Impact performance of new prestressed high-performance concrete pipe piles manufactured with an environmentally friendly technique

Abstract

To satisfy the requirements of energy reduction, environmental protection, and cost reduction, a new environmentally friendly technique of prestressed high-performance concrete (PHC) pipe piles without the high temperature and pressure steam curing step was proposed in this paper. An impact performance test on four PHC pipe piles manufactured with the traditional and new processing techniques was conducted. Five impact levels with the hammer heights of 6.3 m, 4.2 m, 1.6 m, 1.1 m and 0.6 m were considered in the test. The failure modes were presented. The impact force, strain, and energy absorption capacity of two kinds of PHC pipe piles were measured and discussed. Finally, finite element simulations with non-linear code LS-DYNA were performed to further understand the impact response of the pile specimens. It is found that (1) the PHC pipe piles manufactured with traditional and new processing techniques had good impact performance; (2) the impact force and the maximum axial strain increased with the increase of the hammer height (or impact energy); (4) two kinds of pile specimens had similar energy absorption capabilities under impact loadings; and (5) the finite element model can fully simulate the impact performance of PHC pipe piles.