Durable augered piles to support scientific faculty Monday, 16th June 2008
Scientists studying the composition of materials at a high tech laboratory in Oxfordshire are soon to conduct experiments from within a heavily reinforced concrete ‘bunker’, supported by durable piled foundations.
The bunker will receive powerful X-ray beams generated and amplified within a 500m long doughnut shaped building that circles the site. Materials weighing up to two tonnes will be placed infront of the beam, so that scientists can monitor how they perform under stress.
Construction of the 40m2 bunker is being carried out on behalf of client Diamond Light Source by contractor PTC, with piled foundations installed by Roger Bullivant Ltd (RBL). Reinforced concrete walls over 1m thick and containing 100mm of lead are to be built on a ring beam foundation supported on 25 piles installed to a depth of 9m.
“Each pile has been designed to accommodate a vertical load as great as 380kN and has been founded in chalk,” says RBL engineer Tim Sheward. “We made use of a lightweight five tonne mini piling rig which had to be lifted by crane over scientific equipment within the doughnut shaped building. Larger, more conventional piling rigs would not have been able to gain access.”
Each foundation pile measures 300mm in diameter and was created by first installing a leading 1m section of augered flight into the ground. Eight further sections of flight were connected to the one before. After reaching full depth, concrete was pumped through the central hollow stem as the augers were removed. A reinforcing cage was then placed into each pile to tie into the ring beam and form the pile.
The new bunker facility forms part of a project known as the JEEP (Joint Engineering, Environmental & Processing) beamline, which is due to begin operations from next year. The beamline will be used to understand how different materials are affected when exposed to strain, ageing and fatigue.
Principle beamline scientist Dr Michael Drakopoulos said: “The beamline will provide an ability to produce successive 3D pictures of the internal volume of engineering components, allowing researchers to study and measure such things as corrosion cracks. Techniques such as this can potentially help companies within the engineering industry to advance their performance.”
