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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/T19018/01
Title: Strain Fields Around Augered Piles in Clay Soils
Principal Investigator: Hird, Dr C
Other Investigators:
Guymer, Professor I
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department: Civil and Structural Engineering
Organisation: University of Sheffield
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 31 January 2005 Ends: 30 January 2008 Value (£): 183,693
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Ground Engineering
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Construction
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
Model piles will be formed in an artifcial transparent material representing a deposit of clay soil. Various augers will be used to form the piles, including continuous flight augers and augering tools that produce no spoil. The transparent soil, which will possess engineering properties similar to those of clay, will consist of very fine precipitated silica mixed with a blend of mineral oils to achieve transparency. It will be consolidated in a test cell with transparent walls. As the auger is advanced into the transparent soil bed, a laser will illuminate a vertical section of the model, aligned with the axis of the pile. Digital photographs will be taken at right angles to this section to record the pattern of speckles created by the interaction of the laser light and the suspended silica particles. Using a series of successive images, together with digital image correlation techniques, the displacements of the soil around the auger will be derived and from the displacements at the nodes of a grid the strain fields will be calculated. This information will be interpreted at field scale to assess the degree and extent of soil disturbance caused by the augering process. Comparisons will also be made with the corresponding information for straight-sided pushed piles.
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Organisation Website: http://www.shef.ac.uk