Dry Parallel Seismic: A Novel Method for Determining Thickness of Buried Concrete Pad Foundations
Publication: Journal of Infrastructure Systems
Volume 29, Issue 1
Abstract
The structural capacity of concrete foundations supporting, for example, telecommunications and electrical transmission towers depends, among other things, upon the thickness of the concrete foundation. Current methodology for investigating the thickness of concrete foundations nondestructively has largely been focused upon deep foundations, such as caissons, and in situations where the top of the foundation is exposed. For example, the parallel seismic (PS) method is a borehole method that uses the arrival times of waves imparted in a foundation at a sensor next to a buried foundation to detect the thickness of the foundation but is typically used for deep caisson type foundations. However, in many instances, these foundations are pad and pier type footings that can be buried deep below ground and can be relatively thin, for example, less than 45 cm in thickness. The objective of the present work is to present a nondestructive method for determining the thickness of concrete pads with no direct access. The dry PS method was developed to determine the thickness of thin, buried concrete foundations. The method was first used to verify the as-built thickness, as mentioned in the engineering drawings of a guyed tower dead-man block. Second, it was used to determine the thickness of the pad foundations of five telecommunication towers with pad and pier concrete foundations in South Asia. These towers had foundation thicknesses ranging from 16 to 36 cm, as verified through excavation. Analysis of the data collected during dry PS testing resulted in a mean absolute error (MAE) of 18 mm, which equates to approximately 6% error. Thus, this paper demonstrates that the dry PS method overcomes the limitations of the current methodology and is capable of accurately determining the thickness of buried concrete foundations.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are proprietary or confidential in nature and may only be provided with restrictions. Data is available in the form of prepopulated plots. Raw data is not available. Models and code are proprietary to FDH and not available.
References
ASTM. 2021. Standard test methods for measuring the depth of deep foundations by parallel seismic logging. ASTM Standard D8381/D8381M-21. West Conshohocken, PA: ASTM.
Milligan, D., A. Mohammadian, J. Scott, A. Nikam, M. Sharpe, K. Ramos, and E. Loewenthal. 2022. Systems and methods for estimating concrete thickness. Washington, DC: US Patent and Trademark Office
Niederleithinger, E. 2012. “Improvement and extension of the parallel seismic method for foundation depth measurement.” Soils Found. 52 (6): 1093–1101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sandf.2012.11.023.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 21, 2021
Accepted: Sep 30, 2022
Published online: Dec 27, 2022
Published in print: Mar 1, 2023
Discussion open until: May 27, 2023
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Caissons
- Communication systems
- Concrete
- Deep foundations
- Energy infrastructure
- Engineering fundamentals
- Engineering materials (by type)
- Foundations
- Geotechnical engineering
- Infrastructure
- Lifeline systems
- Material mechanics
- Material properties
- Materials engineering
- Power transmission towers
- Seismic tests
- Tests (by type)
- Thickness
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.