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Is the quality of concrete impaired by free-falling concrete placement method in bored piles?

Based on the research by STS Consultants Ltd., it was found that concrete placed by free falling below 120 feet would not suffer from the problem of segregation and the strength of concrete would not be detrimentally impaired provided that the piles’ bore and base are dry and free of debris. Moreover, it is presumed in the past that during free falling of fresh concrete into the pile bores the hitting of falling concrete in the reinforcement cage causes segregation. However, in accordance with the experimental results of STS Consultants Ltd., the striking of reinforcement cage by fresh concrete does not have significant effect on the strength of concrete

In addition, for long bored piles, it is impractical to conduct vibration to concrete. For concrete placed by free falling method, the impact action arising from free falling is assumed to induce adequate vibration. On the other hand, concrete placed by tremie method appears to be lack of vibration and this may affect the strength and integrity of concrete. The research results showed that the strength of vibrated concrete was slightly higher than unvibrated concrete. Vibration proved to have added advantage to concrete strength but not essential to achieve the design pile strength.

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This question is taken from book named – A Self Learning Manual – Mastering Different Fields of Civil Engineering Works (VC-Q-A-Method) by Vincent T. H. CHU.

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Kanwarjot Singh

Kanwarjot Singh is the founder of Civil Engineering Portal, a leading civil engineering website which has been awarded as the best online publication by CIDC. He did his BE civil from Thapar University, Patiala and has been working on this website with his team of Civil Engineers.

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