FOUNDATION ENGINEERING BORED PILES

INTRODUCTION:
Bored pile is another type of reinforced concrete pile which is used to support high
building which has heavy vertical load. Bored pile is a cast-in-place concrete pile where the
bored piles have to be cast on construction site, while other concrete piles like Spun Pile
and Reinforced Concrete Square Pile are precast concrete pile which theyre cast in the factory.
Normally bored piling has be to carried on those tall buildings or massive industrial
complexes, which require foundations which can bear the load of thousands of tons, most
probably in unstable or difficult soil conditions. Bored piling is cast by using bored piling
machine which has specially designed drilling tools, buckets and grabs, its used to remove the
soil and rock. Normally it can be drilling into 50metres depth of soil. The advantage of bored
piling is its drilling method, little vibration and lower noise level.

The drilling method is depending on the condition of soil, piling contractor has to do
soil investigation and decide which drilling technology has to be carried on. Piling
contractor decide the correct drilling technology and minimize disturbance of the surrounding
soil. For cohesionless soils such as sands, gravels, silts etc, whether its under the water table or
not, the pile bore hole must be supported using steel casing or stabilizing muds such as bentonite

FOUNDATION ENGINEERING BORED PILES

suspension. After these, reinforcement bar will be put into the bore hole and concrete will be
poured into the bore hole.
Bored piling is popular to be used in construction as a foundation especially for bridge
work and tall building as well. Bored piling work has to be done by specialist bored piling
contractor, normal piling contractor cant be done without experience and knowledge
about bored piles.
A. Drilled Shafts Applications
Usually bored piles, or drilled shafts, are used for those tall buildings or massive
industrial complexes, which require foundations that can bear the load of thousands of tons, most
probably in unstable or difficult soil conditions.
The method of drilling bored pile is different from RC Square pile or spun pile, which is
done using a driving method and the piling machine to be used will be different too. Bored piling
works require specialist bored piling contractor instead of using a general piling contractor.
There is a simple step-by-step method on how to drill the bored pile in the construction site.
B. Overcoming Challenges of a Bored Pile System
Like any other deep foundation system, bored piles have also their challenges in order to
get them drilled. Let's start by indicating that the drilling method will depend on the soil type, so
you must have a good soil investigation report that will help you decipher which drilling
technology will need to be deployed. It is the piling contractor experience, to decide the correct
drilling technology and minimize disturbance of the surrounding soil. For cohesion-less
soils such as sands, gravels, silts, and whether its under the water table or not, the hole must be
supported using steel cages or stabilizing mud such as bentonite suspension. The bentonite
solution is really a messy one and you might want to avoid that if possible. Once this process is
completed, reinforcement bar will be dropped into place and concrete will be poured into the
bore hole.

FOUNDATION ENGINEERING BORED PILES

ADVANTAGES OF BORED PILES:

The main advantages of bored piles or drilled shafts over conventional footings or other types of
piles are:
a) Piles of variable lengths can be extended through soft compressible or swelling soils,
into suitable bearing material.
b) Piles can be extended to depths below frost penetration, and seasonal moisture
variation.
c) Large excavations and subsequent backfill are minimized.
d) Less disruption to adjacent soil.
e) Absence of vibration will not disturb adjacent piles or structures.
f) Extremely high capacity caissons can be obtained by expanding the base of the shaft up
to three times the shaft diameter, thus eliminating construction of caps over multiple pile
groups.
g) For many design situations bored piles offer higher capacities with potentially better
economics than driven piles.
Bored piling is popular to be used in construction as a foundation, especially for bridge
work and tall buildings as well. Bored piling work has to be done by specialist bored piling
contractor, normal piling contractor cannot execute these type of work without experience and
knowledge about bored piles.

WHAT IS BORED PILE?

Bored piles are cast in place cylindrical piles excavated either by use of rotary
equipment operated augers , buckets, under static drilling fluid or large drill bit (for hard rock)
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FOUNDATION ENGINEERING BORED PILES

