Modern Methods and Advances in Structural Engineering and Construction

Kolesnikov, A. O., Popov, V. N. (eds.)

ISEC-6, Zürich, June 21–26, 2011

EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES OF THE PILE-CAP

DEEPENING AT THE VIBRATION
OF A PILE FOUNDATION
A.O. KOLESNIKOV1 and V.N. POPOV2
1
Khristianovich’s Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Rus-
sia.
E-mail: technocom@ngs.ru
2
Khristianovich’s Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Rus-
sia.
E-mail: popov@itam.nsc.ru
The dynamic behavior of pile foundations with a deepened pile-cap was evaluated experimentally. We
evaluated the influence of such factors as the pile-cap deepening, quantity of piles in the foundation,
ground structure, and orientation of a pile group about the vibration direction on the vibration amplitudes.
It was established that the pile-cap deepening enables to decrease essentially the vibration amplitudes.
Keywords: Dynamics, pile foundation, deepened pile-cap.

1 Introduction 2009) is described. Experimental researches

were carried out by A. Kondin (Piatetsky et al.
Today, pile foundations with deepened pile-
1993) and M. Novak (Koloushek 1965).
cap are utilized as basic constructions under
Their results confirmed the influence of the
machines with dynamic loadings. Modern
deepening on the vibrations amplitudes on
estimations of vibration amplitude and fre-
ordinary bases without piles.
quency of such foundations (Russian con-
The analysis of the literature devoted to
struction normative, SNIP 2.02.05-87) do not
the considered problem leads to the conclu-
consider the pile-cap deepening, though it is
sion that the experimental data in this area
obvious that the interaction with the ground
will be of great interest for engineering prac-
over the lateral surface of the pile-cap can
tice and further theoretical researches.
essentially influence these parameters.
The present work is concerned with the
Now there is no common approach to the
experimental study of the behavior of the pile
estimation of foundations deepening influ-
foundation with the deepened pile-cap under
ence. One of early successful attempts in this
the influence of dynamic loadings; the expe-
area was the work of Zabylin (1983). In his
riments were performed in laboratory condi-
research, he used the wave model to analyze
tions, on a special polygon and in real condi-
the reaction of the ground over the foundation
tions.
lateral surface. Further researches of this
problem in similar statement (Zabylin 1983)
were done by Nuzhdin (1995) and Kolesnikov 2 Experiment patterns
et al. (2009) where the pile-cap deepening was The patterns of the experiments in laboratory,
considered along with the prediction of its polygon and real conditions were identical.
fluctuations, and also the procedure of dynam- The dynamic loadings for various variants of
ic parameters calculation (Kolesnikov et al. the pile-cap deepening, quantity and a way of

1
Experimental researches of the pile-cap deepening at the vibration of a pile foundation
Kolesnikov, A. O., Popov, V. N.
piles accommodation in a plan, density of
surrounding backfill ground (Fig. 1) followed
the same model.
Figure 1. Schematic of the foundation:
1-pile-cap, 2-piles, 3-vibrator, h – backfill
height, d – pile-cap depth.
The vertical and horizontal dynamic load-
ing was created by a two-shaft vibrator estab-
lished on the experimental foundation. The
vibrations amplitudes and motions of a pile
trunk were registered at the vertical and hori-
zontal action of exciting forces. To diagnose
and register the vibration parameters, we used
the vibration-measuring equipment consisting
of external module AD/DA, the complete set
of vibration gauges, a set of connecting wires
and a personal computer. The piles with
strain gauges were applied to define the bend-
ing moments. In each series of tests, the mea-
surements were carried out within the fre-
quency range 0 to 45 Hz, the ratio of dynamic
and static loadings did not exceed 0.2.
2.1 Laboratory experiments
In lab conditions, the researches were per-
formed in a soil tray of 3.0×3.0×2.0 m. The
tray was filled with fine-grained dry sand, the
uniform compaction requirement being satis-
fied. A metal pile-cap (0.71×0.71× 0.8 m)
was used as a tested foundation; the models of
2
five or nine piles of 42 mm in diameter and
840 mm in length were set upon it. The piles
were made of metal pipes with a wall thick-
ness of 2.8 mm. The pile-cap structure in-
volved rigid fastening with piles and allowed
to change its lateral contact with the ground
over the lateral surface. The distance between
the axes made up to their six diameters which
permitted to avoid the mutual influence of the
piles in a group. One pile was equipped with
strain gauges. Under consideration were the
influence of the backfill depth 0≤h/d≤1 (Fig.
1) and amount of piles on the vibration ampli-
tude and the momenta arising in pile trunk.
2.2 Polygon experiments
In the polygon experiments, pile foundation
had a monolithic ferro-concrete pile-cap with
overall dimensions of 1.0×1.0×1.0 m leaning
on 4 piles of 114 mm in diameter, their work-
ing length being of 2 m. The piles were made
of metal pipes with the wall thickness of 4.0
mm. The distance between the pile axes was
the same as in laboratory experiments. One
pile was equipped with strain gauges to regis-
ter the surface dynamic pressure. The piles
had a rigid fastening in the pile-cap body.
Thoroughly leveled walls of the foundation
ditch served as a wall formwork. To a depth
of 9.3 m, the polygon ground consisted of
loess-like slightly wet clay sand with a bed-
ding of semisolid loams. There were no sub-
soil waters. The following series of experi-
ments were performed with the foundation:
the pile-cap lateral surfaces directly con-
tact the natural ground;
no contact between the pile-cap lateral
surfaces and the ground;
the pile-cap lateral surfaces contact to
surrounding ground through the inten-
sively puddled backfill.
2.3 Experiments in real conditions
In real conditions, the experimental re-
searches were carried out on a city build-
ing sites. The geologic profile of a site
 Modern Methods and Advances in Structural Engineering and Construction
Cheung, S. O., Yazdani, S., Ghafoori, N., and Singh, A. (eds.)
ISEC-6, Zürich, June 21–26, 2011

