Concrete Construction Part 15

Per lin. ft.

Caisson.

40 ft. B. M. (26-in. lagging) at $25 $1.00 60 lbs. iron (3-in. rings) at 2 c. 1.50 0.7 cu. yd. excavation at $4.57 3.20 0.7 cu. yd. muck hauled away at $1 0.70 0.7 cu. yd. concrete at $5 3.50 Electric light 0.10 ------ Total $10.00

If 36-in. lagging is used add 50 cts. per lin. ft. of caisson.

~MOLDING PILES FOR DRIVING.~--Piles for driving are molded like columns in vertical forms or like beams in horizontal forms. European constructors have a strong preference for vertical molding, believing that a pile better able to withstand the strain of driving is so produced; such lamination as results from tamping and settling is, in vertical molding, in planes normal to the axis of the pile and the line of driving stress.

Vertical molding has been rarely employed in America and then only for molding round piles. The common belief is that horizontal molding is the cheaper method. In the ordinary run of work, where comparatively few piles are to be made, it is probably cheaper to use horizontal molds, but where a large number of piles is to be made, the vertical method has certain economic advantages which are worth considering.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 59.--Plant for Vertical Molding of Concrete Piles.]

Vertical molding necessitates a tower or staging to support the forms and for handling and placing the concrete; an example of such a staging is shown by Fig. 59. To counterbalance this staging, horizontal molding necessitates a molding platform of very solid and rigid construction if it is to endure continued and repeated use. In the matter of s.p.a.ce occupied by molding plant, vertical molding has the advantage. A tower 40 ft. square will give ample s.p.a.ce around its sides for 80 vertical forms for 12-in. piles and leaves 1 ft. of clear working s.p.a.ce between each pair of forms. The ground area occupied by this tower and the forms is 1,764 sq. ft. With the same s.p.a.cing of molds a horizontal platform at least 25 160 ft. = 4,000 sq. ft., would be required for the molds for the same number of piles 25 ft. long. For round piles, vertical molding permits the use of sectional steel forms; horizontal forms for round piles are difficult to manage. For square piles vertical molding requires forms with four sides; horizontal forms for square piles consist of two side pieces only, the molding platform serving as the bottom and no top form being necessary. Thus, for square piles horizontal molding reduces the quant.i.ty of lumber per form by 50 per cent. The side forms for piles molded on their sides can be removed much sooner than can the forms for piles molded on end, so that the form material is more often released for reuse. The labor of a.s.sembling and removing forms is somewhat less in horizontal molding than in vertical molding. Removing the piles from molding bed to storage yard for curing requires derricks or locomotive cranes in either case and as a rule this operation will be about as expensive in plant and labor in one case as in the other. In the ease and certainty of work in placing the reinforcement, horizontal molding presents certain advantages, the placing and working of the concrete around the reinforcement is also easier in horizontal molding. Mixing and transporting the concrete materials and the concrete is quite as cheap in vertical molding as in horizontal molding. If anything, it is cheaper with vertical molding, since the mixer and material bins can be placed within the tower or close to one side where a tower derrick can hoist and deposit the concrete directly into the molds. Car tracks, cars, runways and wheelbarrows are thus done away with in handling the concrete from mixer to molds. Altogether, therefore, the choice of the method of molding is not to be decided off-hand.

~DRIVING MOLDED PILES.~--Driving molded concrete piles with hammer drivers is an uncertain operation. It has been done successfully even in quite hard soils and it can be done if time is taken and the proper care is exercised. The conditions of successful hammer driving are: Perfect alignment of the pile with the line of stroke of the hammer; the use of a cushion cap to prevent shattering of the pile-head, and a heavy hammer with a short drop. The pile itself must have become well cured and hardened. At best, hammer driving is uncertain, however; shattered piles have frequently to be withdrawn and the builder is never sure that fractures do not exist in the portion of the pile that is underground and hidden. The actual records of concrete pile work given in succeeding sections ill.u.s.trate successful examples of hammer driving. The plant required need not vary from that ordinarily used for driving wooden piles, except that more power must be provided for handling the heavier concrete pile and that means must be provided for holding the pile in line and protecting its head.

Sinking concrete piles by means of water jets is in all respect a process similar to that of jetting wooden piles. Examples of jetting are given in succeeding section. In rare cases, driving sh.e.l.ls, or sheaths have been used for driving molded piles.

