Behavior of Driven Ultrahigh-Performance Concrete H-Piles Subjected to Vertical and Lateral Loadings
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 136, Issue 10
Abstract
In the United States, an estimated $1 billion is spent annually on repair and replacement of deep foundations. In a recent study, the possibility of using ultrahigh-performance concrete (UHPC) for deep foundation applications was explored with the objectives of increasing the service life of deep foundations supporting bridges to 75 years and reducing maintenance costs. This paper focuses on field evaluation of two UHPC piles and references a steel H-pile. An UHPC pile with an H shape was designed to simplify the process of casting the pile and reduce the volume (i.e., cost) of the material needed to cast the pile. Two instrumented UHPC piles were driven in loess on top of a glacial till clay soil and load tested under vertical and lateral loads. This paper provides a complete set of results for the field investigation conducted on UHPC H-shaped piles. The results presented in this paper prove that the designed UHPC piles can be driven using the same equipment used to drive steel H-piles through hard soil layers without a pile cushion. The vertical load capacity of the UHPC pile was over 80% higher than that of the steel H-piles.
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Acknowledgments
This study was funded through the high-risk research program by the Iowa Highway Research Board. The writers would like to thank the technical advisory committee of the research project. Special thanks are due to Iowa Department of Transportation, Coreslab Structures of Omaha, Nebraska, Lafarge North America, and Cramer and Associates for their help, in-kind support, and services. The writers would like to thank Sherif AbdelSalam, Kam Weng Ng, and Mathew Rolling for their help during field tests and interpretation of data.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 136 • Issue 10 • October 2010
Pages: 1403 - 1413
Copyright
© 2010 ASCE.
History
Received: Aug 2, 2009
Accepted: Mar 2, 2010
Published online: Mar 4, 2010
Published in print: Oct 2010
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