TEST TRENDS IN PILING & FOUNDATION ENGINEERING.

Preamble : Food, Clothing and shelter are the basic needs of human beings from the beginning of life on earth and the
human race are vying each other to achieve the same. Because of this all the good lands on earth are used for
horizontal developments during old civilizations and the developments where mainly near River Banks and Sea ports.
Because of the shortage of land Urban areas vertical growth of buildings have become a necessity. The earlier
structures in the world having significant heights are Qutab Minar in Delhi and Leaning Tower of Piza in Italy. Techniques
have been evolved after 2nd World war in European and American countries for improving the various types of
foundations to take up under ground railway work and constructing high rise buildings such as Sears Tower in Chicago,
World Trade Centre in New York, Twin Towers in Malaysia and Burj Dubai Tower in Dubai business district which is
above 150 stories and 800 meter above ground level. To support these types of structures deep and large diameter
piles are essential which can be done by direct mud circulation method or by Rotary Rigs supported by bentonite slurry
system. Both the methods are approved by British and Indian standards and are used in India & abroad depending on
the speed by which the project has to be completed. Rotary method has got more speed when compared to DMC
method and the disadvantage is that it cannot cut through hard rocks effectively. The DMC system is widely used IN
India for providing pile foundations for buildings up to 50 stories (150 meters) and the piles can be done upto depths of
60 meter from ground level and diameters can vary from 500 to 1500mm. This is cost effective and we recommend this
system for India and abroad for diameters from 500mm to 1500mm and depth up to 60 meters.

Types of Piling : Because of the agricultural and Industrial revolution building rules has come in to effect in prominent
towns of Europe and the 1st town planning act of UK is in 1919. Since the building has to be built on a particular plot
limited by size various foundation techniques has come in to force in UK in the year 1905 by a company called
CEMENTATION. Ever since 1905 Engineers found new and new methods and basically every method consisted of
boring holes up to rock with various techniques lowering, reinforcement cages and concreting. The developed form of
foundation engineering after 2nd half of 20th century are as follows:-
Undreamed compaction and ordinary piles.
Bored cast in situ DMC piles.
Driven cast in situ piles.
Pre-cast concrete piles.
Bored cast in situ to Rotary piles.
Among the above undreamed piles are mainly used for supporting light structures of 5 stories and below. For DMC piles
to take heavy load the pile has to penetrate in to rock atleast 30cm to 50cm or 1D or 1.5D depending on the intensity of
loading on the pile. The pile capacity is mainly decided as per the structural strength of concrete or the safe bearing
capacity of the founding strata. If the concrete is weak and the founding strata is strong there will be structural failure of
the concrete or if it is vise versa the founding strata will fail.
The method of piling from place to place will vary such as dia meter, depth etc. and in Trivandrum generally the depth is
5 to 20 mtrs, in Kochi depth from 20 to 60 mtrs etc. In Kochi some of the areas where rock is not available, the pile is
rested on coarse sand strata where the N-value is more than 100. Before taking a decision to rest the pile on sand the
thickness of the sandy strata should also be analyzed, because the sandy strata will be very thin and if clay strata is
under laying the piles will not take the desired load.

Method Statement - DMC Piling :

For executing DMC piles (Direct Mud Circulation piles ) method which is approved as per IS 2911 and British Standards
under specifications of bored cast in situ piles. The bore holes will be advanced by chisels weighing above 1000kg by
circulating bentonite slurry using a 20 HP vertical motor and pump. Because of the impact of chisel the cuttings will be
brought out by the bentonite slurry and the bore holes will be advanced to the founding strata which is about 15 to 20
meter in depth. The founding strata can be rock or dense sand having N value > 50 as per structural design. To prevent
the side collapse and caving in, a guide casing of 500 -1500 mm dia and 1 to 1.5M depth will be fixed on the top of the
bore hole and this will be withdrawn after concreting is over. Once the bore hole reaches the final depth the chissel will
be kept for about 15 minutes to clear out all the cuttings from the bore hole. After this the chissel will be removed from
the bore hole and steel cages will be inserted in to the bore as per the structural design and tremmie pipe of 8 inch dia
 meter will be inserted to the center of the cage. After the insertion of tremmie pipe, the bore will be thoroughly cleared
by using bentonite slurry pumped through a 20 HP pump. Once the bore is clear ready mix concrete of required
specification will be poured through the funnel fitted on the top of the tremmie pipe and the concrete will be made to
overflow from the bore till all the laitance is removed from the bore and good concrete appears on the top. The
theoretical volume and actual concrete used will be measured and recorded including details of reinforcement etc. on a
bore long which forms the basis of measurement between the contractor and client.

Method of Rotary Piling :

Because of the requirement of noise free and vibration free piling in Urban areas a new technique has come called
rotary piling. This is very expensive but we can save a lot of time and noise from the neighbors. Now a days most
modern rotary rigs are available costing from Rs. 2 crores to Rs.15 crores, and these rigs can do piles from 500 mm to
3000mm dia depth up to 60 mtrs. These types of piling are mainly used for industrial purposes where large areas are
available for development and time is the main factor. The capacity of the rigs are classified based on torque it can
produce and it various from 7 to 40 and this is designed based on hardness of the rock it can cut. The rock is mainly cut
by Rotary method using Tungsten carbide bits or diamond bits. If the rock is too hard then it is cut by using core barrel
using Diamond bits and this is very expensive. The production of Rotary rigs has to be a minimum of 100 mts per day to
cover the cost and if the production is low, then the cost will increase. Also in transporting and deploying these
machines wide approach roads are required as the machine weights from 40 tons to 70 tons and the length of the Kelly
bar from 12 mtrs to 15 mtrs. For residential buildings now a days Hydraulically operated rotary rigs are used mounted
on lorries and these also give desired result and less expensive when compared to modern rotary rigs.

b) Method of testing Founding Strata:The basic method for ascertaining the strata for founding is standard
penetration test and if the N-value is more than 100, then it is considered as reasonably good founding strata for piling.

c) Concrete : The concrete mix used for piling is M25,M30,M35 etc. in India and outside the country M40 is the
minimum standard for piling and if goes to M80. The strength of the concrete as ascertained by cube test after 3 days,
7days, 21days, 28days, etc. The workability of the concrete is assessed by taking the slump at site it should be from
150 to 180mm.

d) Pile test : The piles are tested for the following

Initial vertical load test
Initial lateral load test
Initial pullout test
Routine vertical load test
Routine lateral load test
Routine pullout test
Dynamic load test (Nondestructive)
Integrity test.

As per the Indian standard 1 times the design load is tested and the settlement of the piles should be below
12mm.The relevant IS code is as follow :IS 2911 Which can be referred for this.