Integrity Testing of Bored Piles Using Sonic Logging
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical Engineering
Volume 110, Issue 8
Abstract
A power plant is being founded on bored concrete piles which penetrate 30–40 m of compressible soil and are socketed into rock. An integrity testing program of these cast‐in‐place piles included shaft coring, compression testing of concrete cores and geophysical sonic logging of core holes. Sonic logging along the core hole was performed with a downhole probe containing a 40 kHz transmitter and multiple receivers. The intensity (attenuation) of the sonic signal has been shown to be a more reliable indicator of concrete quality than P‐wave velocity. By normalizing the intensity of the energy arrival against the maximum intensity observed in the pile being tested, a correlation with concrete compressive strength as measured by core crushing was identified. Finally, the use of multiple pipes cast into piles has been shown to be an effective way to test piles without coring. This technique permits performance of both near‐field and cross‐pile testing to evaluate the majority of the shaft area.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
1.
Arias, R. P., “Evaluation of Drilled Shaft Integrity By Non‐Destructive Methods,” thesis presented to the University of Texas, at Austin, in 1977 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering.
2.
Hearne, T. M., Jr., Stokoe, K. H., II, and Reese, L. C., “Drilled‐Shaft Integrity By Wave Propagation Method,” Journal of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, ASCE, Vol. 107, No. 10, Proc. Paper 16582, 1981.
3.
Kissenpfennig, J. F., and Weinhold, H. F., “Integrity and As‐Built Capacity of Bored Pile Group,” Proceedings, Tenth International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Stockholm, Sweden, 1981.
4.
Myung, J. I., and Sturdevant, W. M., “Introduction to the Three Dimensional Velocity Log,” publication by the Birdwell Division, Seismograph Service Corporation, Tulsa, Okla., 1972.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 ASCE.
History
Published online: Aug 1, 1984
Published in print: Aug 1984
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.