~Method and Cost of Molding and Jetting Piles for an Ocean Pier.~--In reconstructing in reinforced concrete the old steel pier at Atlantic City, N. J., some 116 reinforced concrete piles 12 ins. in diameter were molded in air and sunk by jetting. The piles varied in length with the depth of the water, the longest being 34 ft. Their construction is shown by Fig. 60, which also shows the floor girders carried by each pair of piles and forming with them a bent, and the struts bracing the bents together. In molding and driving the piles the old steel pier was used as a working platform.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 60.--Concrete Pile for Pier at Atlantic City, N. J.]

The forms for the piles were set on end on small pile platforms located close to the positions to be occupied by the piles and were braced to the old pier. The forms were of wood and the bulb point, the shaft and the knee braces were molded in one piece. Round iron rods were used for reinforcement. The concrete was composed of 1 part Vulcanite Portland cement, 2 parts of fine and coa.r.s.e sand mixed and 4 parts of gravel 1 in. and under in size. The mixture was made wet and was puddled into the forms with bamboo fishing rods, which proved very efficient in working the mixture around the reinforcing rods and in getting a good mortar surface. The concrete was placed in small quant.i.ties; it was mostly all hand mixed. The forms were removed in from 5 to 7 days, depending on the weather.

The piles were planned to be sunk by water jet and to this end had molded in them a 2-in. jet pipe as shown. They were sunk to depths of from 8 ft. to 14 ft. into the beach sand. Water from the city water mains at a pressure of 65 lbs. per sq. in. was used for jetting; this water was furnished under special ordinance at a price of $1 per pile, and a record of the amount used per pile was not kept. The piles were swung from the molding platforms and set by derricks and block and fall.

The progress of jetting varied greatly owing to obstructions in places in the shape of logs, old iron pipes, etc. In some cases several days were required to get rid of a single pipe. In clear sand, with no obstruction, a 12-in. pile could be jetted down at the rate of about 8 ft. per hour, working 1 foreman and 6 men. The following is the itemized actual cost of molding and sinking a 26-ft. pile with bulb point and knee braces complete:

Cost per Forms-- pile.

Lumber, 340 ft. B. M. @ $30 $10.20 Labor (carpenters @ $2.50 per day) 12.00 Oil, nails, oak.u.m, bolts, clamps, etc. 1.20 ------- $23.40 $ 3.90 Times used 6 Reinforcement-- 275 lbs. of plain -in. steel rods @ 2 cts. per lb. $ 5.50 Preparing and setting, 4/10 ct. per lb. 1.10 6.60 Jet Pipe-- 26 ft. of 2-in. pipe @ 10 cts. per ft. in place. 2.65 Setting Forms-- 6 men @ $2.50 per day = $15, set 4 piles 3.75 Material-- 90/100 Cu. yds. gravel @ $1.50 per yd. 1.35 45/100 cu. yds. sand @ $1.50 per yd. .67 1.50 bbls. cement @ $1.60 2.40 4.42 Labor-- Concrete and labor foreman 3.00 6 laborers, mixing and placing by hand, $1.75 each 10.50 ------- $13.50 3.38 Average number of piles concreted per day 4 Removing Forms-- 4 men @ $2.50 remove and clean in half day 4 columns 1.25 1 man @ $2.25 plastering column with cement grout (4 per day) .56 Jetting 10 ft. into Sand-- Foreman $ 3.00 4 men, $2.25 each, handling hose and traveler 9.00 ------- $12.00 3.00 Average number of piles jetted per day 4 City water pressure used for jetting @ $1 per pile 1.00 Superintendence @ $5.00 per day 1.25 Caring for trestle, traveler, material, etc. 4.84 ------- Total cost per pile $36.60

The pile being 26 ft. long, the cost in place was $1.41 per foot.

Subtracting the cost of sinking amounting to $7.09 per pile, we have the cost of a 26-ft. pile molded and ready to sink coming to about $1.10 per foot. It should be noted that this is the cost for a pile of rather complicated construction; a plain cylindrical pile should be less expensive.

~Method of Molding and Jetting Square Piles for a Building Foundation.~--The foundation covered about an acre. The soil was a deposit of semi-fluid mud and quicksand overlying a very irregular rock bottom and encircled by a ledge of rock. The maximum depth of the mud pocket was 40 ft., and interspersed were floating ma.s.ses of hard pan.