presented the filled ground from sandy

loam with some scrap brick with the ca-
pacity of 1.5 m, silt sandy loam with loam
interlayers (capacity up to 2.5 m), light silt
loam with sandy loam interlayers (capacity
up to 10 m). The studied foundation pre-
sented a monolithic ferro-concrete pile-cap
of 1.2×1.2×1.0 m leaning on two modular
ferro-concrete piles S6-30 (6 m – length,
300×300 mm – cross-section). The dis-
tance between the pile axes was 0.9 m.
Two versions of the experiments were
carried out: with the deepening with full
contact of lateral surfaces to the ground
and with the dug-out pile-cap lying on the
ground. The vibration amplitudes were
measured with due regard to the deepening
and applied loading direction.

3 Experimental results
3.1 Laboratory
Figure 2 shows the data obtained at the lab
experiments. The graphs show the frequency-
response dependencies for vertical (Fig. 2, а)
and horizontal (Fig. 2, b) vibrations at various
deepening and for five (dashed lines) or nine
(solid lines) piles in plan. The measurement
results enable to establish that as the contact
area between the ground and foundation later-
al surface decreases, the vibration amplitude
increases. According to our findings, the most
significant growth is observed at h/d<2/3. It is
valid both for vertical and horizontal vibra-
tions. At the vertical vibrations, as the dee-
pening decreases, the amplitudes increased up
to four times from 0.01 up to 0.04 mm for the
foundation with nine piles, and from 0.018 up
to 0.065 mm for the foundation with five
piles.
At the horizontal vibrations, the ampli-
tudes increased up to 5 times from 0.1 up to
0.5 mm in case of nine piles and from 0.12 up
to 0.51 mm at five piles.
Figure 2. Vibration amplitudes of the pile founda-
tion for various variants of the pile-cap deepening.
It should be noted that when the amount of
piles in the pile-cap rises from 5 up to 9, the
amplitudes at vertical vibrations decrease 1.5
times, and at horizontal vibrations - to 10-15
%. Figure 3 shows the magnitudes of the
bending momenta in the pile equipped by
strain gauges (its length was of 840 mm) as
the pile-cap deepening was changed on the
forced vibration frequencies of 15 Hz (the
boundary of amplitudes rise) and 25 Hz (a
point in a resonant area). It follows from the
given data that the bending momenta rise
more than 2 times at 15 Hz – from 1.1 up to
2.4 N·m (Newton-meter) for nine piles and
from 1.2 up to 2.5 N·m for five piles, and in
the of fastening zone up to 3 times – 0.8 up to
2.6 N·m (nine piles), from 1.0 up to 2.8 N·m
(five piles).

3
Experimental researches of the pile-cap deepening at the vibration of a pile foundation
Kolesnikov, A. O., Popov, V. N.

caused by an additional rotary component in

the horizontal plane of the pile-cap because of
the lost contact between its sole and ground.

Figure 3. Schematic of strain gauges arrangements

on the pile and magnitudes of the bending momenta
in the groups of nine (solid line) and five (hatch
line) piles.

Also it is observed at the frequency of 25 Hz,

in the pile center – from 1.3 up to 2.6 N·m
(nine piles), from 1.7 up to 4.3 N·m (five
piles). The greatest growth of the bending
momenta magnitudes takes place at h/d<1/2.
The area of the maximal magnitudes is on the
depth from 200 to 400 mm. The presented
results draw us to the conclusion that the in-
crease in the amount of piles in the pile-cap
promotes the decrease of the bending momen-
ta within all pile sections from 5 to 10 %.

