Driven Piles

Specially constructed O-cells® can be attached to driven piles. Load testing can be performed on prestressed concrete piles, steel pipe piles and cylinder piles. For driven piles, a rugged design ensures that O-cells driven to refusal conditions perform as designed. Staged testing over weeks, months or even years is possible and pile set-up or relaxation can be evaluated.

For pre-cast concrete driven pile applications, an O-cell is cast into the pile during construction and the pile can be driven to design depth or refusal as per normal installation procedures. Subsequent pressurizing of the O-cell simultaneously loads the capacity below the assembly and the skin friction above.

In ground conditions where the end bearing may be comparable or greater than the friction, the O-cell may be located at the bottom of the driven pile and the test will measure end bearing and friction directly independently.

For friction piles, the O-cell can either be cast into a single section of pile or conveniently at a joint. This allows the optimum selection of depth of the first element to position the O-cell at the most favourable position for the test.

Tests have been performed on square precast piles of 300 mm, 450 mm, 600mm and 750 mm. Any size and capacity pile can be accommodated.

Because the test is a static loading process all creep and time effects are accounted for. The data enables calculation of unit end bearing and friction, as well as equivalent top-load behaviour.

Driven Piles

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