Deep foundation with driven precast concrete piles and monitoring with Pile Driving Analyzer PDA

Abstract

A practical case of deep foundation for an industrial plant in Puerto Natales is presented using precast reinforced concrete piles, driven into soft clays (Nspt < 5 blows/ ft). Equipment and methods were used for the evaluation of the pile structural integrity and their geotechnical capacity by means of PDA monitoring (Pile Driving Analyzer) during driving. With the results of the PDA test, together with the CAPWAP computational tool, the design hypotheses were verified. During the execution of the project, it was possible to achieve the optimization of the embedment depth and the variation of the number of piles required.