MINIPILES (UNDERREAMED PILES)

Why are bored piles usually cast higher than the required final level?

It appears to be a common construction practice that bored piles are normally cast up to a piling platform much higher than the formation level of pile caps. Then, the excessive pile length has to be cropped and removed to the correct level for the subsequent construction of pile cap. The reasons of such practice are as follows: (i) It is technically sound to employ such practice because laitance, impurities and poorly-compacted concrete should have migrated to the top of the piles. Therefore, additional length at the top of piles is constructed to accommodate these sub-standard concrete, which are subsequently removed and cropped to leave high quality concrete over the entire length of piles. (ii) In actual site practice, the details of construction sequence and access arrangements have potential impact on the possibility of constructing piles to correct level without the need of cropping.
What is the value of micropiles when compared with bored piles and driven piles?

Micropiles are defined as bored piles with diameters not exceeding 250mm. Micropiles were first constructed in Italy in 1950s and were given the name root piles. Whenever bored piles (larger diameter) and driven piles are considered feasible, they should be more economic than micropiles. Owing to the small size of piles, only small dimension of equipment is needed for construction. Moreover, it can be used to drill through any type of soils, boulders and hard materials. Micropiles have extensive applications under the following situations: (i) Underpinning and retrofitting existing structures; (ii) Locations of limited vertical clearance and small working areas.
What is the purpose of post-grouting for mini-piles?

Post-grouting is normally carried out some time when grout of the initial grouting work has set (e.g. within 24 hours of initial grouting). It helps to increase the bearing capacity of mini-piles by enhancing larger effective pile diameter. Moreover, it improves the behaviour of soils adjacent to

grouted piles and minimizes the effect of disturbance caused during construction. In essence, post-grouting helps to improve the bond between soils and grout, thereby enhancing better skin friction between them. During the process of post-grouting, a tube with a hole at its bottom is lowered into the pile and grout is injected. The mechanism of post-grouting is as follows: the pressurized grout is initially confined by the hardened grout and can hardly get away. Then, it ruptures the grout cover and makes its way to the surrounding soils and into soft regions to develop an interlock with harder soil zones. In order to enhance the pressurized grout to rupture the initial grout depth, a maximum time limit is normally imposed between the time of initial grouting and time of post-grouting to avoid the development of high strength of initial grout. Consequently, the effect of soil disturbance by installation of casings and subsequent lifting up of casings would be lessened significantly.
What are the considerations in determining whether casings should be left in for mini-piles?

Contrary to most of pile design, the design of min-piles are controlled by internal capacity instead of external carrying capacity due to their small cross-sectional area. There are mainly two reasons to account for designing mini-piles as friction piles: (i) Due to its high slenderness ratio, a pile of 200mm diameter with 5m long has a shaft area of 100 times greater than cross-sectional area. Therefore, the shaft friction mobilized should be greater than end resistance. (ii) Settlements of 10%-20% of pile diameter are necessary to mobilize full end bearing capacity, compared with 0.5%-1% of pile diameter to develop maximum shaft resistance. Left-in casings for mini-piles have the following advantages: (i) (ii) Improve resistance to corrosion of main bars; Provide additional restraint against lateral buckling;

(iii) Improve the grout quality by preventing intrusion of groundwater during concreting; (iv) Prevent occurrence of necking during lifting up of casings during concreting.
What is the design approach for the spacing of min-piles?

For close spacing of min-piles, it would provide substantial cost savings with the reduction of pile cap size. However, close spacing of piles implies the problem of group effect which tends to reduce the load carrying capacity of each pile member. Notwithstanding this, there is well established rule which govern the minimum spacing of piles, i.e. for friction piles like mini-piles, the centre-to-centre spacing should not be less than the perimeter of the pile.
Why shouldnt tremie pipe be left in a position too long without lifting up?

When concrete starts to flow out of tremie pipe, the lifting of tremie pipe should be carried out slowly to avoid disturbance of material surrounding the end of tremie pipe. The mouth of pipe is embedded at least 1m below the concrete surface to maintain the seal. If a tremie pipe is left in a position too long without lifting up, it would impairthe quality of already-placed concrete. The fresh concrete may be placed under the portion of concrete which have set already so that it would raise the mass of already-placed concrete and induce cracks on it.
What is the purpose of keeping tremie pipes tip immersed in freshly-placed concrete for about 1m in underwater concreting?

The size of tremie pipe is about 300mm with sections having flange couplings fitted with gasket to prevent water leakage. The tremie pipe should be closed initially to prevent water from entering the pipe. It should be designed with sufficient thickness and weight so that it would not be buoyant when empty inside water. The placement of tremie concrete is commenced by putting the closed pipe underwater to the location for concreting, followed by partial filling of tremie pipe with concrete. In order to have tremie concrete flowed out of the pipe, it is necessary to fill the pipe with concrete of sufficient height to overcome

the water pressure and frictional head. After that the tremie pipe is raised about 150mm to allow concrete to flow out. To enhance sufficient bonding, each succeeding layer of concrete should be placed before the preceding layer has reached the initial set. The tremie pipe should be kept full of concrete up to the bottom of hopper. The tip of tremie pipe should always be immersed in freshly-placed concrete for at least 1m to prevent inflow of water into the tremie pipe and to avoid contact of freshly placed concrete with water. This serves as the seal against water entry. The loss of seal may result in increased flow rate with fresh concrete affected by seawater. The distance that tremie concrete could be allowed to flow without excessive segregation is about 6-20m.
What is the function of introducing cement plug before pouring concrete in bored piles?

It is a common practice in the construction of bored piles by adding a cement plug before concreting of bored piles takes place. One of the possible explanations is that the cement grout serves as a barrier and protects fresh concrete from being washed away by water inside pile bore. The cement grout helps to set aside water when the first batch of concrete is poured down from the tremie pipe. As such, the quality of fresh concrete is anticipated not to be seriously affected by water and this helps to improve toe imperfection problem.
What is the purpose of post-grouting for mini-piles?

Post-grouting is normally carried out some time when grout of the initial grouting work has set (e.g. within 24 hours of initial grouting). It helps to increase the bearing capacity of mini-piles by enhancing larger effective pile diameter. Moreover, it improves the behaviour of soils adjacent to grouted piles and minimizes the effect of disturbance caused during construction. In essence, post-grouting helps to improve the bond between soils and grout, thereby enhancing better skin friction between them. During the process of post-grouting, a tube with a hole at its bottom is lowered into the pile and grout is injected. The mechanism of post-grouting is as follows: the pressurized grout is initially confined by the hardened grout and can hardly get away. Then, it ruptures the grout cover and makes its way to the surrounding soils and into soft regions to develop an interlock with harder soil zones. In order to enhance the pressurized grout to rupture the initial grout depth, a maximum time limit is normally imposed between

the time of initial grouting and time of post-grouting to avoid the development of high strength of initial grout. Consequently, the effect of soil disturbance by installation of casings and subsequent lifting up of casings would be lessened significantly. Complied and prepared by Er.T.Rangarajan.