International Journal of Applied Science and Engineering
Published by Chaoyang University of Technology

Shu-Tao Liao1, Chih-Peng Yu2*, Jian-Hua Tong3, Jiunnren Lai4, Ching-Tien Chang1

1 Department of Civil Engineering, Chung Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
2 Department of Civil Engineering, National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung City, Taiwan
3 Department of Computer Science & Information Engineering, Hungkuang University, Taichung City, Taiwan
4 Department of Construction Engineering, Chaoyang University of Technology, Taichung City, Taiwan


 

Download Citation: |
Download PDF


ABSTRACT


Using nondestructive testing techniques to evaluate the length of a pile in a capped pile group is always an important issue for its high value of potential applications. One of the applicable occasions is to decide whether the underneath piles of a capped pile group are broken after the attack of severe earthquakes. There seems no economically feasible way at current stage to achieve this goal for capped piles. In this paper the essence of this difficulty is further illustrated with the results of the sonic echo tests carried out before and after a pile was capped. Then a new method utilizing the traditional sonic echo test incorporated with multiple receivers is proposed to approach the solution of this kind of problems. The idea of this method is to calculate the difference of the response signals obtained in the receivers so that the interferences from the pile cap may be reduced or eliminated and then the differenced result is exponentially amplified for identifying possible reflections from the pile toe. Numerical simulations using finite element models and a field test on a miniature pile group were carried out to study the feasibility of this new method.


Keywords: Nondestructive test, Capped pile, Sonic echo test, Multiple receivers.


Share this article with your colleagues

 


REFERENCES


  1. ASTM book of standards, 2004. D5882, 04.09.

  2. Baker, C.N., Jr., Drumright, E.E., Mensah, F.D., Parikh, G., Ealy, C.D. 1991. Use of nondestructive testing to evaluate defects in drilled shafts: Results of FHWA research. Integrity Testing of Foundations, Transportation Research Record, 1331, 28–35.

  3. Baxter, S.C., Islam, M.O., Gassman, S.L. 2004. Impulse response evaluation of drilled shafts with pile caps: Modeling and experiment. Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, 31, 169–177.

  4. Chow, Y.K., Phoon, K.K., Chow, W.F., Wong, K.Y. 2003. Low strain integrity testing of piles: Three-Dimensional effects. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, ASCE, 129, 1057–1062.

  5. Davis, A.G. 2003. The nondestructive impulse response test in North America: 1985–2001. NDT&E International, 36, 185–193.

  6. Finno, R.J., Gassman, S.L. 1998. Impulse response evaluation of drilled shafts. Journal of Geotechnical and Environmental Engineering, ASCE, 124, 965–975.

  7. Gassman, S.L., Finno, R.J. 1999. Impulse response evaluation of foundation using multiple geophones. Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, ASCE, 13, 82–89.

  8. Gassman, S.L., Finno, R.J. 2000. Cutoff frequencies for impulse response tests of existing foundations. Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, ASCE, 14, 11–21.

  9. Guddati, M.N., Rahman, M.S., Samu, V. 2018. Improved estimation of embedded pile length for reuse or pile scour evaluation. NCDOT Project 2016–21, Report: FHWA/NC/2016-21.

  10. Kim, D.S., Kim, H.W., Kim, W.C. 2002. Parametric study on the impact-echo method using mock-up shafts. NDT&E International, 35, 595–608.

  11. Lai, J., Yu, C.-P., Liao, S.-T. 2005. Assessment of integrity of piles by impedance log technique. Key Engineering Materials, 321–323, 340–343.

  12. Liao, S.-T., Roesset, J.M. 1997. Dynamic response of intact piles to impulse loads. International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, 21, 255–275.

  13. Liao, S.-T., Tong, J.-H., Chen, C.-H., Wu, T.-T. 2006. Numerical simulation and experimental study of parallel seismic test for piles. International Journal of Solids and Structures, 43, 2279–2298.

  14. Ni, S.-H., Tsai, P.-H., Yang, Y.-Z., Chou, W.-H. 2019. Improved approach for determining pile length of group pile using complex continuous wavelet transform, Journal of Testing and Evaluation; 47, 1920–1934. https://doi.org/10.1520/JTE20170720

  15. Olson, L.D., Jalinoos, F., Aouad, M.F. 1995. Determination of unknown subsurface bridge foundations. Report submitted to NCHRP, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, 129–148.

  16. Rausche, F., Shen, R.K., Likins, G.E. Jr. 1991. Comparison of pulse echo and transient response pile integrity test methods. Integrity Testing of Foundations, Transportation Research Record, 1331, 21–17.

  17. Tong, J.-H., Chiu, C.-L., Wang, C.-Y. 2010. Improved synthetic aperture focusing technique by Hilbert-Huang transform for imaging defects inside a concrete structure. IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, 57, 2512–2521.

  18. Tong, J.-H., Liao, S.-T., Lin, C.-C. 2007. A new Elastic-Wave-Based Imaging method for scanning the defects inside the structure. IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, 54, 128–137.

  19. Wang, H. 2020. A simple approach to determine pile lengths using flexural wave frequency spectrum information. Insight, 62, 357–364. DOI: 10.1784/insi.2020.62.6.357

  20. Yu, C.-P. 2019. Evaluation of pile lengths using impact-induced flexural vibrations - A frequency domain approach. NDT&E International, 108, 102174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ndteint.2019.102174

  21. Yu, C.-P., Liao, S.T. 2006. Theoretical basis and numerical simulation of impedance log test for evaluating the integrity of columns and piles. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 43, 1238–1248.

  22. Yu, C.-P., Liao, S.-T., Kallivokas, L.F. 2020. An extension of the mobility analysis of the Impulse Response method for coupled pile-soil integrity testing. Journal of Earthquake Engineering, online Sep. 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632469.2020.1814451


ARTICLE INFORMATION


Received: 2021-01-26
Revised: 2021-03-09
Accepted: 2021-03-11
Available Online: 2021-06-01


Cite this article:

Liao, S.-T., Yu, C.-P., Tong, J.-H., Lai, J., Chang, C.-T. 2021. Improved sonic echo method with multiple receivers and amplifier to evaluate the length of capped piles, International Journal of Applied Science and Engineering, 18, 2021028. https://doi.org/10.6703/IJASE.202106_18(3).002

  Copyright The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are cited.