Classifications

• • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
  • E02—HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING; FOUNDATIONS; SOIL SHIFTING
  • E02D—FOUNDATIONS; EXCAVATIONS; EMBANKMENTS; UNDERGROUND OR UNDERWATER STRUCTURES
  • E02D7/00—Methods or apparatus for placing sheet pile bulkheads, piles, mouldpipes, or other moulds
  • E02D7/22—Placing by screwing down
• • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
  • E02—HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING; FOUNDATIONS; SOIL SHIFTING
  • E02D—FOUNDATIONS; EXCAVATIONS; EMBANKMENTS; UNDERGROUND OR UNDERWATER STRUCTURES
  • E02D11/00—Methods or apparatus specially adapted for both placing and removing sheet pile bulkheads, piles, or mould-pipes
• • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
  • E02—HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING; FOUNDATIONS; SOIL SHIFTING
  • E02D—FOUNDATIONS; EXCAVATIONS; EMBANKMENTS; UNDERGROUND OR UNDERWATER STRUCTURES
  • E02D5/00—Bulkheads, piles, or other structural elements specially adapted to foundation engineering
  • E02D5/74—Means for anchoring structural elements or bulkheads
  • E02D5/76—Anchorings for bulkheads or sections thereof in as much as specially adapted therefor
  • E02D5/765—Anchorings for bulkheads or sections thereof in as much as specially adapted therefor removable

Definitions

• the invention relates to a method for anchoring and/or founding an object to the ground with at least one pile that gets inserted into the ground.
• the invention also relates to a method for removing an anchor or foundation pile out of the ground again after it has been used for anchoring and/or founding an object to the ground.
• NL-8403178 discloses a method for drilling a screw injection type tension anchor pile into the ground.
• the screw injection type tension anchor pile described herein is presently well known as a "Leeuwanker”.
• This "Leeuwanker” comprises a head section with a hollow steel tube section which comprises a spiral screw blade that extends as a drill portion over ca. 1 meter along an outer circumference of the hollow steel tube section.
• This head section is connectable to one or more smooth hollow steel tube sections of maximum 7 metres length by means of complementary threaded connections. Between windings of the spiral screw blade, outlet openings are provided which connect to a feed channel that is formed inside the hollow tube sections.
• grout gets pressurized into the feed channel. This grout gets injected around the head section into the ground via the outlet openings in the head section. The injected grout then gets mixed with ground particles by the spiral screw blade. After curing, this grout/ground mixture forms a rigid anchoring volume around the head section. After that, an object to be anchored can be coupled to a proximal end of the thus formed tension anchor pile.
• the progress of the drilling of the connected sections into the ground is dependent on the resistance of the ground, the desired insertion depth for the anchor pile to be reached, obstructions that may be present in the ground, etc.
• a desired insertion depth of for example more than 20 metres can hardly be reached, because a resistance for the anchor pile to get further drilled into the ground gets too high.
• the drilling of the anchor pile to its desired depth takes a lot of time and/or requires great power from a heavy drill apparatus.
• the mixture of the flushing fluid and ground particles then gets transported to above ground along an outer side of the drill string.
• the drill bit is dimensioned larger than the drill string itself.
• a pile is then lowered into the cased hole.
• the drill string including the drill bit gets pulled and/or vibrated out of the ground, such that it can be used again.
• the second purpose of the large opening of the drill bit becomes clear, because otherwise it would be impossible to remove the drill bit and drill string out of the ground again, since with this upwards movement it needs to be able to pass along the pile that has been lowered into the cased hole.
• the grout gets time to cure inside the cased hole around the pile, such that after curing a founded anchor pile is formed.
• a disadvantage with this is that the thus forming of the anchor pile is laborious, time- consuming and expensive. It is necessary to first drill a drill string into the ground which at the end needs to be removed again. Another disadvantage is that it is necessary to keep the hollow drill string completely empty of ground particles during the entire drilling process, because otherwise the pile cannot be lowered into the thus formed cased hole. Yet another disadvantage is that the flushed out ground particles need to be accumulated and transported away above ground. Also it is noted that a lot of grout is needed since the cased hole needs to be filled with it over its entire height. The tension strength of the thus formed founded anchor pile leaves to be improved because the grout does not get mixed with any circumventing ground particles.
• the present invention aims to overcome those disadvantages at least partly or to provide a usable alternative.
• the invention aims to provide a user-friendly and highly efficient method for anchoring and/or founding an object to the ground with a truly reliable anchor or foundation pile that has been easily and swiftly inserted into the ground while at the same time resulting in a high tension strength.
