A New Instrumentation Method for Driven Prestressed Spun Concrete Piles   Faisal Haji Ali Professor, Civil Engineering Department, University of Malaya Kuala Lumpur Malaysia fahali@um.edu.my Lee Sieng Kai Graduate Student, Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur leesiengkai@glostrext.com.my
			ABSTRACT

Conventional instrumentation method of incorporating high temperature-resistant strain gauges into the heat-cured production process of spun piles is extremely unpopular due to high cost of these gauges and the uncertainty over their ability to survive the pile production and driving processes. Due to these difficulties, the engineering community has been using an approximate instrumentation method for the past few decades, by installing an instrumented steel pipe into the hollow core of spun piles followed by cement grout infilling. The shortcoming of this method is the infilling of cement grout substantially alters the structural properties of the piles, thus rendering their load-response behaviour significantly different from that of the actual working piles. This paper highlights the application of Global Strain Extensometer technology, a state-of-the-art deformation monitoring system for monitoring loads and displacements at various levels along the pile shaft and toe of instrumented piles. Recent field test results are presented to demonstrate the advantages of this novel instrumentation technology for driven spun piles. Results show high quality, reliable and consistent data, clearly far exceeding the capability of both conventional and approximate methods.

Keywords: pile, shaft resistance, instrumentation.

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