Tolerance and Constructability of Soldier Piles in Slurry Walls
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 24, Issue 2
Abstract
Process capability (PC) characterizes the variation in a parameter of a process’s output. From a constructability perspective, investigating PCs for geometric variation is important when specifying tolerances for all construction processes. This paper investigates a case involving soldier piles used in a slurry wall and compares the design specified tolerances to as-built field data. As with other cases investigated by the writers covering many major construction processes, this case also shows that designers specify tolerances based on tacit estimates of variation limits, not PCs. Consequently, the PCs consistently exceed the design specified tolerances, preventing the possibility of proper tolerance management and causing problems to manifest during construction. The writers conclude that variation estimates are an inaccurate basis for specifying tolerances and instead should be based on PCs.
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Acknowledgments
This research was funded by Grant No. UNSPECIFIEDCMS-0116877 from the National Science Foundation, whose support is gratefully acknowledged. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The writers also thank the following individuals for their help with project details and data analysis: Frank Salmon, Paul Harrington, Paul Pedini and Farook Hamzeh.NSF
References
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 24 • Issue 2 • April 2010
Pages: 120 - 127
Copyright
© 2010 ASCE.
History
Received: Oct 24, 2008
Accepted: Jul 2, 2009
Published online: Aug 7, 2009
Published in print: Apr 2010
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