• the method for anchoring and/or founding an object to the ground with at least one anchor or foundation pile that gets inserted into the ground comprises the step of positioning a sonic drill apparatus at a position where the anchor or foundation pile is to be inserted into the ground.
• An assembly is provided of a head section and one or more rod sections, in which the rod sections are connectable to the head section and to each other while extending in a longitudinal direction for forming the anchor pile.
• the sections that together form the anchor or foundation pile are inserted into the ground. After a desired penetration depth has been reached for the head section, the object gets coupled to a proximal end of the connected sections of the anchor or foundation pile.
• the head section of the provided assembly comprises a drilling portion for drilling into the ground.
• the inserting of the anchor or foundation pile into the ground comprises a drilling of the head section with its drilling portion in rotation directly into the ground by means of the sonic drill apparatus, after which one or more times one of the rod sections gets connected thereto such that the connected head and rod sections together can be drilled further into the ground by means of the sonic drill apparatus.
• a sonic vibration is introduced into the connected sections by means of the sonic drill apparatus.
• US2009/0101412 already shows a method for drilling holes into the ground in which use can be made of a sonic drilling unit, and in which a drill string is used with a head section that comprises an earth-boring tool at its front side.
• a drill string is specifically destined to drill holes into the ground and after that immediately gets retracted out of the ground again. It is an expensive tool that is not destined or suitable to be left behind in the ground for use as an anchor or foundation pile.
• the inventive thought can be used in combination with an injection type anchor or foundation pile, that is to say that the provided assembly then comprises hollow tube sections as rod sections, and that the head section then comprises one or more outlet openings. Those openings are connectable to a feed channel that arises inside the hollow tube sections when those sections are connected to each other. It is then possible, during at least a final stage of the drilling of the connected sections into the ground, to feed a curable substance pressurized through this feed channel. The curable substance then gets injected via the one or more outlet openings into the ground to form a volume of a mixture of the curable substance and ground particles around the head section.
• the introduced sonic vibration then can be used during this injection for compacting the mixture of the curable substance and ground particles around the head section after which the curing of the thus compacted mixture can take place.
• This compacting phase advantageously helps to increase the strength of the thus formed anchor or foundation pile.
• the feed channel and outlet opening(s) with an amount of non-curable substance, after the volume of the mixture of the curable substance and ground particles has been formed around the head section.
• the non-curable substance then even may get to form a thin layer around that part of the head section where the one or more outlet openings are provided.
• the presence of the non-curable substance inside the feed channel and outlet opening(s) makes it possible to again make use of the feed channel and outlet opening(s) whenever this is desired.
• the feed channel and outlet opening(s) then have not gotten permanently blocked with cured substance, because the curable substance gets driven out of there before it starts to cure.
• the filling of the feed channel and outlet opening(s) with non-curable substance after the injection step with the curable substance has been completed can be done by temporarily replacing the feeding of the curable substance to the feed channel by a feeding of the non-curable substance thereto. After an amount of the non-curable substance has entered that is larger than the volume of the feeding channel itself, it can be assumed that the non-curable substance has at least reached the outlet opening(s) and thus has substantially filled up the feed channel inside the hollow tube sections.
• the invention can be used in combination with a screw injection type anchor or foundation pile, that is to say that the head section comprises a hollow tube section, and that the drilling portion of the head section comprises a spiral screw blade along at least part of an outer circumference of this hollow tube section.
• the spiral screw blade When sonically vibrated during the final stage of the drilling, the spiral screw blade then
• Such a spiral screw blade in particular is designed with an outer radius that is at least 1.5 times larger than an outer radius of the hollow tube section, more in particular at least 2 times larger. This gives it sufficient downwards pulling force in the ground during drilling and/or sufficient grip in the ground during use as anchor or foundation pile.
• the one or more outlet openings preferably are provided to lie in a circumferential wall of the tube section.
• the one or more outlet openings then can be directed substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal direction (radially outwardly) which helps to prevent ground particles to enter into the feed channel during drilling/inserting into the ground, and which also helps to properly direct the injection of the curable substance for forming the volume around the head section which volume then can get compacted by means of the inserted sonic vibrations.
• the one or more outlet openings preferably are provided to lie in between windings of the spiral screw blade. This has the advantage that during drilling the outlet openings lie somewhat protected in between those windings, which helps to prevent ground particles to enter into the feed channel via those outlet openings during drilling/inserting into the ground, and which also helps to properly direct the injection of the curable substance in between the windings where the sonic mixing with the ground particles needs to take place for forming the volume around the head section.
• each outlet opening has a diameter of less than 10mm such that sufficient injection force for the substance to be injected cam be achieved and/or such that it is largely prevented for ground particles to enter into the feed channel during drilling/inserting into the ground.
