We were asked to test three piles at the Ngaio Gorge in Wellington. The client needed Pile Integrity Tests to gather information about the recently poured concrete piles as a means of quality assurance. This was a prerequisite for the construction of a new retaining wall.
Pile Integrity Testing is a fast and non-destructive way to test concrete poured/driven, and timber piles. Not only is it a simple process, it does not cause any interruption to the project. We started by attaching an accelerometer to the top of the smooth surface of the pile. Once the setup is finished, we hit the top of the pile with a hammer. This generates an impact which sends a signal to the bottom of the pile and back to the top. We then measure the response and notate the data. We repeat this step up to 10 times to get an overall reading. The information that is sent to our controller tells us the length of the pile, the strength and quality, as well as any defects or abnormalities. We repeated this process for the other piles and were able to gather amazingly clear results!
The results of the tests were vital to the client as they needed to ensure the piles were strong enough to support the proposed retaining wall. We gathered all the results and were able to give the client a clear and comprehensive report on all three areas tested.
