How does the O-cell work?
The award winning Osterberg Cell, or "O-Cell', gets its name from the inventor, Dr. Jorj O. Osterberg. The O-cell is a hydraulically driven, high capacity, sacrificial loading device installed within the foundation unit. As the load is applied to the O-cell, it begins working in two directions; upward against upper side shear and downward against base resistance and lower side shear (if applicable).
By virtue of its installation within the foundation member, the Osterberg Cell load test is not restricted by overhead structural beams and tie-down piles. Instead, the O-cell derives all reaction from the soil and/or rock system. Load testing with the O-cell continues until one of three things occurs: ultimate skin friction capacity is reached upwards, ultimate capacity downwards is reached, or the maximum O-cell capacity is reached.
Each Osterberg Cell assembly is specially instrumented to allow for direct measurement of the expansion so with compression and top of pile shaft measurements the downward end bearing movement and the upward skin friction movement are known.
O-cells range in capacities from 0.7 MN to 27 MN. By using multiple O-cells on a single horizontal plane, the available test capacity can be increased to more than 200 MN. By utilizing multiple O-cells on different planes, distinct elements within a shaft or pile can be isolated for testing. Using the O-cell, LOADTEST has elevated the application of deep foundation load testing, from expensive time consuming small scale field tests, to state-of-the-art short duration full scale load testing of production shafts and piles.
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