetical cases are consider and
analysis & design of that cases are made & compared. And finally comparison was made for a case
study of Dahej Petronet LNG Limited (PLL) Jetty. It is located at Dahej in the east coast of the gulf of
Khambhat, Bharuch district, in the state of Gujarat on the west coast of India.

Some of the reasons for selecting this Case study are,

• It is situated at the site having severe marine environment, large amount of hydrodynamic &
other horizontal forces.
• It is constructed on rake steel tubular piles.
• Steel piles in extreme marine environment like Dahej are susceptible to heavy corrosion,
which is a very high cost

Both the piles are designed by the limit state method, steel piles are designed by API-RP (2A)-LRFD
and PSC piles are designed as per the AASHTO-LRFD method. A cost comparison chart for this case
study is shown below for the better understanding.

Cost comparison
Usefulness: Report will be helpful & ready guide to any student, design firm, engineering
group or anyone interested in marine piling works to understand the merits & de-merits of
both the pile use in Indian Marine environments.

During this study there was not enough material available to design the PSC pile and hence a
spread sheet has been developed to design the circular solid and hollow PSC pile by the use of strain
compatibility method. This Spread Sheet will be helpful to the students interested in the PSC piles.

Current Status: For chosen Indian case study it is concluded that prestressed piles are
superior to steel tubular piles in terms of strength, serviceability, bearing capacity and
costing.

Way Forward: Comparison of the two pile types in production and construction
methodology, behavior to construction and installation forces, etc are required to check.

Another separate study can be undertaken to develop and compare whole life cycle cost
with comparative analysis of PSC and steel tubular piles

References:

1. Article - “Precast Prestressed Concrete Piles” (Page – 409 & 410) - Indian Concrete Journal (October
1971)
2. Shore Protection Manual - United States. Army. Corps of Engineers; Coastal Engineering Research Center
(U.S.) Publisher: Vicksburg, Miss. : Dept. of the Army, Waterways Experiment Station, Corps of
Engineers, Coastal Engineering Research Center ; Washington, DC : For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S.
G.P.O.
3. IS 4651(Part-III) – 1974 Indian Standard Code of Practice for Planning and Design of Ports and Harbours
(Part – III Loading). First revision, Second Reprint – March 1986, Reaffirmed – 1997. Published by Indian
Standards Institutions.
4. IS 4651(Part-IV) – 1989 Indian Standard Code of Practice for Planning and Design of Ports and Harbours
(Part – IV) - General Design Considerations, Second Revision, Reaffirmed 1995. Published by Indian
Standard Institutions.
5. API recommended practice 2A – LRFD (RP 2A-LRFD) – Recommended Practice for Planning, Designing
and constructing Fixed Offshore Platform – Load and Resistance Factor Design – First Edition, July 1,
1993. Published by American Petroleum Institute.
6. API recommended practice 2A – WSD (RP 2A-WSD) – Recommended Practice for Planning, Designing
and constructing Fixed Offshore Platform – Working Stress Design. Twenty-First editions, December
2000 Errata and Supplement 1, December 2002. Published by American Petroleum Institute.
7. AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications 2007 SI. 4th Edition, Published by The American
Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Inc.
8. AASHTO Standard Specifications for Highway Bridges, 16th edition. Adopted and published by American
Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Inc.
9. Precast Prestressed Concrete Piles, Chapter – 20: Bridge Design Manual September – 2004 (Published
number: BM – 20 - 04). Written for PCI by Ralph Whitehead Associates Inc, Christopher D. White -
Principle Author, Reid W. Castrodale – Contributing Author & Editor, McLeod C. Nigels Contributing
Author. Published by PCI.
10. “Ultimate Strength Theory of Prestressed Concrete Piles and Columns” by Arthur R. Anderson and Saad
E. Moustafa in ACI Journal (TI: 67-37) of August 1970.
11. Recommended Practice for design, Manufacture and Installation of Prestressed Concrete Piling, PCI
Journal (vol.38. no.2) March/April – 1993.
12. PCI Design Handbook (6th edition) MNL 120-04m published by PCI.
13. Roark’s formulas for stress and strain (7th edition) by Warren C. Young and Richard G. Budynas,
Published by McGraw-Hill
14. Prestressed Concrete Structure by Dr. Amlan K Sengupta and Prof. Devdas Menon, Published by Indian
Institute of Technology Madras.
15. Prestressed Concrete by N Krishna Raju (Second Edition), Published by Tata McGraw – Hill publishing
company limited.
16. IS 1343 – 1980 Indian Standard Code of Practice for Prestressed Concrete, Published by Indian Standards
Institutions.
17. ACI 318RM-02 An ACI standard of Building code requirements for structural concrete, Published by ACI.
18. ACI 543R-00 (Reapproved 2005) An ACI standard for Design, Manufacture and Installation of Concrete
Piles, Published by ACI.
19. Foundation Engineering by P.C.Varghese, Published by Prentice-Hall of India Private limited – 2005.
20. Pile Design and construction Practice by M.J.Tomlinson & Johm Woodward (5th edition), Published by the
Taylor & Francis.
21. Chapter – 8 Prestressed compression and Tension Members in a book of Prestressed Concrete (A
Fundamental approach) by Edward G. Nawy. Published by Prentice Hall. (Pearson education Inc.)
22. Petronet LNG Document Number J9000-3504, (Revision 1). Document of Petronet LNG for Petronet LNG
jetty.
23. Pile design for structural and geotechnical engineers by Ruwan Rajapakse, Published by Butterworth-
Heinemann, Printed in the United States of the America.