A pile is a slender element cast in the ground or driven into it. Since pile construction as well as the final product are mostly invisible, engineers have often questioned their integrity, i.e.
Their compliance with project drawings and specifications. In fact, experience has shown that in piles, of all kinds flaws may occur. The purpose of integrity testing is to discover such flaws before they can cause any damage.Historically, pile integrity was investigated by direct methods. These included external methods such as excavation around the pile and internal or intrusive methods, such as core-drilling. While excavation may be effective in exposing flaws in the outer part of the pile, it is usually limited to a depth of a few meters. Core drilling, on the other hand, can be carried out to a large depth provides full information, but only for a very small fraction of the pile volume.Indirect methods, or imaging, were first developed in the early 1970s. These include three distinct methods:.
Pile Integrity Test. The integrity test is an essential part of quality control in either cast-in-place or pre-cast concrete. This is because the possible structural defects from pile installation such as cracks, changes in cross-sections and the like can be detected by the use of this method.
Nuclear radiation, or gamma-gamma method. Short wave (ultrasonic) acoustic method.
Long wave (sonic) acoustic methodA pile integrity test (also known as low strain dynamic test, sonic echo test, and low strain integrity test) is one of the methods for assessing the condition of or shafts. Fleming, W.G.K.; Weltman, A.J.; Randolph, M.F.; Elson, W.K. Piling Engineering. Glasgow: Blackie.
Pp. 251–281. Turner, M.J. Integrity testing in piling practice.
London: CIRIA. Pp. 71–86. Price, K. 'Checking of cast-in-place concrete piles by gamma ray scattering'. Ground engineering: 70–76. Levy, J.F. 'Sonic pulse method of testing cast-in-situ concrete piles'.
Ground Engineering (Vol. 3). Steinbach, J.
(April 1975). 'Caisson evaluation by stress-wave propagation method'. GT4): 361–378.Rausche, F., Likins, G. E., Hussein, M.H., May, 1988.
Pile Integrity By Low And High Strain Impacts. Third International Conference on the Application of Stress-Wave Theory to Piles: Ottawa, Canada; 44-55Hussein, M.H., Garlanger, J., June, 1992. Damage Detection for Concrete Piles Using a Simple Nondestructive Method.
Proceedings of the First International Conference on Fracture Mechanics of Concrete Structures: Breckenridge, COLikins, G. E., Rausche, F., Miner, R., Hussein, M.H., October, 1993. Verification of Deep Foundations by NDT Methods. ASCE Annual Meeting: Washington, D.C.Massoudi, N., Teferra, W., April, 2004. Non-Destructive Testing of Piles Using the Low Strain Integrity Method. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering: New York, NY.
(CD-ROM)70% failures of structures occur due to foundation failure.
A pile is a slender element cast in the ground or driven into it. Since pile construction as well as the final product are mostly invisible, engineers have often questioned their integrity, i.e. Their compliance with project drawings and specifications. In fact, experience has shown that in piles, of all kinds flaws may occur.
The purpose of integrity testing is to discover such flaws before they can cause any damage.Historically, pile integrity was investigated by direct methods. These included external methods such as excavation around the pile and internal or intrusive methods, such as core-drilling. While excavation may be effective in exposing flaws in the outer part of the pile, it is usually limited to a depth of a few meters. Core drilling, on the other hand, can be carried out to a large depth provides full information, but only for a very small fraction of the pile volume.Indirect methods, or imaging, were first developed in the early 1970s. These include three distinct methods:.
Nuclear radiation, or gamma-gamma method. Short wave (ultrasonic) acoustic method. Long wave (sonic) acoustic methodA pile integrity test (also known as low strain dynamic test, sonic echo test, and low strain integrity test) is one of the methods for assessing the condition of or shafts. Fleming, W.G.K.; Weltman, A.J.; Randolph, M.F.; Elson, W.K. Piling Engineering. Glasgow: Blackie. Pp. 251–281.
Turner, M.J. Integrity testing in piling practice. London: CIRIA. Pp. 71–86.
Price, K. 'Checking of cast-in-place concrete piles by gamma ray scattering'.
Ground engineering: 70–76. Levy, J.F. 'Sonic pulse method of testing cast-in-situ concrete piles'. Ground Engineering (Vol.
3). Steinbach, J. (April 1975). 'Caisson evaluation by stress-wave propagation method'. GT4): 361–378.Rausche, F., Likins, G.
E., Hussein, M.H., May, 1988. Pile Integrity By Low And High Strain Impacts. Third International Conference on the Application of Stress-Wave Theory to Piles: Ottawa, Canada; 44-55Hussein, M.H., Garlanger, J., June, 1992.
Damage Detection for Concrete Piles Using a Simple Nondestructive Method. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Fracture Mechanics of Concrete Structures: Breckenridge, COLikins, G.
E., Rausche, F., Miner, R., Hussein, M.H., October, 1993. Verification of Deep Foundations by NDT Methods. ASCE Annual Meeting: Washington, D.C.Massoudi, N., Teferra, W., April, 2004. Non-Destructive Testing of Piles Using the Low Strain Integrity Method. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering: New York, NY. (CD-ROM)70% failures of structures occur due to foundation failure.