Long-Term Monitoring of Strain in Instrumented Piles

The development of strain in two 31 and 56 m long instrumented postdriving grouted cylinder piles at a site west of Busan, South Korea, were monitored during 200 days after construction, whereupon a static loading test was performed. Initial strain measurements showed unexpected elongation of the pile, probably due to swelling from absorption of water but as the soil reconsolidated, the elongation changed into shortening, probably due to imposed residual load in the pile. The resulting compression of the pile eventually offset the swelling of the pile. To investigate the cause of the strain changes more closely and enhance the evaluation of the field data, two short pile pieces were prepared and placed free-standing above ground in an outside laboratory. One piece was from a cylinder pile of which central void was grouted and one was made up by grouting inside a temporary casing. The monitoring showed that the short pieces appeared first to shorten and then to elongate due to the heating and cooling from the hydration process. When strains and temperature had stabilized 150 days after start of the study, both pieces were submerged to introduce swelling of the concrete. For the first 100 days after submerging, the swelling strains in both short pieces amounted to 100 mu epsilon. Seven hundred days after submersion, the total swelling strains were 150 and 250 mu epsilon.