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Field tests on behavior of the surrounding soil during helical piles installation in silty clay

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Abstract

Helical piles can be classified as partial displacement piles in terms of moderate advancement rate. However, its installation effect on surrounding soil is unclear. This study presented four field tests on the installation of helical piles with various dimensions in silty clay. The radial earth pressure and excess pore water pressure were measured during the installation processes. The installation effect of helical pile embedded in silty clay was comprehensively discussed and evaluated from multiple dimensions of time and space, based on the cavity expansion method (CEM) and Randolph and Wroth’s elastic–plastic method verified by field data. The research reveals that as the length of the helical pile increases by 1.0 time, the maximum variations in radial earth pressure and pore water pressure by a remarkable 25.0 times and 7.8 times, respectively. Additionally, when the shaft diameter of the helical pile expands by 20%, the maximum alterations in radial earth pressure and pore water pressure swell by approximately 18.6 and 5.7%, respectively. Comparing the radial earth pressure at various embedment depths at the same penetration stage, it is found that the radial earth pressure induced by helices is slightly greater than that induced by pile shaft. The estimated radial earth pressure and pore water pressure agree with the measured maximum data, and the pore water pressure generated by the installation of helical pile completely dissipates after 10–12 days of installation in this work.

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All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the submitted article.

Abbreviations

a :

Initial internal radius

b :

Initial external radius

D shaft :

Pile shaft diameter

D helix :

Helix diameter

\(D_{{\text{helix}}}^{{\text{3rd}}}\) :

Third helix depth

\(D_{{\text{helix}}}^{{\text{1st}}}\) :

First helix depth

E s :

Oedometric modulus

P i :

The i-th earth pressure cell

f s :

Shaft resistance of CPT

G :

Shear modulus of soil

L pile :

Pile length

N kt :

Site-specific cone factor

P helix :

Helix pitch

\(q_{_{\text{c}} }\) :

Corrected cone resistance of CPT

r :

Radial distance from pile center axis

r p :

Radial distance from the pile center to plastic radius

r pile :

Radius of the helical pile

S helix :

Helix spacing

S r :

Relative saturation

S u :

Undrained shear strength of soil

T helix :

Helix thickness

T pile :

Pile thickness

v :

Poisson’s ratio.

w :

Water content

w l :

Liquid limit

w p :

Plastic limit

p :

Internal cavity pressure

p 0 :

External cavity pressure

σ v :

Total vertical stress

σ v′:

Effective vertical stress

Δσ r , Max :

Maximum radial earth pressure

Δu max :

Maximum excess pore water pressure

ρ d :

Dry density

ρ w :

Wet density

W i :

The i-th pore water pressure gage

CPT:

Cone penetration test

SPT:

Standard penetration test

CEM:

Cavity expansion method

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52278345).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Geomechanics and Embankment Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210024, People’s Republic of China

    Gangqiang Kong, Shuaijun Hu, Yang Zhou & Jianghua Yu

  2. China Energy Engineering Group, Anhui Huadian Engineering Consulting & Design Co., Ltd., Anhui, 230022, People’s Republic of China

    Benwei Zou

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  1. Gangqiang Kong
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Contributions

GK: Project administration, Funding acquisition, Conceptualization, Writing—review & editing. SH: Conceptualization, Writing—original draft, Data curation. YZ: Formal Analysis, Validation, Writing—review & editing. JY: Writing—review & editing, Investigation. BZ: Writing—review & editing, Investigation.

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Correspondence to Shuaijun Hu.

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Kong, G., Hu, S., Zhou, Y. et al. Field tests on behavior of the surrounding soil during helical piles installation in silty clay. Acta Geotech. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-024-02321-z

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