Soundings were made at the locations of all piles; a -in. gas pipe was coupled to a hose fed by city pressure and jetted down to rock, the depth was measured, the sounding was numbered and the pile was molded to length and numbered like the sounding. In all 414 piles were required, ranging in length from 1 to 40 ft.; all piles up to 6 ft. were built in place in wooden forms. The piles were 13 ins. square and were of 1-2-4 concrete reinforced with welded wire fabric. A tin speaking tube was molded into each pile at the center. This tube was stopped about 10 ins. from the head and by means of an elbow and threaded nipple projected through the side of the pile to allow of attaching a pressure hose. The piles were handled to the pile driver, the hose attached and water supplied at 100 lbs. pressure by a pump. Churning the pile up and down aided the driving. A hammer was used to force the piles through the hard pan layers. A wooden follower was used to protect the pile head. A 2,800-lb. hammer falling 20 ft. did not injure the piles. One pile was given 300 blows with a 2,800-lb. hammer falling 12 ft., and when pulled was unbroken. It was found that 30 ft. piles and under could be picked up safely by one end; longer piles cracked at the center when so handled. These long piles were successfully handled by a long chain, one end being wrapped around the pile at the center and the other end similarly wrapped near the head; the hook of the hoisting fall was hooked into the loop of the chain and as the pile was hoisted the hook slipped along the chain toward the top gradually up ending the pile. The piles weighed 175 lbs. per lin. ft. It was attempted to mold the piles directly on the ground by leveling it off and covering it with tar paper, but the ground settled and the method proved impracticable.

~Method of Molding and Jetting Piles for Building Foundations.~--In a number of foundations Mr. Frank B. Gilbreth has used a polygonal pile, either octagonal or hexagonal, with the sides corrugated or fluted as indicated in Fig. 61. In longitudinal section these piles have a uniform taper from b.u.t.t to point and have flat points. Each pile is cored in the center, the core being 4 ins. in diameter at the top and 2 ins. at the bottom end. On each of the octagon or hexagon sides the pile has a half-round flute usually from 2 to 3 ins. in diameter. The princ.i.p.al object of these flutes or "corrugations" is to give pa.s.sage for the escape to the surface of the water forced through the center core hole in driving the pile. They are also for the purpose of increasing the perimeter of the pile and thereby gaining greater surface for skin friction.

The piles are reinforced longitudinally and transversely. On this particular job the reinforcement was formed with Clinton Electrically Welded Fabric, the meshes being 3 ins.12 ins.; the longer dimension being lengthwise with the pile and of No. 3 wire; the horizontal or transverse reinforcement being of No. 10 wire. The meshes being electrically welded together, the reinforcement was got out from a wide sheet taking the form of a cone. No part of the reinforcement was closer than 1 in. from the outside of the concrete. In general only sufficient sectional area of material is put in the reinforcement to take the tensile stresses caused by the bending action when handling the pile preparatory to driving; more reinforcement than this only being necessary when the piles are used for wharves, piers or other marine structures, where a considerable length of pile is not supported sidewise or when they are subjected to bending stresses.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 61.--Cross-Section of Corrugated Reinforced Concrete Pile.]

_Molding._--The forms for molding the piles are made from 2-in. stuff, gotten out to the required dimensions, the corrugations being formed by nailing pieces on the inside whose section is the segment of a circle.

The sides of the octagon are fastened to the ends through which the core projects some 6 or 8 ins. At times while the molding of the pile is in progress, the central core is given a partial turn to prevent the setting of the cement holding it fast and thereby preventing the final removal.

The stripping of the forms from the piles is usually done from 24 to 48 hours after molding, and from this time on great care is taken that there is a sufficient amount of moisture in the pile to permit of the proper action for setting of the cement. This is usually accomplished by covering the piles over with burlaps and saturating with water from a hose; the operation of driving the pile not being attempted until the concrete is at least ten days old.

_Driving._--The operation of driving corrugated concrete piles is somewhat similar to that for driving ordinary wooden piles by water jet, but a much heavier hammer with less drop is used. The jetting is accomplished by inserting a 2-in. pipe within the pile. This pipe is tapered at the bottom end to 1-in. diameter, forming a nozzle, and the water pressure used is about 120 lbs. per sq. in. As a rule, this pressure is obtained by the use of a steam pump which may be connected with the boiler which operates the pile driver, or with a separate steam supply. At the upper end of this 2-in. pipe an elbow is placed and a short length of pipe is connected to this and to the hose from the water supply.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 62.--Cushion Cap for Driving Gilbreth Corrugated Pile.]

As it is not practicable to drop the hammer directly on the head of the concrete piles, the driving is accomplished by the use of a special cap, Fig. 62. This cap is about 3 ft. in height and the bottom end fits over the head of the pile. In one side of this cap is a slot from the outside to the center, which permits the 2-in. pipe, which supplies the water jet for driving the pile, to project. The outside of this cap is formed with a steel sh.e.l.l, the inside has a compartment filled with rubber packing and the top has a wooden block which receives a blow from the hammer. In this way the head of the pile is cushioned, which prevents the blow of the hammer from bruising or breaking the concrete.