• the head section is closed or substantially closed in the longitudinal direction at its front side.
• some or all of the one or more outlet openings can still be provided at this front side of the head section, as long as the rest of the feed channel towards the front side is blocked by front wall parts of the head section.
• the introduced sonic vibrations can also efficiently be transferred to the ground directly underneath this front side of the head section, while at a same time it is prevented that (too large amounts of) ground particles get to enter the feed channel during the drilling/inserting process.
• the spiral screw blade extends along at least a front portion of a circumferential wall of the head section.
• the sonic vibrations can start their positive effect right at the front of the pile.
• the spiral screw blade may get to extend along about 1 meter of the head section.
• the spiral screw blade may get to extend along more than half a length of the head section.
• this has appeared more than sufficient for forming an aimed compacted volume of ground particles around and in- between the windings by means of the introduced sonic vibrations.
• the provided assembly may also comprise solid bar sections as rod sections. This can be used when it is not deemed necessary to inject a curable substance like grout around the head section into the ground.
• the abovementioned spiral screw blade can also be provided along such a solid bar section.
• the rod sections may comprise screw thread along their entire outer circumference, that is to say along their entire or substantially their entire lengths in the longitudinal direction. This may help to further improve the strength of the anchor pile.
• the screw thread can also be used for connecting coupling organs to the rod sections for connecting them to each other.
• the introduced sonic vibration preferably lies controllable by an operator in between
• the connected sections can be rotated in place for a while, for example a few seconds or even a few minutes, without having those connected sections having to further advance into the ground but while maintaining the sonic vibration into the connected sections. This may improve the abovementioned compacting and/or mixing of the ground particles around the anchor or foundation pile, and in particular around its head section where the curable substance may have been injected into the ground.
• the thus formed anchor or foundation piles can be kept inside the ground. It is however also possible to remove them again.
• the method further comprises the steps of decoupling the proximal end of the connected sections from the object, and removing the connected sections out of the ground by means of an upwards pulling force exerted thereupon by means of the sonic drill apparatus, while repeatedly disconnecting one of the rod sections therefrom.
• the sonic vibration then may be introduced into the connected sections again. Owing to this sonic vibration frequency that gets introduced into the head section, it has for screw injection type anchor or foundation piles even appeared possible to loosen cured substances like grout from their head sections again, making it possible to retract them out of the ground with a lower pulling force. This is advantageous because it is now no longer necessary to leave the expensive anchor or foundation piles behind in the ground after they have served their temporary anchoring or founding purpose. This is cost-saving and better for the environment.
• the invention also relates to a removing of anchor or foundation piles out of the ground that have been formed in other manners than with the aid of sonic vibrations according to the present invention. Also for such other types of anchor or foundation piles it has appeared that they can be quickly and easily be removed from out of the ground again by means of making use of a sonic drill apparatus.
• the removing method then may comprise steps of decoupling a proximal end of connected sections forming an anchor or foundation pile from an object, and removing those connected sections out of the ground by means of an upwards pulling force exerted thereupon by means of a sonic drill apparatus, while repeatedly disconnecting one of rod sections therefrom, wherein during at least part of the removing of those connected sections out of the ground, a sonic vibration gets introduced into the connected sections.
• injection type anchor or foundation piles more in particular for screw injection type anchor or foundation piles, this advantageously has appeared to make it possible to even remove anchor or foundation piles out of the ground again that no one thought possible and/or for which state of the art methods had already appeared unfit.
• the connected sections may be rotated by the sonic drill apparatus in a same rotational direction as during the previous drilling of the connected sections into the ground.
• This rotational movement in the same rotational direction has the advantage of helping to further loosen ground particles and/or cured substances like grout from the anchor or foundation pile, without accidentally prematurely disconnecting the connected sections from each other before they have reached positions above ground level.
• a substance gets fed to a feed channel that extends through those hollow tube sections and that connects to one or more outlet openings in its head section.
• this substance for example bentonite or another suitable filling substance.
• the feed channel and outlet opening(s) preferably have been kept free from cured substance during insertion of the pile into the ground. As described above this can be done by having the feed channel and outlet opening(s) filled with an amount of non-curable substance at the end of the inserting of the anchor or foundation pile into the ground.
