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Failure analyses of open-ended pre-stressed high-strength concrete pile during driving: insights from distributed fiber optic sensing

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Abstract

Open-ended pre-stressed high-strength concrete (PHC) pipe piles are susceptible to progressive distortion and even failure in the vicinity of the pile toe during driving into stiff soil or rock strata. This paper presents an experimental investigation conducted as part of a power plant construction in Huainan, China. After 50 piles were driven in the initial phase, the toe of 9 piles were detected as damaged using the sonic echo testing method. In the second construction phase, four piles were instrumented with longitudinal and circumferential fiber optic cables, as well as discrete strain gauges. The recorded responses of pipe piles throughout their driving process are analyzed to reveal the causes of damages. The results show that a maximum circumferential tensile stress developed at a distance of 1/6 pile length above the pile toe, with its value three times greater than that in other cross-sections. This high circumferential stress results in transverse cracks and the failure of open-ended PHC piles and is believed to be related to the formation of soil plugs. The findings provide valuable insights into performance evaluation of driven open-ended PHC piles.

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Acknowledgements

The financial supports provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 42077235, 42077232) and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2018YFC1505104) are gratefully acknowledged. Special thanks are given to Penglai Ding for his active participation in the field tests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Nan**g University, Nan**g, 210023, China

    Hong-Hu Zhu, **g Wang, Wei Zhang, Wen-Bin Suo & Bin Shi

  2. Institute of Earth Exploration and Sensing, Nan**g University, Nan**g, 210023, China

    Hong-Hu Zhu

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    **g Wang

  4. Department of Civil Engineering, Technichal University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark

    Assaf Klar

  5. Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Technion City, Haifa, 32000, Israel

    Assaf Klar

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  1. Hong-Hu Zhu
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  3. Wei Zhang
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Correspondence to Wei Zhang or Assaf Klar.

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Zhu, HH., Wang, J., Zhang, W. et al. Failure analyses of open-ended pre-stressed high-strength concrete pile during driving: insights from distributed fiber optic sensing. Acta Geotech. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-024-02255-6

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