During the operation of driving, the water from the jet comes up on the outside of the pile and carries with it the material which it displaces in driving. This, with the a.s.sistance of the hammer, allows the pile to be driven in place, and, contrary to what might be supposed, after the operation of driving when the water has saturated into the ground or been drained away, this operation puddles the earth around the pile, so that after a few hours' time the skin friction is much more than it would be with the pile driven into more compact soil without the use of a jet.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 63.--View Showing Method of Fabricating Reinforcement for a Round Pile with Flattened Sides.]

~Method of Molding and Driving Round Piles.~--In constructing a warehouse at Bristol, England, some 600 spirally-reinforced piles of the Coignet type were used. Coignet piles are in section circles with two longitudinal flat faces to facilitate guiding during driving; this section is the same as would be found by removing two thin slabs from opposite sides of a timber pile. The reinforcement consists of longitudinal bars set around the periphery and drawn together to a point at one end and then inserted into a conical shoe; these longitudinal bars are wound spirally with a -in. rod wire tied to the bars at every intersection. This spiral rod has a pitch of only a few inches, but to bind it in place and give rigidity to the skeleton it is wound by a second spiral with a reverse twist and a pitch of 4 or 5 ft. As thus constructed, the reinforcing frame is sufficiently rigid to bear handling as a unit. The piles used at Bristol were 14 to 15 ins. in diameter and 52 ft. long, and weighed about 4 tons gross each. The mixture used was cement, river sand and crushed granite.

_Molding._--In molding Coignet piles the reinforcement is a.s.sembled complete as shown by Fig. 63 and then suspended as a unit in a horizontal mold constructed as shown by the cross-section Fig. 64. The concrete is deposited in the top opening and rammed and worked into place around the steel after which the opening is closed by the piece A. After 24 hours the curved side pieces B and C are removed and the pile is left on the sill D until hard enough to be shifted; a pile is considered strong enough for driving when about six weeks old.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 64.--Form for Molding Round Pile with Flattened Sides.]

_Driving._--Coignet piles at the Bristol work were handled by a traveling crane. The material penetrated was river mud and they were driven with a hammer weighing 2 tons gross; in driving the pile head was encircled by a metal cylinder into which fitted a wooden plunger or false pile with a bed of shavings and sawdust between plunger and pile head.

~Molding and Driving Square Piles for a Building Foundation.~--The Dittman Factory Building at Cincinnati, O., is founded on reinforced concrete piles varying from 8 to 22 ft. in length. The piles were square in cross-section, with a 2-in. bevel on the edges; a 16-ft. pile was 10 ins. square at the point and 14 ins. square at the head, shorter or longer piles had the same size of point, but their heads were proportionally smaller or larger, since all piles were cast in the same mold by simply inserting transverse part.i.tions to get the various lengths. Each pile was reinforced by four -in. twisted bars, one in each corner, bound together by -in hoops every 12 ins.. The bars were bent in at the point and inserted in a hollow pyramidal cast iron shoe weighing about 50 lbs. The concrete was a 1-2-4 stone mixture and the pile was allowed to harden four weeks before driving. They were cast horizontally in wooden molds which were removed after 30 hours.

_Driving._--Both because of their greater weight and because of the care that had to be taken not to shatter the head, it took longer to adjust and drive one of these concrete piles than it would take with a wooden pile. The arrangement for driving the piles was as follows: A metal cap was set over the head of the pile, on this was set the guide cap having the usual wood deadener and on this was placed a wood deadener about 1 ft. long. The metal cap was filled with wet sand to form a cushion, but as the pile head shattered in driving the sand cushion was abandoned and pieces of rubber hose were subst.i.tuted. With this rubber cushion the driving was accomplished without material damage to the pile head. The hammer used weighed 4,000 lbs. and the drop was from 4 to 6 ft. The blows per pile ranged from 60 up. The average being about 90. In some cases where the driving was hard it took over 400 blows to drive a 14-ft. pile. An attempt to drive one pile with a 16-ft. drop resulted in the fracture of the pile.

~Method of Molding and Driving Octagonal Piles.~--The piles were driven in a sand fill 18 ft. deep to form a foundation for a track scales in a railway yard. They were octagonal and 16 ins. across the top, 16 ft.

long, and tapered to a diameter of 12 ins. at the bottom. They were also pointed for about a foot. The reinforcement consisted of four -in.