with reverse circulation, with chisel grab and casing oscillator for boulder ground, with
large diameter DTH hammers and compressed air (drilled piles), among others.
Most common large diameter bored piles, are installed through an overburden of
cohesive or cohesionless soil strata, with or without water tale, down to firmer ground, to achieve
the design bearing capacity by skin friction, base bearing or both, to serve as foundation piles for
residential, commercial, institutional buildings, industrial complexes or infrastructures.
Bored piles installed in common soil with the presence of water table, generally require
the use of a short temporary steel casing and a drilling fluid as static suspension to provide
support to the surrounding soil while excavating the pile and until complete backfill of the pile
excavation with concrete, in order to prevent cave-in of the excavation and destabilizing the
surrounding soil formation.
Bored piles are commonly employed for bridge foundations, on land and water,
because the versatility of bored piles design and execution allows the construction of practically
any needed diameter, including the very large diameters, and the pile reinforcement can be
provided as heavy as needed by seismic design and the codes (it is not uncommon to have double
wall rebar cages in order to accommodate all the needed bars, however care shall be taken to
leave sufficient space between bars for concrete to low through).
Bored piles are also used to form retaining walls, as contiguous pile wall or secant pile
wall or aligned pile wall, with or without post tensioned soil anchors as tie back.
Bored piles testing is usually done in two (2) stages, first stage testing to verify
design assumptions and achievable design load , is done before starting the execution of
the working piles: test piles are installed in the proposed construction area, as per design, and
tested, first for integrity and continuity by P.I.T. (Pile Integrity Test) then for load bearing
capacity , either by Static Load Test or by Dynamic Load Test PDA, (Pile Dynamic Analysis). At
times the Designer might require a Pull-out test and a lateral load test.
Bored piles can be constructed using a number of methods. The simplest method is using
an auger to remove the soil and replace it with concrete and reinforcement. This is a good
method, although it suffers from two drawbacks: spoils and the relatively low load-bearing
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FOUNDATION ENGINEERING BORED PILES

capacity of the piles. These drawbacks can be partially addressed by using pipe auger piles,
which to some extent displace the soil and result in reduced quantities of spoil and increased
load-bearing capacities.
Bored piles is also possible to use a piling method that does not result in spoils and
achieves relatively high load-bearing capacities, i.e. soil displacement piles. A variety of
intermediate solutions between these variants is also conceivable.

PROPERTIES OF BORED PILES:

Bored piles can be installed with little or no vibration, directly against adjacent structures

without causing damage.

Bored piles can be installed with little or no noise, making them ideally suited to use in

densely-populated areas.
Bored piles are not suitable for use in soil with weak strata, such as peat.
It takes longer to bore a pile than to drive one, which is why installing a bored pile costs
more than installing prefabricated piles or vibro piles.

USE OF BORED PILES:

Bored piles are often used in densely-populated areas, where noise hindrance and the
risk of subsidence of adjacent buildings are important issues. They are also frequently used to
expand industrial buildings, as they usually contain vibration-sensitive equipment. We recently
opted for the use of bored piles for the foundations of a multifunctional center to prevent the
subsidence plaguing the buildings in the vicinity.

METHODS OF BORED PILES:

Bored piles are cylindrical bodies made of concrete (with or without reinforcement)
which are installed in the ground by a variety of methods. They transmit high structural loads
into lower, load-bearing soils. When installed in rows or in secant configuration they can form a
supporting wall for an excavation pit or cut in the terrain, or block off groundwater. The length,
diameter, material, shape and layout of the piles can be varied according to their intended use.
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FOUNDATION ENGINEERING BORED PILES

1. Kelly Pile
The kelly-method is used to produce uncased,
partially or fully cased or slurry-supported bored piles. The
soil is excavated by a drilling tool mounted at the tip of a
telescopic kelly bar. When the fully cased pile technique is
used, the inspection of the full depth casing is simultaneous to
the excavation, until the final depth is reached.
2. Double Rotary System (DRS)
The DRS links the CFA-method with the kelly
casing method. The result is a fully cased bore, produced by a
continuous flight auger (DRS 620, 880 mm). This method is
particularly advantageous where the groundwater level is high
with the risk of soil collapse.

3. Continuous Flight Auger (CFA) Pile

The CFA-method is a rotary drilling method which
permits high drilling performance (CFA 630, 750, 880 mm).
This method employs a continuous flight auger as the drilling
tool. When the final depth is reached, concrete is pumped
from bottom to top through the hollow stem auger. The
reinforcement is installed subsequently, where necessary
assisted by vibration.

4. Full Displacement Pile (FDP)

FOUNDATION ENGINEERING BORED PILES

The FDP-system has a key advantage over the CFAmethod in that it transports virtually no drilling spoil to the
surface. It is suitable in displaceable soils. The drill rod has an
auger as starter, followed by the displacement body and an
extension casing. During drilling and extraction, the
surrounding soil is displaced. Concreting and reinforcement is
executed as in the case of the CFA-pile.

