Hook pile - an innovative cast-in-place pile foundation system

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Pile foundations are widely used throughout the world as the preferred foundation system to resist the upwards and downwards heavy load structures both onshore and offshore. Piles are normally installed either by driving through the ground strata or through drilling and filling the hole with reinforced concrete. Driven piles are installed through driving them into previously unexcavated soil by a hammer system. Cast-in-place piles, also known as drilled shafts, are formed by filling the concrete in an excavated borehole in the site and are commonly used in construction industry to transfer the load of superstructures to competent ground strata in wide range of geological settings. Cast-in-place piles are known as the most flexible and practical method in piling construction as they can be used in any diameters and up to any practical depth. The load carrying capacity of pile foundations are provided by the toe bearing capacity as well as the pile shaft capacity through the pile-soil interface resistance. The shaft capacity of cast-in-place piles may not be fully developed in caving soils and fractured rocks due to possible gap between the pile and the surrounding soil. An innovative technology, known as Hook Pile, was developed to significantly increase load carrying capacity of cast-in-place piles by implementing hooks on the surface of piles. The hooks are installed at the perimeter of the steel cages used in cast-in-place piles and create an anchoring mechanism with the surrounding ground materials. This technique has shown to significantly improve the resistance of the pile shaft under both compressive loads caused by superstructures as well as the uplift pressure resulting from high wind load or lateral loads without increasing the pile diameter or the shaft length. The technology invented here will primarily impact design and construction of buildings, bridges and infrastructure systems in Canada and around the world by providing a novel foundation technology for safer, economic and more effective construction practice.