Introduction

Foundation piles are typically required when structural loads need to be transferred into deeper and stiffer soil or rock layers to accommodate adequate load settlement behavior. Piles can also be used for the construction of retention systems or shear keys to stabilize slopes.

This practical course introduces the most common piling techniques and provide the fundamentals of the geotechnical design and general construction aspects of the most common piling systems. The course focuses on practical aspects and provides a unique perspective on the influence of pile installation effects on pile performance. It also introduces the most common pile verification methods and their reliability.

Many aspects of the course content are based on the presenter’s practical experience of more than two decades of design and construction of deep foundations.

Objectives

The design and construction of piles as deep foundation elements to provide the safe transfer of structural loads into stiffer soil/ rock strata is discussed in detail in this course.

The thorough understanding of the existing ground conditions in combination with in-situ and laboratory testing is necessary to assess suitable design parameters for the project specific pile design. Installation techniques like soil displacement or non-soil displacement methods need to be considered during the selection process of suitable design parameters, too. Installation effects have an impact on the pile performance and hence need to be considered in the pile design.

This unique course will not only focus on state of practice pile design methods for axial, lateral and the group behaviour of piles embedded in different ground conditions, but also on the specific risks and opportunities for the most common piling techniques around the globe. In addition, suitable verification methods to assess the compliance of the piles with design assumptions and project specifications are introduced.

The presenter will share his professional and practical ‘hands-on’ knowledge of two decades of work experience in the field of pile design and construction. This course is designed to help practitioners, designers, researchers and students to gain a fundamental understanding of the most important aspects and concepts of the design, performance criteria, installation effects and construction risks as well as verification methods of the most common piling techniques around the globe.

This course is designed to provide a holistic understanding of the life cycle of a deep foundation project and importance to understand the dependency of design, construction, and verification processes on the final performance. Participants will gain an understanding of:

• Introduction of the life cycle of a typical piling project
• What ground investigation, in-situ or laboratory testing methods are recommended for reliable pile designs
• Discussion about the major risks and their mitigation related to pile design and construction
• Design principles of single piles for axial and lateral loading and the design and construction of rock sockets
• Discussion of risks specific to certain piling methodologies (e.g. bored piles, driven piles, helical piles, etc.)
• Pile verification methods, what data they provide and what limitations should be considered

Limited places.

Week 1:

Introduction to piling and the life cycle of a typical piling project. Assessment of general risks required ground investigation and laboratory testing data to assess reliable pile design parameters.

• – Project life cycle of a typical piling project
• – Suitable and required site investigation and laboratory testing methods
• – Basic requirements for drawings and specifications
• – Principles of the assessment of piling rig bearing pressures and working platform design

Week 2:

Fundamentals of the axial design of single piles in fine-grained and granular ground conditions, including the basic principles of rock sockets design.

• – Load transfer mechanism of axially loaded single piles
• – Shaft friction of piles in fine grained and coarse-grained soil conditions
• – End bearing of piles in fine grained and coarse-grained soil conditions
• – Introduction to down drag (negative shaft friction)

Week 3:

Fundamentals of the lateral design of single piles in fine-grained and granular ground conditions, covering the most common limit equilibrium (e.g. Broms) and basic soil-structure interaction methods (e.g. p-y curves).

• – Introduction to the limit equilibrium method
• – Introduction to p-y curves

Week 4:

Construction methods of conventional bored piles and the effects of steel liners and drilling support fluids on the pile performance and discussion of the most common construction risks and their mitigation.

• – Construction methods of bored piles with permanent or temporary steel liners
• – Construction of bored piles under drilling support fluids (bentonite and polymer based fluids)
• – Most common construction risks and defects related to bored piles
• – Fundamentals of tremie concrete

Week 5:

Installation of driven piles, consideration of installation effects like ground heave, pile set-up and early refusal. Introduction of special pile types like CFA piles and Helical piles with their relevant design considerations and most common construction risks and mitigations.

• – Introduction of driven piles and potential effects of pile driving (e.g. ground vibrations)
• – Introduction to Continuous Flight Auger (CFA) piles and their associated design and construction benefits, risks, applications and limitations
• – Introduction to Screw piles or Helical Piles and their associated design and construction benefits, risks, applications and limitations

Week 6:

Introduction to pile verification methods (e.g. pile integrity testing, dynamic and static pile load testing methods), their application, risks and limitations.

• – Verification of driven piles by applications of pile driving formulae (e.g. Hiley), the associated risks and limitations
• – Dynamic pile load testing
  • – Fundamentals of PDA and CAPWAP
• – Static pile load testing
• – Pile integrity testing
  • – Low strain integrity testing
  • – Cross Hole Sonic Logging
  • – Thermal Integrity Profiling

Martin Larisch

Martin Larisch is a Principal Geotechnical Engineer at a leading global consulting firm and an Adjunct Associate Professor at The University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.

He has been involved in piling, ground engineering and ground improvement for more than 20 years, having held technical and operational leadership positions for some of the leading global piling and ground engineering contracting and geotechnical consultancy firms.

Throughout his professional career (which he started as a carpenter in Germany) he has been involved in the design and delivery of a large number and variety of piling, ground improvement and deep basement projects across New Zealand, Australia, the South Pacific, North America and Germany.

Martin was involved in the implementation of a number of innovations for piling and ground improvement technologies and he has researched pile installation effects on pile performance for more than a decade.

He obtained his University Degree in Civil Engineering in Germany and has completed his PhD at the University of Queensland in Brisbane where he has also been appointed as an Adjunct Associate Professor since 2014.

Martin is a Chartered Professional Engineer in Australia and New Zealand and has published more than 30 technical papers for international journals and conferences. He has also been involved in the development of various good practice guidelines for tremie concrete, drilling support fluids and temporary working platforms in Australia, New Zealand, North America and Europe.

The course is delivered online through our easy-to-use Virtual Campus platform. For this course, a variety of content is provided including:

– eLearning materials
– Videos
– Interactive multimedia content
– Live webinar classes
– Texts and technical articles
– Case studies
– Assignments and evaluation exercises

We regularly update this course to ensure the latest news and state-of-the-art developments are covered, and your knowledge of the subject is current.

Live webinars form part of our course delivery. These allow students and tutors to go through the course materials, exchange ideas and knowledge, and solve problems together in a virtual classroom setting. Students can also make use of the platform’s forum, a meeting point to interact with tutors and other students.

The tutoring system is managed by email. Students can email the tutor with any questions about the course and the tutor will be happy to help.

Piling is one of the most fascinating discipline in civil engineering. The use of large specialist equipment to install piles up to 100 m or up to 3 m in diameter into challenging, sometimes soft collapsing or extremely strong rock formations makes this topic so challenging. Piling is often a ‘blind’ operation and the quality of the design, the skill of the construction crew and the correct application of the most suitable and reliable verification method are important aspects to design and construct piled foundations safely and according to the project requirements.

This course is suitable as a refresher for more experienced geotechnical and structural designers, researchers or general construction engineers, or as an introduction to piling for participants with limited or no experience in this area.

Course participants should be familiar with fundamental geotechnical and structural design principles but no experience in pile design and construction is required.

Microsoft Excel is suitable for the assignments.

Piling is required for a large number of projects, from high-rise buildings, to bridges, retaining walls and residential dwellings. The probability that every civil engineer has to deal with piles throughout the career is very high.

The course will provide engineers, consultants, technicians, researchers and students with the fundamentals of practical pile design and construction methods. This skill set is important to understand the basic principles of pile design, the requirements for site investigation and laboratory testing and the main construction risks for the most common piling techniques.