3.2 Polygon
Figure 4 and 5 show the experimental data
obtained on the polygon. Figure 4 illustrates
the amplitudes vs the on vibration frequency
for various pile-cap deepenings at vertical
(Fig. 4, а) and horizontal (Fig. 4, b) applica-
tion of the dynamic loading. The measure-
ment results show that the effect is similar in
sandy loams and sandy soils. As the deepen-
ing decreases (h/d changes from 1 to 0), the
vibration amplitudes increase. At vertical
vibrations, the change can make up to four
times – from 0.002 up to 0.008 mm, at hori-
zontal vibrations – up to five times, from 0.02
up to 0.1 mm. At the decreasing h/d, the re-
sonant frequency decreases, at the vertical
vibrations the magnitude changes from 35 up
to 27 Hz, at the horizontal ones – from 35 up
to 23 Hz.
The presence of the second resonant peak
at the horizontal vibrations of the dug-out pile
foundation (h/d=0) at 35 Hz (Fig. 4, b) is
Figure 4. Vibration amplitudes at various pile-cap
deepenings.
The most significant amplitude gain is
observed at h/d<0.75 for the vertical vibra-
tions and at h/d<0.5 in case of horizontal ap-
plications of the dynamic loadings.
Figure 5 demonstrates the changing am-
plitude regarding the vibration frequency and
various pile-cap deepenings at different soil
conditions – the natural and broken (backfill)
structure for the vertical (Fig. 5, а) and hori-
zontal (Fig. 5, b) applications of the dynamic
loadings. The measurement results show that
the influence of natural-structure soil contact-
ing the pile-cap lateral surfaces is higher than
that in the backfill soil case. Despite of the
thorough compression, the vibration ampli-
tudes registered at various level of the pile-cap
deepening, were always higher than ones in
the case of the natural-structure soil.

4
 Modern Methods and Advances in Structural Engineering and Construction
Cheung, S. O., Yazdani, S., Ghafoori, N., and Singh, A. (eds.)
ISEC-6, Zürich, June 21–26, 2011

At the vertical vibrations from 20 % The maximal-values area is on the depth

(h/d=0.5) to 70 % (h/d=1), at the horizontal from 500 up to 1,000 mm.
vibrations – up to 100 %.

Figure 6. Schematic of strain gauges arrangement

on the pile and magnitudes of the bending momenta
in the group of 4 piles.

3.3 Real conditions

Figure 7 shows the results of experimental
research in real conditions.

Figure 5. Vibration amplitudes of the pile founda-

tion at natural (solid lines) and broken (dashed
lines) soil structure.

Obvious that the backfill effect on the

foundation vibration parameters can increase
proportionally to its compression degree. Fig-
ure 6 illustrates the changes in the bending
momenta in the pile with strain gauges (the
pile length is 2,300 mm) vs the pile-cap de-
pending in the natural soil at the forced-
vibrations frequencies of 15 and 25 Hz. It
follows from these data that as the deepening
decreases, the bending momenta in the pile
increase up to 2 times at the frequency of 15
Hz – from 2.0 up to 4.0 N·m, and up to 3 Figure 7. Vibration amplitudes of the pile base for
times at the frequency of 25 Hz - from 3.0 up various pile-cap deepenings at the vertical (a) and
to 9.0 N·m. horizontal (b) dynamic loadings.

5
Experimental researches of the pile-cap deepening at the vibration of a pile foundation
Kolesnikov, A. O., Popov, V. N.
The measurement results enable to estab-
lish that the amplitude increases 2.3 times at
the vertical vibrations of the base as the pile-
cap deepening decreases (Fig. 7, а). For the
horizontal vibrations, we studied two direc-
tions of the dynamic loading application –
lengthwise (dashed line) and transversal (solid
line) planes of two piles. We found that the
orientation of the piles with reference to the
direction of the acting dynamic loading influ-
ences the amplitudes of the foundations vibra-
tions (Fig. 7, b). With the deepened pile-cap,
in the case of the dynamic loading along the
pile plane, the vibration amplitudes were up to
1.5 times less than at the same action in the
transversal direction. Without deepening
(h/d=0), at 30 Hz, the vibration amplitudes
were of 0.12 mm and 0.16 mm in the cases of
loadings action along and across the pile
plane, respectively. Here, the resistance of the
pile basis to shifting and moment loadings is
the governing factor.
4 Conclusions
The experimental results obtained in laborato-
ry, polygon and real conditions allow making
the following conclusions. It was established
that the pile-cap deepening (i.e. the contact of
its lateral surfaces with the ground), influ-
ences significantly on the dynamic behavior
of the pile foundation. The increase of the
deepening results in the increase of the reso-
nant frequencies and vibration amplitudes
decrease. The greatest effect is reached at the
horizontal fluctuations of the pile base. With-
out any contact between the pile-cap and
ground, the horizontal vibrations amplitudes
increased up to 5 times. Differences in the
soil structure also change the vibrations am-
plitudes level up to 100 %. The increasing
amount of the piles in the pile-cap increases
the base rigidity and enables to lower the vi-
bration amplitudes within the whole frequency
range. The bending momenta in the piles in-
crease up to 3 times at the full pile-cap dee-
pening, when there is no contact over its later-
al surface at various forced-vibrations fre-
quencies (15 and 25 Hz). The experiments in
real conditions showed that the essential de-
crease of the vibration amplitudes can be
reached by the change of pile-cap orientation
in respect to the direction of force excitation,
it is possible to achieve of.
References
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