Connection of Grouted Tubular Insert Piles to Soil

by John C. Chapman, Imperial Coll, London, United Kingdom,
Kypros Pilakoutas, Imperial Coll, London, United Kingdom,
Patrick J. Dowling, Imperial Coll, London, United Kingdom,



Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Composite Construction in Steel and Concrete II

Abstract:

Force transfer between offshore production jackets and tubular piles is effected by weld bead shear connectors, acting within the grout filled annulus between the piles and pile sleeves attached to the jacket legs. Interface separation is minimal because the annulus is confined by the high radial stiffness of the steel tubes. The paper describes an unusual application of weld bead connectors, the grouted annulus being between an insert pile and a bored hole in soil. The radial stiffness of the soil is much smaller than that of a pile sleeve, so the effectiveness of the shear connectors had to be investigated. This was done by means of a simple physically based theoretical model for elastically confined connectors, experiments on connectors with elastic confinement, elastic global analysis to determine the shear and displacement distributions in the connection and soil along the 60 m connected length, and non linear global analysis to determine the resistance factor for the connection. The methodology adopted is described and the results are illustrated. The connection was found to be satisfactory for the given soil properties, which formed no part of the investigation described.

Subject Headings: Steel structures | Bored piles | Structural analysis | Steel piles | Soil analysis | Grouting | Piles

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