Problems of Spun Concrete Piles Constructed in Soft Soil in HCMC and Mekong Delta - Vietnam

PROBLEMS OF SPUN CONCRETE PILES CONSTRUCTED
IN SOFT SOIL IN HCMC AND MEKONG DELTA – VIETNAM
Nguyen Thanh Trung

Civil Engineering Faculty, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH)
ABSTRACT
In recent years, the use of spun concrete piles for foundation of high buildings in HCMC and provinces
in Mekong Delta is popular. Because of the advantage that the length of each segments of pile is longer,
the number of joints is reduced, as well as load bearing capacity under material strength is greater and
total cost is reduced for the Client. However, the use of spun concrete piles under geological layer that
has the thick soft soil layer reveals many flaws, many incidents of tilting pile or broken pile have
occurred during construction process in many projects, cause great damage to the cost of the project as
well as the slow construction progress. In this paper, the author analyzes the causes inclined piles during
construction of spun concrete piles, as well as provide the method to determine the inclination of the
pile along the pile body.
Keywords: Incident, inclinometer, soft soil, spun concrete pile, tripot.
1. INCIDENT OF PILE INCLINATION
Figure 1. Photos of pile tilt at project in District 2, HCMC
During the construction process, in order to shorten the construction period, contractor often uses Robot
compressor, which is 600 tons and 900 tons of Robot weight and compressing load. During the pile
construction process, the robot will apply the load and move above between the pile positions. With such
heavy loads, Robot even moves on the thick sand layer around 1.5m to 2m, there is still able to create the
sliding surface, causing the tilt of the previous pre-constructed piles.
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Figure 2. The appearance of sliding surface during pressing
Apart from the case of the piles are inclined due to the appearance of sliding surface during the pile
pressing construction, there are also some reasons cause the pile inclination as follows:
– Piles are inclined during deflected pile pressing construction.
– Piles are inclined due to the sliding surface appearance during the pile driving machine (robot) is
moving.
– Previous pressed pile is inclined due to the nearby pile construction that leads to the appearance of
horizontal force effects to the previous pressed pile.
– Piles are inclined due to the excavation of basement
2. METHOD OF SURVEYING OF PILE INCLINATION

Upon detecting potential inclined piles, aim to assess the inclination of the piles as well as the load bearing
capacity of piles, here the author applies the method to measure inclination along the pile body by using
inclinometer equipment.
The operation of the inclinometer equipment is to measure the horizontal displacement of pile for each
surveying position throughout the depth of pile under the gravitational direction. The inclinometer
equipment will be sliding into the grooves of the inclinometer tube that is inserted in the body of the pile
in advance. The tube is fixed by tripod system to ensure the tube position is always in the centre of the
spun concrete piles.
Horizontal displacement measuring equipment (Inclinometer tube) is installed inside spun RC piles after
finishing construction of piles. Horizontal displacement measuring tube is composed of dedicated plastic
tubes interconnect with each other, the measuring tube has a length depends on the depth of spun
reinforced concrete piles. Measuring tubes are made of composite plastic reinforced fiber glass, have high
elasticity and strength (ABS tubes). Measuring tubes outer diameter is 70mm. Inside the tube, there are 4
different perpendicular grooves. Each 3m tubes is connected by joints system.
The tubes are placed inside the pile cage, relying on tripod 3 feet, with wheels touching the pile„s wall
aim to keep the tube in the middle of the pile. Only install measuring tubes at the measured piles.
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Figure 3. Installing of tripod system
Measurement principles of inclinometer method and preparing for testing
3. COMMON TYPES OF INCLINED PILES

