ABSTRACT

Nondestructive Sonic Echo (SE) field tests have shown that this method does not have a satisfactory performance in determining the depth of piles fully buried underneath pile caps. In the current study, we endeavored to investigate the possibility of improving SE methodology to obtain interpretable results leading to determining the depth of buried piles in such foundations. The results obtained from the investigated numerical models indicated that the location of the pile toe could be determined when the height of the pile cap is less than 1 m. However, this value is questionable since it has been concluded in the absence of surrounding soil damping. In real bridge foundations with surrounding soils, the SE method may only be able to detect the length of a pile located beneath a cap with a height significantly smaller than 1 m. In summary, our simplified models show that the SE test is not a proper method to determine the length of fully buried piles supporting caps due to the limitations and difficulties discussed in the article.

摘要

无损声波回波（SE）现场测试表明，该方法在确定完全埋在桩帽下方的桩的深度方面没有令人满意的性能。在当前的研究中，我们致力于研究改进SE方法的可能性，以获得可解释的结果，从而确定此类地基中的埋桩深度。从研究的数值模型获得的结果表明，当桩帽的高度小于1 m时，可以确定桩脚的位置。但是，这个值是有问题的，因为它是在没有周围土壤阻尼的情况下得出的。在带有周围土壤的真实桥梁地基中，SE方法可能只能检测高度明显小于1 m的位于桩帽下方的桩的长度。总之，