Title:
Field Installation, Splicing, and Flexural Testing of Hybrid FRP/Concrete Piles
Author(s):
K. Helmi, A. Fam, and A. Mufti
Publication:
Symposium Paper
Volume:
230
Issue:
Appears on pages(s):
1103-1120
Keywords:
bending; bond; CFFT; concrete-filled; driving; FRP tubes;pile; splices
DOI:
10.14359/14883
Date:
10/1/2005
Abstract:
Concrete-filled fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) tubes (CFFTs) are becomingincreasingly popular in pile applications. An experimental program was undertaken toaddress the drivability and effect of driving forces on CFFT piles as well as the use ofsplices. In this program, four full-scale piles, 357 mm in diameter, and 13.7 m long,including a spliced pile, were driven into the ground and then extracted. The piles werecut into 6 m portions that were used for beam tests on spliced and unspliced specimensand 0.3 m portions used for material characterization of the FRP tube and push-off teststo evaluate the bond strength between the concrete core and FRP tube. Test resultswere compared to those of control specimens, which were not subjected to drivingforces. In total, six beam tests, 28 push-off tests and 54 tension coupon tests wereconducted. Test results indicate that driving forces have marginal effect, about 5%reduction, on the flexural strength of both unspliced and spliced CFFT piles, on bondstrength and on the tensile strength of the FRP tube. It is also shown that themechanical splice used in this study performed well and was capable of developing amoment resistance, 7% higher than that of the CFFT pile.