After analyzing the results of inclination measuring, there are generally two types of inclination form of
the pile as following:
Figure 5. Inclination - Axis A Inclination - Axis B Figure 6. Inclination - Axis A Inclination - Axis B
Inclination - Axis AD Inclination - Axis AD
Type 1: Even inclined piles: Pile head are inclined Type 2: Pile is broken at joint position or in a
compared to the initial pile position due to Robot‟s position adjoining the weak geology and the good
weight. This is the most popular type of inclined geology, or due to the previous pressed pile
piles. segments are obliqued, the following pile segments
is corrected to straighten during pressing.
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4. ANALYSIS OF CAUSES
Apart from the case of the piles are inclined due to the appearance of sliding surface during the pile
pressing construction. In this part, anaysis cause of problem is:
– Piles are inclined due to the sliding surface appearance during the pile driving machine (robot) is
moving.
Using Plaxis software version 8.5 to modelling the interaction between the soil and the prestress concete
piles when pressing machine (Robot) and moving of the robot with a great pressing load (42 kN/m2).
Table 1. Characteractic of soil
Modulus Modulus Modulus

Depth  c 
Layer Description Model E50ref Eoedref Eurref
3 2 (0)
(m) (kN/m ) (kN/m )
(KN/m2) (KN/m2) (KN/m2)
Hardening
0 Filling 1.5 10000 10000 30000 18 1 27
Soil Model
Very soft,
Hardening
1 Organic silt 16.3 2890 2890 8940 14.9 10 1.5
Soil Model
(OH)
Hardening
2 Plastic clay 24 9192 9192 27850 18.8 19.4 21.5
Soil Model
Sandy, Hardening
3 20 11500 11500 34500 20 11 30.5
Silt Soil Model
We will compare the tilt of pile between monitoring by Inclinometer and modelling by Plaxis result as
follow:
Figure 8. Monitoring and modeling

Figure 7. Modelling by Plaxis software inclination by Plaxis Result
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According modeling by plaxis result and the monitoring by Inclinometer result, the tilt of pile between 2
methods have little diferences.
5. PROBLEM SOLVING
To avoid the possibility of sliding surface appearance during pile pressing leading to the pile inclination,
apply the following measures:
– Increase the sand layer thickness to reduce the pressure to the soft soil layer when the pressing
machine.
– Provide the proper moving measures for the robot to avoiding the impact on the piles were pressed
earlier.
– The concrete surface layer is thick enough to ensure stiffness to distribute load of robot down to
sand padding underneath.
Figure 9: Thick concrete surface layer to ensure the stiffness
Figure 11. Monitoring and modeling

Figure 10. Modelling by Plaxis software after solving inclination by Plaxis Result after solving
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After we have 2 method to overcoming this problem, by modeling by Plaxis, we have displacement of the
pile that reduced to 9.4cm.
6. CONCLUSION
The use of spun concrete piles for foundation high buildings in the area with thick soft soil layer in HCMC
and the Mekong Delta, may occur incidents during pile construction. There are many reasons that can
cause inclined piles, but the most common cause is the sliding surface appearance during pressing piles by
pressing machine (Robot) and moving of the robot with a great pressing load.
The application of the inclination measurements presented above to determine the inclination of the pile
when there are incidents of piles or doubt is essential to assess the remaining load capacity of the pile to
make a proper measures for reinforcing for the foundation of projects are incidents.
REFERENCES
[1] Introduction Inclinometer Geokon.
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PROBLEMS OF SPUN CONCRETE PILES CONSTRUCTED

IN SOFT SOIL IN HCMC AND MEKONG DELTA – VIETNAM

Nguyen Thanh Trung

1. INCIDENT OF PILE INCLINATION

Figure 1. Photos of pile tilt at project in District 2, HCMC

2. METHOD OF SURVEYING OF PILE INCLINATION

Measurement principles of inclinometer method and preparing for testing

3. COMMON TYPES OF INCLINED PILES

Table 1. Characteractic of soil

Modulus Modulus Modulus

Figure 8. Monitoring and modeling

Figure 9: Thick concrete surface layer to ensure the stiffness

Figure 11. Monitoring and modeling

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