International Concrete Abstracts Portal

Sponsors: Sponsored by ACI Committee 351 Editor: Carl A. Nelson This special publication grew out of the Technical Session entitled “Application of ACI 351-C Report on Dynamic Foundations,” held at the ACI Spring 2019 Convention in Québec City, Québec. Following this event, Committee 351 decided to undertake a special publication with contributions from those session participants willing to develop their presentations into full-length papers. Three papers included in the current publication were contributed by these presenters and their coauthors, with six additional papers provided by others. All but one of the papers deal with the subject matter of ACI 351.3—Foundations for Dynamic Equipment—updated in 2018. The one exception (the paper of Wang and Fang on wind turbine foundations) provides valuable information to engineers dealing with a lack of consistent design criteria among various codes for reinforced concrete foundations subjected to high-cycle fatigue loads. I would like to thank the members of ACI Committee 351 for their support, in particular the current main Committee and Subcommittee C Chairpersons Susan Isble and Dr. Mukti L. Das, respectively. I also wish to express my gratitude to the authors for their perseverance through the difficult circumstances of 2020, and to the reviewers who generously contributed their time and expertise to this publication. Last, but not least, I want to thank my wife Cindy for tolerating me (and the growing piles of paper) over the past several months as the deadline approached. Carl A. Nelson On behalf of ACI Committee 351 Minneapolis, December 2020

This paper discusses an innovative retrofit that stabilized a Steam Turbine Generator (STG) pedestal foundation undergoing unexpected differential settlements during construction. The innovative solution involved driving steel H-piles around the STG foundation perimeter. A new concrete bracket (a.k.a. corbel) was added around the STG foundation perimeter to fully engage and integrate the H-piles with the existing pedestal foundation. The pile layout was established and optimized based on dynamic and static performance analyses of the modified foundation geometry using finite element (FE) software ANSYS, considering bounding pile and soil dynamic impedances. The frequency-dependent dynamic pile impedances were calculated using DYNA6. The continuous settlement monitoring of the STG foundation demonstrated that the retrofit effectively seized the ongoing settlements and stabilized the foundation enabling the subsequent machine installation.

The availability of high-speed computers at a reasonable price resulted in various sophisticated analysis and design methodologies for the elevated flexible pedestal (Tabletop) foundations replacing the rule-of-thumb processes based on static equivalent principle which used to produce either unsafe or overly conservative structures. A thorough study is undertaken with four typical models usually selected for static and dynamic analyses in the structural/mechanical engineering practice. It is found that all the models provide comparable results. However, each one has its own advantages and disadvantages. These will be highlighted in the Summary and Concluding Remarks of this paper.

This paper discusses the factors that affect the dynamic response of machine foundation systems, which include (1) the soil dynamic properties, (2) the geometric properties of the foundation, (3) mass of the machine and foundation, and (4) the amplitude and frequency of the applied dynamic loads. The primary objective in any machine foundation design is to limit the foundation response below a specific amplitude threshold. A foundation response exceeding this limit may adversely affect the performance of the machine and damage the machine internals, resulting in costly repairs and lost revenue. Also, the excessive vibrations may result in structural degradation of the foundation, additional excitation stresses on the machine, and increase the compressor unbalance loading. This paper presents dynamic analysis results of a four-cylinder compressor foundation originally designed without consideration for soil-foundation interaction and suffering from excessive vibration. The foundation block supports a 4-cylinder Dresser-Rand compressor, suction and discharge bottles, a crank, and a driving motor with a total weight of approximately 300 kip (1334 kN). A three-dimensional, finite element model representing the soil–foundation system was developed to determine the dynamic characteristics and assess the foundation response under applied dynamic loading from the compressor crank. Results showed that the response of the soil-foundation system is governed by the response of the individual support piers (blocks) and not the global foundation response. This paper also provides a recommended modification to the foundation geometry to reduce the effect of the individual piers' local modes and enhance the foundation dynamic performance.

Dynamic pile group effect can either increase or decrease the response of pile-supported structures. This paper presents the results of a three-dimensional finite element model of the pile-to-pile interaction that considers the effect of the surrounding soil to determine the dynamic stiffness and damping for vertical end bearing pile groups subjected to vertical harmonic loading. The results were generated for a wide range of the dimensionless frequency parameter (ao) for a 9x9-pile group with three different spacings: 2-, 4-, and 6-pile diameter. Both the stiffness and the damping showed an oscillatory behavior with the dimensionless frequency parameter ao, as well as with the soil shear modulus. Also, the group efficiency was determined as a function of the pile spacing and the soil shear modulus. The efficiency factor for the stiffness can be as high as 1.15 and as low as 0.7 and for the damping as high as 3.75 and as low as 0.4 as a function of the dimensionless frequency parameter ao.