TYPES OF BORED PILES:

EQUIPMENT

SIZE

a) Rotary
b) Non-rotary

a)
b)

PROCESS
Small
Large Diameter

a)
b)

Dry Process
Wet Process

Large Diameter Bored Piles

Large bored piles are used as foundation elements to carry concentrated building loads
into deeper, more stable soil layers. Furthermore, they can be utilized as piles for retaining walls
if there is not enough space for flat foundation. In the same way, retaining walls for excavation
pits are constructed by using multiple bored piles as bored pile wall, which later can be
incorporated into the final building. Bored piles can be easily adapted to the various load and soil
requirements due to the large variety in diameter and construction techniques. Single pile
diameter can vary between 30 and 300 cm. Piles can be constructed in all kinds of soil condition.
In contrast to driven piles, bored piles enable the immediate In-situ evaluation of drilled soil
layers to revise foundation length due to changed soil conditions.
The specific pile construction method depends on the soil condition, the ground water
elevations, site conditions and the length of the pile. Construction methods can be distinguished
between

The bore hole stabilization process during excavation

FOUNDATION ENGINEERING BORED PILES

o Fully cased, partial cased, uncased and fluid stabilized excavation can be

distinguished.
The method of installing the casing
o Here one can distinguish between driving the casing with a free fall hammer or
weight, vibrating the casing, pneumatic installation or hydraulic installation with

the help of a rotary drive, an oscillator or rotator.

The method of excavation
o Here one can distinguish between grab excavation, rotary drilling, airlifting, and
flush boring.

Large diameter bored piles are non-displacement piles which are commonly used
where large vertical loads or bending moments must be carried by a single unit. Bored piles
founded in rock provide an effective means of minimising foundation settlements and a small
number of high capacity bored piles can often provide significant savings in pile cap costs over
other, lower capacity, pile types. Being non displacement type piles, bored piles can be installed
with little or no vibration, and with much lower noise levels than driven piles. Franki has a large
range of equipment available for the execution of bored piles ranging from limited headroom
equipment to modern all hydraulic tracked machines capable of drilling holes in soil and rock.
Soil and or rock is removed using purpose designed drill tools including soil and rock augers,
drilling buckets, core barrels, and down hole hammer drills. Drilling to depths of up to 60 meters
and to diameters from 300mm to in excess of 2 metres is possible in soil and rock. Various
methods of support for the sides of bored piles during construction are available. These can be
selected to suit the type of formation being drilled, the ground water regime encountered, and
site environmental constraints.

Bore Hole Stabilization

Uncased bore holes can only be excavated in stable soil layers. In general a short starter
casing is been used at the pile top. If uncased excavations run through unstable soil
layers, the bore hole wall has to be stabilized by fluid overpressure. Water or bentonite as
well as polymer suspension is used as stabilizing fluid.

FOUNDATION ENGINEERING BORED PILES

Partially cased bore holes are cased in areas with unstable soils and deeper and stable
soil layers are stabilized by water, bentonite or polymers, while rock layers do not require

any support.
The casing of the borehole has to stabilize the soil and minimize the relaxation of the
surrounding ground. It is always required whenever unstable soil layers cannot be

stabilized with fluids and there is a risk of soil caving.

CFA piles (Continuous Flight Auger) are drilled uncased by the use of a continuous
hollow auger stem. Stabilization of the borehole wall during excavation is provided by
the soil filled auger. During pulling of the auger stem, concrete is pumped through the
stem, preventing any soil instability of the bore hole wall.

Shaft support methods available include:

* Vibrated temporary casing.
* Drilled temporary casing.
* Oscillated temporary casing.
* Permanent liners.
* Drilling under water.
* Drilling under bentonite.
* Drilling under polymer fluids.
The load capacity of bored piles is a function of the geotechnical capacity of the pile,
the installation technique chosen, and the structural capacity of the pile shaft. The capacity of
piles socketed into good quality rock is often limited by settlement considerations. Bored piles
are also particularly suited to providing resistance to high lateral loads such as those induced by
wind loading and earth quake loading. In these circumstances the larger diameters available,
combined with heavy steel reinforcement cages if required, provide the required structural
strength. In very hard rock, bored piles can be constructed using down the hole hammer drills or
roller cutter core barrels. These techniques allow the drilling of hard and abrasive rocks which
would otherwise be very difficult to penetrate economically with conventional drilling
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FOUNDATION ENGINEERING BORED PILES

equipment. In some circumstances, belling techniques may prove economical to take advantage
of high end-bearing resistance. Typical bell diameters of up to 2 times the shaft diameter can be
constructed by mechanical means. The actual load capacity of bored piles can be verified by
static geotechnical calculations, by logging of shafts during drilling, by static or dynamic load
testing, or by Statnamic load testing which provides an economical means of testing to high load
levels.

Pile Foundation
Foundations provide support for structures, transferring their load to layers of soil or
rock that have sufficient bearing capacity and suitable settlement characteristics. There are a very
wide range of foundation types suitable for different applications, depending on considerations
such as:

The nature of the load requiring support.

Ground conditions.
The presence of water.
Accessibility.
Sensitivity to noise and vibration.
Proximity to other structures.

