A study on particle breakage behavior during pile penetration process using acoustic emission source location

Abstract

Particle breakage is a common occurrence in granular systems when the external stress exceeds the individual particle strength. A large number of experimental evidences suggested that particle breakage may significantly influence the soil behavior. In the case of pile foundations, the subsoil below the pile tip experiences considerable high stress and consequently prone to break. Due to the lack of sufficient understanding on particle breakage mechanism, there is currently no consentaneous theoretical background for particle breakage analysis during the pile penetration process. This study aims to clarify the location of particle breakage and its evolving characteristics with the aid of acoustic emission (AE) source location method. The spatial distribution of AE hypocenters is interpreted to be associated with the mechanism of particle breakage. Results showed that the AE sources were not uniformly distributed, but concentrated within certain zones below the pile tip. This AE concentration zone was pushed downward with the advancing pile tip, and its distance from the real time pile tip position decreased after certain depth of pile penetration. The location of particle breakage interpreted from AE source location was verified with posttest excavations and the insights on the particle breakage evolution zone were further discussed.