Determinet In-Place Length of Sheet Piles 1

[jpoha]

Does anyone know of a way to determine the length of a sheet pile bulkhead without performing test pits? The bulkhead has been in place for some time now and there are no plans for it.

Is there some application of PDA testing that can be used?

 

[DRC1]

Contact GRL -

http://www.pile.com

They have low strain testing that can be done with a hand held hammer. Does not work for all aplications. Best to contact them for information.

 

[fndn]

You would need soil samples and tests to obtain phi, c and gamma. You would also need to know GWT depth. Then solve for minimum depth and compare to field depth. Also you would have compute maximum moment and compare with the installed section's capacity. Foundation Design by John Cernica-1994 or NAV 7.2 explain these analysis steps very well.

 

[Panars]

I would think Pile Integrity Testing (PIT) should work. This is the type of testing referred to by DRC1. It measures the time the impulse wave takes to travel to the bottom of the pile and then reflect back to the top. Using the wave speed in steel, you can calculate the length. However, it is usually used for discrete piles. If the sheet pile interlocks have "frozen" then the pile may appear to be one long piece of metal and not indvidual sheets. This may make some of the assumptions in the testing method invalid. I would give GRL a call to find out though.