Driven Concrete Pile Foundation Monitoring with Embedded Data Collector System
Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) sponsored research performed at the University of Florida resulted in developing a wireless monitoring and real time static capacity estimate technology for driven piles. This new technology, Embedded Data Collector (EDC), uses two levels of instrumentation, embedded in the body of precast prestressed concrete piles near the head and tip. Strain and acceleration measurements obtained at these instrumentation levels during driving are sent wirelessly to a receiver in the field, and analyzed in real time to provide the operator with estimates of static capacity, stresses in the pile, transfer energy, damping factor, stroke height, and other relevant parameters used to evaluate the pile driving process and the driving system. The EDC system is currently undergoing phase one of a two phase field evaluation program planned by the FDOT to determine the level of reliability that can be anticipated by its use. The first phase consists of monitoring piles with EDC instrumentation and concurrently monitoring them with the Pile Driving Analyzer (PDA), given that there is ample data supporting the reliability of PDA. Measurements of strain and particle acceleration converted to force and velocity traces can then be compared between the two systems, along with the corresponding calculated magnitude of downward and upward traveling stress waves as they move along the pile at any point in time. Selected hammer blows recorded by PDA equipment are analyzed by means of signal matching software (CAPWAP) and the estimated static skin, end bearing, and total resistance obtained are compared against EDC static resistance predictions. The second phase of the evaluation will compare EDC estimates of static capacity against instrumented static load test results. The purpose of this paper, is only to present a summary of results obtained thus far in phase one, and compares EDC estimates of static capacity results with those from PDA and CAPWAP.
Mechanical Performance Monitoring for Prestressed Concrete Piles Used in a Newly-Built High-Piled Wharf in a Harbor with Fiber Bragg Grating Sensor Technology When Pile Driving
Mechanical performance monitoring of civil infrastructure using fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors has received significant public attention in recent years. However, there is currently little research on the mechanical performance monitoring of piles used in high-piled wharfs in coastal ports during pile driving using the FBG sensor technique. Based on the properties of precast prestressed concrete piles used in high-piled wharfs in coastal ports and servicing seawater environments, and the benefits of FBG sensors, the mechanical performance monitoring for precast prestressed concrete piles used in a newly-built high-piled wharf in the Tianjin Port of China is devised and deployed with the FBG sensor technique. To conduct performance monitoring of the precast prestressed concrete pile, a state-of-the-art FBG strain sensor, which is less thermosensitive and does not require temperature compensation, was used to monitor the strain status of different locations of the pile. In one pile, three of this kind of strain sensor were set near the head, middle and tip of the pile, and one FBG angle sensor was set near the head of the pile to measure the dip angle of the pile. During the testing, data were recorded for all of the details of the pile driving process. According to the data analysis, it is clear that the compressive strain at the middle of the pile during driving is larger than that near the head and tip of the pile. Therefore, the middle of the prestressed concrete pile is the key location that should be preferentially monitored during pile driving. Meanwhile, when the hammer impacts the pile continuously, the obvious tension strain at the tip of the pile increases and the maximum dynamic tension strain reaches 56 μe, which approaches the tension ultimate strain. This occurs because the frictional resistance of soil is small in the middle of the pile when the tip meets the significant supporting soil layer. This study can provide a reference for the mechanical performance monitoring deployment of precast prestressed concrete piles used in high-piled wharf structures in coastal ports.
Michigan Study of Pile Driving Hammers
Performance characteristics of pile driving hammers were investigated in the Michigan tests, 1961 to 1964. Comparisons were made of light and heavy models of three representative diesels and a standard steam or air hammer. Energy transmitted to the pile (ENTHRU) was measured in terms of force, acceleration, and displacement on 88 electronically instrumented H-Beam and pipe piles. Tests were made at three sites selected to represent the range of Michigan soil conditions that were evaluated quantitatively by standard borings and laboratory tests. Following comprehensive statistical analyses of results, comparative performance was formulated in terms of number of blows required to drive typical piles selected intervals of depth and the speed with which this penetration ocurred under comparable driving conditions. In general, the results indicate that hammers should be selected for specific driving conditions under which they perform best.