PileInspect: Integrity testing of deep foundation piles
Background
A hundred thousand kilometres of piles are installed yearly in Europe. Pile defects can occur during pile driving including spalling, cracking and breaking. In cast-in-place piles defects can occur during boring or concreting. If a failure is detected, the cost of that pile could be increased by four times due to the remedial work needed to replace it. If a failure is not detected, the results can be catastrophic. The results of existing non-automatic techniques for determining pile integrity are often difficult to interpret, subjective and dependent on accurate knowledge of pile and soil parameters.
View on YouTube
Objectives
PileInspect aims are to develop and experimentally validate the new vibration technology and low cost automatic near real time system for inspecting the integrity of piles. Highly innovative signal processing tools based on time frequency techniques will be employed in order to improve the effectiveness of pile diagnosis and perform automatic pile integrity testing.
Benefits
The primary application for the PileInspect technology will be in the quality assurance of deep foundation piles. PileInspect will provide an innovative quality assurance process, enabling a cost effective, efficient and reliable means of monitoring the integrity of all types of piles.
Project Partners
- DFI
- AEND
- GSP
- BAM
- BMNED
- AARSLEFF
- Cranfield University
- PileTest
- Brunel University London
For more information, please visit the PileInspect website.
Meet the Principal Investigator(s) for the project
Professor Tat-Hean Gan - Professional Qualifications CEng. IntPE (UK), Eur Ing BEng (Hons) Electrical and Electronics Engg (Uni of Nottingham) MSc in Advanced Mechanical Engineering (University of Warwick) MBA in International Business (University of Birmingham) PhD in Engineering (University of Warwick) Languages English, Malaysian, Mandarin, Cantonese Professional Bodies Fellow of the British Institute of NDT Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology Tat-Hean Gan has 10 years of experience in Non-Destructive Testing (NDT), Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) and Condition Monitoring of rotating machineries in various industries namely nuclear, renewable energy (eg Wind, Wave ad Tidal), Oil and Gas, Petrochemical, Construction and Infrastructure, Aerospace and Automotive. He is the Director of BIC, leading activities varying from Research and development to commercialisation in the areas of novel technique development, sensor applications, signal and image processing, numerical modelling and electronics hardware. His experience is also in Collaborative funding (EC FP7 and UK TSB), project management and technology commercialisation.
Related Research Group(s)
Brunel Innovation Centre - A world-class research and technology centre that sits between the knowledge base and industry.
Partnering with confidence
Organisations interested in our research can partner with us with confidence backed by an external and independent benchmark: The Knowledge Exchange Framework. Read more.
Project last modified 12/03/2021