Johnson corrugated bars s.p.a.ced equally around a circle concentric with the center of the pile, the bars being kept 1 ins. from the surface of the concrete. A No. 11 wire wrapped around the outside of the bars secured the properties of a hooped-concrete column. The piles were cast in molds laid on the side. They were made of 1:4 gravel concrete, and were seasoned at least three weeks before being driven.

An ordinary derrick pile driver, with a 2,500-lb. hammer falling 18 ft., was used in sinking them. A timber follower 6 ft. long and banded with iron straps at both ends was placed over the head of the pile to receive directly the hammer blows. The band on the lower end was 10 ins. wide and extended 6 ins. over the end of the follower. In this 6-in. s.p.a.ce a thick sheet of heavy rubber was placed, coming between the head of the pile and the follower. Little difficulty was experienced in driving the piles in this manner, although 250 to 300 blows of the hammer were required to sink each pile. The driving being entirely through fine river sand there is every probability that any kind of piles would have been driven slowly. The heads of the first 4 or 5 piles were battered somewhat, but after the pile driver crew became familiar with the method of driving, no further battering resulted and the heads of most of the piles were practically uninjured.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 65.--Cross-Section of Chenoweth Rolled Pile.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 66.--Diagram Showing Method of Rolling Chenoweth Pile.]

~Method and Cost of Making Reinforced Concrete Piles by Rolling.~--In molding reinforced concrete piles exceeding 30 or 40 ft. in length, the problem of molds or forms becomes a serious one. A pile mold 50 or 60 ft. long is not only expensive in first cost, but is costly to maintain, because of the difficulty of keeping the long lagging boards from warping. To overcome these difficulties a method of molding piles without forms has been devised and worked out practically by Mr. A. C.

Chenoweth, of Brooklyn, N. Y. This method consists in rolling a sheet of concrete and wire netting into a solid cylinder on a mandril, by means of a special machine. Fig. 65 is a sketch showing a cross-section of a finished pile, in which the dotted line shows the wire netting, the hollow circle is the gas pipe mandril, and the solid circles are the longitudinal reinforcing bars.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 67.--Machine for Rolling Chenoweth Piles.]

In making the pile the netting is spread flat, with the reinforcing bars attached as shown at (a), Fig. 66, and is then covered with a layer of concrete. One edge of the netting is fastened to the platform, the other edge is attached to the winding mandril. The winding operation is indicated by sketch (b), Fig. 66. Fig. 67 shows the machine for rolling the pile. It consists of a platform and a roll. The platform is mounted on wheels and is so connected up that it moves back under the roll at exactly the circ.u.mferential speed of the roll; thus the forming pile is under constant, heavy pressure between the roll and platform.

When the pile has been completely rolled it is bound at intervals by wire ties; the wire for these ties is carried on spools arranged under the edge of the platform at intervals of 4 ins. for the first 10 ft.

from the point and of 6 ins. for the remainder of the length. The binding is done by giving the pile two or three extra revolutions and then cutting and tying the wire; then by means of a long removable shelf which contains the flushing mortar, as the pile revolves it becomes coated on the outside with a covering that protects the ties and other surface metal. Finally the pile is rolled onto a suitable table to harden.

An exhibition pile rolled by the process described is 61 ft. long and 13 ins. in diameter. This pile was erected as a pole by hoisting with a tackle attached near one end and dragging the opposite end along the ground exactly as a timber pole would be erected. It was also suspended free by a tackle attached at the center; in this position the ends deflected 6 ins. Neither of these tests resulted in observable cracks in the pile. The pile contains eight 1-in. diameter steel bars 61 ft. long, one 2-in. pipe also 61 ft. long, 366 sq. ft., or 40.6 sq. yds. -in.

mesh 14 B. & S. gage wire netting, and 2 cu. yds. loose concrete. Its cost for materials and labor was as follows:

Materials-- Gravel, 28.8 cu. ft., at $1 per cu. yd. $ 1.05 Sand, 19.8 cu. ft., at $1 per cu. yd. .73 Cement, 3 bbls., at $1.60 per bbl. 4.80 Netting, 40.6 sq. yds., at 17 cts. per sq. yd. 7.10 Rods, wire, etc., 1,826 lbs., at 2 cts. per lb. 45.65 -------- Total $59.33 Mixing 2 cu. yds. concrete, four men one hour, at 15 cts.

per hour $ 0.60 Placing concrete and netting, four men 30 mins., at 15 cts. per hour .30 Winding pile, four men 20 mins., at 15 cts. per hour .20 Removing pile, four men 10 mins., at 15 cts. per hour .10 -------- $1.20 Grand total $60.53

This brings the cost of a pile of the dimensions given to about $1 per lin. ft.

CHAPTER XI.