Driven Piles

Driven Piles

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Driven Piles are prefabricated elements (steel, timber or concrete) that are installed using impact or vibratory hammers to design depth or resistance. Steel piles are usually round pipes or H-beams. Precast concrete are often used in the shape of square, octagonal and round shapes that are usually pre stressed and reinforced with rebar. Piles can be installed as a single length or spliced for deeper lengths. Driven piles do not create spoil, and since no curing time is required they can be installed in sequence, speeding up the overall production time. The completed pile element resists compressive and lateral loads and uplift forces.

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Pipe piles can be driven either open end or closed end. When driven open end, soil is allowed to enter the bottom of the pipe or tube. If an empty pipe is required, a jet of water or an auger can be used to remove the soil inside following driving. Closed end pipe piles are constructed by covering the bottom of the pile with a steel plate or cast steel shoe.

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In some cases, pipe piles are filled with concrete to provide additional moment capacity or corrosion resistance. In these cases corrosion protection is provided by allowing for a sacrificial thickness of steel or by adopting a higher grade of steel. If a concrete filled pipe pile is corroded, most of the load carrying capacity of the pile will remain intact due to the concrete, while it will be lost in an empty pipe pile.

The structural capacity of pipe piles is primarily calculated based on steel strength and concrete strength (if filled). An allowance is made for corrosion depending on the site conditions and local building codes.

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H-Piles are structural beams that are driven in the ground for deep foundation application. They can be easily cut off or joined by welding or mechanical drive-fit splicers. If the pile is driven into a soil with low pH value, then there is a risk of corrosion, coal-tar epoxy or cathodic protection can be applied to slow or eliminate the corrosion process. It is common to allow for an amount of corrosion in design by simply over dimensioning the cross-sectional area of the steel pile. In this way the corrosion process can be prolonged up to 50 years.