Trench Drain in Pilecap?

[HuckleberryFinn]

Greetings all,

Just curious on some assumptions you fine folks are using for your pilecap models - are you considering trench drains as openings in your FEA models (if yes, even if you thicken the pile cap the depth of the drain beneath the bottom of the cap)?

Thanks in advance!

-Huck

 

[jayrod12]

A trench drain in a pile cap is a new one for me. I've never needed drainage through my pile cap, slabs and drop panels sure, but not caps.

I would likely just lower the pile cap the depth required for the trench drain, and then treat the additional depth as a topping slab.

 

[Teguci]

I've seen some pretty messed up pile caps due to pits, intersecting rail lines, equipment mounts, etc... For a trench drain, the simplest, and probably cheapest way to address the problem is to drop the pile cap. If you have to include it (high water table, expensive excavation, etc...) then I would treat it as a void and design the pile cap to carry the compressive stress around it. In addition, I'd probably increase the rebar cover around the trench drain and detail some rigid insulation between the elements to avoid any slope/tolerance issues.