FULL-SCALE PILE LOADING TESTS ON INSTRUMENTED CONCRETE PILES IN CLAY TILL, IN EDMONTON, ALBERTA

Xiaobo Wang, Robin Tweedie, Renato Clementino

In the proceedings of: GeoQuébec 2015: 68th Canadian Geotechnical Conference & 7th Canadian Permafrost Conference

Session: Foundations IV / Fondations IV

ABSTRACT: Cast-in-place concrete belled piles founded in clay till are commonly used for support of heavily loaded foundations in the Edmonton area. Full-scale pile loading test on instrumented piles not only verifies load-carrying behavior and performance of the piles but also allows for the break-down of shaft and toe resistances for the pile design. Based on the results of the pile loading test, an increase of geotechnical resistance factor from 0.4 to 0.6 can be applied in the geotechnical resistance design. For projects with a large number of piles required, the overall benefit gained from the increase in design reliability and the reduction in total piling costs can be substantial. This paper presents the results of three full-scale pile loading tests on instrumented cast-in-place concrete belled piles constructed in three separate project sites in the downtown area of Edmonton, Alberta. The shaft diameters of the test piles ranged from 0.9 m to 1.2 m, bell diameters from 1.8 m to 2.7 m, and test loads were up to 9,000 kN. Embedded strain gauges and tell-tales were installed in the test piles, which provided a reliable assessment on the shaft and toe resistances. Considerable variability in the test results was identified at the test sites and the design implications are discussed in the paper.

RÉSUMÉ: sation des pieux forés à base évasée comme fondation profonde pour les structures assujetties à des charges pratiqués sur des pieux instrumende la charge, mais aussi de décortiquer les composantes de la résistance le long du fût et à la pointe lors de la conception. Les données obtenues lors de ces essais permetfiabilité lors de la conception, pour les projets de grande envergure comportant beaucoup de pieux, ces essais de Cet article présente les résultats de trois essais de chargement, réalisés à pleine échelle, sur des pieux tubulaires à base évasée (béton coulé en place) instrumentés sur trois sites distincts au centre-ont été construits avec des fûts à diamètre variant de 0,9 m à 1,2 m, des bases variant de 1,8 m à 2,7 m de diamètre et soumis à la pointe. Cet article comporte aussi une discussion sur la variation considérable des données recueillies, ainsi que les implications engendrées sur la conception des pieux de production.

Access this article:
Canadian Geotechnical Society members can access to this article, along with all other Canadian Geotechnical Conference proceedings, in the Member Area. Conference proceedings are also available in many libraries.

Cite this article:
Xiaobo Wang; Robin Tweedie; Renato Clementino (2015) FULL-SCALE PILE LOADING TESTS ON INSTRUMENTED CONCRETE PILES IN CLAY TILL, IN EDMONTON, ALBERTA in GEO2015. Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Geotechnical Society.

@article{750,author = Xiaobo Wang; Robin Tweedie; Renato Clementino,title = FULL-SCALE PILE LOADING TESTS ON INSTRUMENTED CONCRETE PILES IN CLAY TILL, IN EDMONTON, ALBERTA,year = 2015}