An Alternative Approach to the Executive Control of Root Piles

Abstract

A root pile is an injected type of pile (cast-in-place with pressure, with very distinct construction aspects from the known micropile type). Those piles are installed by using distinct injection pressures up to 500 kPa during the mortar shaft formation. The executive control of root piles is usually carried out by static load tests, requiring a costly and time-consuming assessment method. To study root pile performance, static load tests were performed on eight monitored piles with diameters of 350 and 410 mm. This paper proposes an alternative methodology for confirming the root pile performance based on the use of a speedometer attached to the rotatory head of the drill rig. The methodology consists in monitoring variables that are related to the pile bearing capacity, thus, proposing empirical equations with simple and applicable use to estimate root pile bearing capacity during installation. The results obtained by the proposed equations were in agreement with the values obtained from static load tests for the tested piles. Therefore, the results show that the methodology proposed presents itself as a viable alternative for the executive control of root piles.