Very broadly, foundations can be categorised as shallow foundations or

deep foundations. Shallow foundations are typically used where the loads imposed by
a structure are low relative to the bearing capacity of the surface soils. Deep foundations are
necessary where the bearing capacity of the surface soils is insufficient to support loads imposed
and so they are transferred to deeper layers with higher bearing capacity.
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FOUNDATION ENGINEERING BORED PILES

Pile foundations are deep foundations. They are formed by long, slender, columnar
elements typically made from steel or reinforced concrete and sometimes timber. A foundation is
described as piled when its depth is more than three times its breadth (Atkinson, 2007).
Pile foundations are principally used to transfer the loads from a superstructure, through weak,
compressible strata or water onto stronger, more compact, less compressible and stiffer soil or
rock at depth, increasing the effective size of a foundation and resisting horizontal loads
(Tomlinson & Woodward, 2008). They are used for large structures, and in situations where
thesoil under is not suitable to prevent excessive settlement.
Generally piles are classified as; end-bearing piles (where most of the friction is
developed at the toe of the pile, bearing on a hard layer) or friction piles (where most of the pilebearing capacity is developed by shear stresses along the sides of the pile, suitable when harder
layers are too deep). Most piles use some end-bearing and some friction, in order to resist the
action of loads.
Piles are most commonly driven piles, prefabricated off site and then driven into the
ground, or bored piles that are poured in situ. If the boring and pouring takes place
simultaneously, the pilesare called continuous flight augured (CFA) piles.
The choice of pile depends on the location and type of structure, the ground conditions,
durability of the materials and cost. Driven piles are useful in offshore applications, are stable in
soft squeezing soils and can densify loose soil. However, bored piles are more popular in urban
areas as there is minimal vibration, they can be used where headroom is limited, there is no risk
ofheave and it is easy to vary their length (OSullivan, 2010).
Mini piles (or

micro piles)

are

used

where

access

is

restricted,

for

example underpinningstructures affected by settlement. They can be driven or screw piles.

Pile walls can be used to create permanent or temporary retaining walls. They are formed
by placing piles directly adjacent to one another. These can be; closely-spaced contiguous pile
walls, or interlocking secant walls, which depending on the composition of the secondary
intermediate piles can be hard/soft, hard/firm or hard/hard secant walls.
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FOUNDATION ENGINEERING BORED PILES

Geothermal

piles combine pile

foundations with

closed-loop ground

source

heat

pump systems. They provide support to a structure, as well as acting as a heat source and a heat
sink. In effect, the thermal mass of the ground enables the building to store unwanted heat
from coolingsystems and allows heat pumps to warm the building in winter (Boennec, 2008).
Generally, ground source heat pumps extract heat from the ground by way of underground pipes
which are laid either horizontally or vertically in the ground (Boennec, 2008). In geothermal
piles, the pipe loops are laid vertically, within the piles themselves. See Geothermal pile
foundations for more information.

PRESENTATIONS:

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FOUNDATION ENGINEERING BORED PILES

ADVANTAGES:

PROCEDURE:

1. Set up the Location of Bored Pile

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FOUNDATION ENGINEERING BORED PILES

2. Insert Casing
3. Drilling
4. Removing Slime
5. KODEN-Test
6. Insert of Steel Cage
7. Insert Tremie Pipe
8. Pouring the Concrete
9. Removing Casing

CAPACITY FOR CLAY:

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FOUNDATION ENGINEERING BORED PILES

CAPACITY FOR SOIL:

BORED PILING:
A Bored Pile is a non-displacement form of foundation that is cast in situ and provides
economical load bearing and walling solutions suited to a wide range of ground conditions and
applications. Key advantages include

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Able to carry very high load / shear / moment capacity

Low noise and vibration

Ground is seen during construction allowing validation of design assumptions

Can overcome adverse ground including natural or manmade obstructions

Can drill into hard rock

FOUNDATION ENGINEERING BORED PILES

Can be constructed to tight tolerances

Bored piles can be constructed using crane mounted or track mounted hydraulic drill

rigs. The excavation for bored piles can be supported using casing installed by vibrators or
oscillators and by drilling muds. Piling Contractors offers the following advantages for
construction of Bored Piles:

Wide range of drill rigs available (rotary, crane-mount, excavator mount, low headroom);

Reliability of personnel, plant and equipment to provide a quality product

A proven track record of experience and knowledge across all areas of Australia gained
during more than 25 years of constructing bored piles

Economical and productive methods of drilling in all ground conditions, from soft soils to
very high strength rock;

Extensive range of drill tools, casings and other auxiliary equipment suited to different
drilling conditions that may be encountered;

Localised plant and equipment support in capital cities around Australia;

CYCLE TIME OF A BORED PILE:

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FOUNDATION ENGINEERING BORED PILES

GEOTECHNICAL CAPACITY OF A BORED PILE:

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