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A Laboratory Investigation On The Thermo Mechanical Behaviour of Thermal Piles in Sand
A Laboratory Investigation On The Thermo Mechanical Behaviour of Thermal Piles in Sand
S.W. James
Cranfield University, Cranfield, UK
R.G. Correia
University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
R. Fuentes
University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
ABSTRACT: This paper reports on an investigation on the behaviour of base and shaft resistant piles embedded
in sand subject to heating and cooling cycles. It describes the 1 g laboratory model developed at University
College London. The test pile consists of a hollow stainless steel tube which is instrumented using Fibre Bragg
Grating (FBG) sensors that allow measurement of strain and temperature profiles along the pile length and the
surrounding soil. The pile is subjected to two heating-cooling cycles. Water held at 50◦ C is circulated inside
the pile for 24 hours; this is followed by a 24-hour cooling period during which the temperature of the water
is allowed to fall back to ambient conditions. The results show that small irreversible settlements occurred
during this period. Additionally, it is found that the degree of freedom varies between 0.9 and 1.0 which indicate
low levels of restraint are present. Nevertheless, considerable axial load and axial stress is induced in the pile.
Moreover, significant shaft friction is mobilized during both heating and cooling periods.
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sheet with an outer diameter and height of 500 mm. A
polished round tube made of grade 304 stainless steel
with an external diameter of 28 mm and height and
wall thickness of 535 mm and 1.5 mm respectively is
used to model the pile. The bottom of the model pile is
capped by welding a base plate also of grade 304 stain-
less steel in order to allows water to be circulated inside
the pile. For the shaft resistant test, the toe of the pile
passes through a hole in the container base. Container
and pile dimensions are chosen to make sure that the
results obtained are not being affected by the boundary
conditions. In the literature, the ratio between the pile
diameter and the container diameter is chosen as a fac-
tor to minimize these boundary effects. As such, the
ratio between the diameter of the container and model
pile is 17.85 which lies near the limits specified by
Parkin & Lunne (1982). Another boundary condition
is introduced by Al-Mhaidib & Edil (1998), namely
zone of influence, and determined that this is between
3D-8D for a pile installed in sand: this limit is also
comfortably met in this test. Figure 1. Shaft resistant pile set-up.
The soil used in this study is a poorly graded uni-
form fine sand with a uniformity coefficient of 2.32
and a median grain size of D50 = 0.18 mm. The aver- sensors an accurate monitoring tool. The main rea-
age specific gravity is 2.64 gr/cm3 and the maximum son for using FBG in this study is the multiplexing
and minimum dry densities are 1.658 and 1.349 gr/cm3 potential of FBG sensors where several sensors can
respectively. A relative density of 57.6% is measured be fabricated on a single fibre which reduces required
in all tests which classifies it as medium dense. The space for the installation of fibres. In this study, two
size of the sand grains in the reduced scale model is set of fibres each with 5 FBG sensors were fabri-
not scaled down with the rest of the system. Several cated at Cranfield University to monitor temperature,
recommendations are found in the literature based on TP1-TP5, and strain along the pile surface, SP1-SP5.
the relationship between the pile diameter and median Moreover, 5 set of fibres each consisting of 4 FBGs
grain size. In this study, this ratio is equal to 155 which are used to monitor the temperature in the soil bed at
is above the recommended limits specified in the lit- different levels and distances, T1-1 to T5-4 (Figure 1).
erature, namely 35 to 100 (King et al. 1984, Weinstein Data collected for temperature variations in the soil is
2008). In order to prevent heat loss, an encapsulated not presented in this paper though as the focus is on the
fibreglass insulation jacket is used to cover the top pile itself. Pile head displacement is measured using a
and bottom surfaces as well as the sides of container. Linear Variable Differential Transformer (LVDT) with
The insulation jacket has 8 mm thickness and a ther- measurement range of ±7.5 mm and data collection
mal conductivity value of 0.04 (W/m.K). A Techne frequency of 3 seconds.
compact water circulator model C-400 with tempera-
ture range of −20◦ C and +80◦ C is used to recirculate
thermostatically-controlled water through tubes con- 3 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
nected to the pile head. The circulator is not able to
cool the water and this is achieved by simply allowing A repeatable sample preparation method is used for
the water to fall back to room temperature. both tests to reach a relative density of approximately
The model pile is instrumented using Fibre Bragg 57%. Driving the pile in the sand bed was not an option
Gratings (FBG) which is one of the most commonly as it would damage the fragile FBGs surface sensors
used point-based optical fibres. Application of Fibre despite using protective coatings. In order to perform
Optic Sensors (FOS) for health monitoring of geotech- the shaft resistant test, the pile is held in position at the
nical structures including foundations and tunnels has centre of the container using a support at the pile head.
increased significantly over the past decade. Applica- Sand is poured into the container in 16 layers and each
tion of FOS for in-situ installation of Thermal Piles layer is levelled using a wooden tamper made partic-
is reported by Bourne-Webb et al. (2009). Using ularly for this purpose. Temperature FBG sensors are
FOS instead of conventional monitoring instruments placed at 5 levels. One end of the FBG sensor is placed
have several advantages including small size, high next to the pile surface and it is laid on the sand until
sensitivity, large bandwidth, automated and fast data it is sealed to the container wall and the other end is
acquisition, being immune to water and not using elec- attached to the laser box. Once the soil and sensors
trical signals (Iten, 2011). Typical strain resolution for are in place, the inlet and outlet pipes are connected
distributed sensors is around 20με while for point- to the circulator and pipes are insulated to reduce the
based sensors it is 1με which has made point-based heat loss during water circulation. Before starting the
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Figure 2. Temperature changes along the pile (a) Shaft Figure 3. Observed strain distribution (a) Shaft resistant pile
resistant pile (b) Base resistant pile. (b) Base resistant pile.
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Figure 4. Degree of freedom variations along the depth (a) Figure 5. Induced axial force distribution along the pile (a)
Shaft resistant pile (b) Base resistant pile. Shaft resistant pile (b) Base resistant pile.
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Figure 7. Pile head displacement (a) Shaft resistant pile (b)
Base resistant pile.
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At the end of cooling periods, higher magnitude of different cycles. As part of the on-going research, the
mobilized friction is seen during 2nd cooling periods results presented in this study for thermal only load-
in all zones except zone 3. This could be due to the ing will be used to assess the behaviour of piles under
higher magnitude of pile head displacements during thermo-mechanical loading.
the 2nd cooling period (Figure 7). Results presented
in Figure 8 for shaft resistant pile is compared with
the findings by Yavari et al. (2014) for test E2 for a REFERENCES
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