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Grouting can be implemented in two common modes, namely compaction grouting and fracture grouting. For compaction grouting, high viscosity grout is commonly used for injection into soils. Upon reaching the soils, the grout would not penetrate into soil spaces. Instead it forms a spherical bulb and remains as a homogeneous mass. The formation of bulb displaces the nearby soils.
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The type of connection between piles and pile caps affects the load carrying capacity of pile groups. The fixity of pile head into pile cap, instead of pinning into pile cap, enhances higher lateral stiffness of the pile groups. For instance, for the same deflections, a cap with fixed connected piles can sustain far more loads than that of pinned connected piles. To satisfy the criterion of fixed connection, the minimum embedded length of piles into pile caps should be at least two times the diameter of piles.
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(i) Use slender pile sections (e.g. H-pile or precast pile) because smaller pile area when subject to the same working load would produce higher deformation, thus increasing the relative downward movement of piles.
The advantages of top-down approach are listed below:
(i) The structures above ground can be carried out simultaneously with the structures below ground. This greatly reduces the time for construction.
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There is no strict rule in governing the measure of rock encountered in piling operation. There are two common practices in measuring rock during piling:
(i) Measure the quantity of obstruction taken out from the drilled out;
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In BS8110 and BS5400 Pt.4, they require the provision of nominal reinforcement for columns. However, for pile design the requirement of nominal reinforcement may not be necessary. Firstly, as piles are located
underground, the occurrence of unexpected loads to piles is seldom. Secondly, shear failure of piles is considered not critical to the structure due to severe collision. Moreover, the failure of piles by buckling due to fire is unlikely because fire is rarely ignited underground.
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For steel sections referred to in BS5950, universal bearing pile is characterized by having equal flange and web thickness while universal column has different flange and web thickness. Universal columns can also be used as bearing piles.
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Loads from columns transferring to pile cap induce tensile forces at the bottom of the cap. For instance, by using truss analogy to analyze a pile cap sitting on two piles with a column at the centre of the pile cap, the tensile force at the bottom is proportional to the pile spacing and is inversely proportional to depth of pile cap. The bottom reinforcement is designed to resist the tensile stressed generated from loads in columns.
The construction of piles by driving method causes an increase in density of the surrounding soils. Hence, for loose soils this results in improved compaction of soils between the piles.