• FIG. 1 a-c shows three steps of a first embodiment of the method according to the invention with a screw injection type anchor pile
• - fig. 2 schematically shows a lower part of a head section of the screw injection type anchor pile of fig. 1 ;
• - Fig. 3a-b shows three steps of a second embodiment of the method according to the invention with a screw type anchor pile
• - Fig. 4 schematically shows a lower part of a head section of the screw type anchor pile of fig. 3;
• FIG. 5a-c shows three steps of a third embodiment of the method according to the invention with an injection type anchor pile
• FIG. 6a-b schematically show a cutting head respectively a rod section equipped with such a cutting head of the injection type anchor pile of fig. 5;
• FIG. 7a-c shows three steps of a fourth embodiment of the method according to the invention with a foundation type pile
• FIG. 8 schematically shows a cross-section through the cutting head of the foundation type pile of fig. 7.
• a mobile device has been indicated in its entirety with the reference numeral 1. It comprises a wheeled base 2 on top of which a guiding mechanism 3 is mounted such that it can be adjusted in angle.
• a sonic drill apparatus 5 can be moved up and down in a longitudinal direction x along the guiding mechanism 3.
• a head section 6 of an anchor pile to be formed gets placed inside the device 1 such that the sonic drill apparatus 5 may get to grip onto a proximal end of this head section 6. Furthermore the head section 6 is guided through a double clamping mechanism 7 that is positioned at a lower side of the guiding mechanism 3.
• the head section 6 comprises a hollow tube section 8 that has a closed tip 9 in the longitudinal direction x at its front side.
• a spiral screw blade 10 extends along a front portion of a circumferential wall of the hollow tube section 8.
• Outlet openings 1 1 are provided in the circumferential wall of the tube section 8 of the head section 6. Those openings 1 1 lie in between windings of the spiral screw blade 10. The openings 1 1 connect to a feed channel inside the hollow tube section 8. See fig. 2.
• the mobile device 1 with its guiding mechanism 3 and sonic drill apparatus 5 gets positioned such relative to an object 15, for example a deep wall, that needs to be anchored to the ground, that a desired position and angle are obtained for directing the head section 6 relative to the ground.
• the head section 6 then gets drilled in rotation into the ground by means of the sonic drill apparatus 5, while at the same time a sonic vibration is introduced by means of the sonic drill apparatus 5 into the head section 6.
• the sonic drill apparatus 5 comprises a suitable vibration generator or oscillator, in particular one that is able to transmit longitudinal wave patterns at sonic vibration frequencies through the head section 6.
• the sonic drill apparatus 5 is released from the head section 6 and is moved up again along the guiding mechanism 3. Subsequently a hollow tube section 20 is placed in the device 1 such that its distal end can get connected by means of a screw connection 21 to the proximal end of the head section 6, and such that its proximal end can get gripped by the sonic drill apparatus 5.
• the connected sections 6 and 20 then together get drilled in rotation into the ground by means of the sonic drill apparatus 5, while at the same time the sonic vibration is introduced by means of the sonic drill apparatus 5 into the connected sections 6, 20. This is shown in fig. 1 b.
• a curable substance like for example grout
• a curable substance may get fed pressurized from above into the feed channel that is formed inside the hollow tube sections 6, 20.
• This substance then gets injected into the ground via the outlet openings 1 1 , while at the same time getting mixed by the screw blade 10 with ground particles. Since this is merely done during the final stage of the drilling, a volume 22 of a mixture of the curable substance and ground particles is formed around merely a lower part of the head section 6.
• this volume may start to cure and thus helps to anchor the connected sections 6, 20 extra strong to the ground. Owing to the sonic vibration on the one hand the connected sections 6, 20 can more easily get drilled into the ground, while on the other hand the volume 22 around the head section 6 gets compacted more during the final drilling stage.
• the proximal end of the uppermost tube section 20 gets connected with a suitable coupling 24 to the object 15 for anchoring it firmly to the thus formed anchor pile.
• a head section 30 is used that comprises a solid or hollow rod section of which a tip 31 is closed in the longitudinal direction x at its front side. See also fig. 4.
• a spiral screw blade 32 here extends like an auger along more than half the length of the rod section.
• a solid or hollow rod section 33 gets connected to the head section by means of a screw connection 34, after which the sonic drilling is continued.
• a head section 50 that comprises a cutting head 51 as drilling portion.
• the cutting head 51 is substantially fully closed in the longitudinal direction x at its front side. Only one or more slanted sideways directed outlet openings 53 are provided inside the cutting head 51. See fig. 6.
• the cutting head 51 is connected to a hollow tube section 52 of the head section 50 such that the outlet openings 53 are connected to a feed channel inside the hollow tube section 52.
• the hollow tube section 52 at its outer circumference is equipped with a screw thread 53 that extends over the entire length of the section 52.
• the cutting head 51 is provided with complementary internal thread such that it can easily get connected to the section 52.
• a hollow tube section 54 gets connected to the head section 50 by means of a screw connection 55, after which the sonic drilling of the connected sections 50, 54 is continued.
• the hollow tube section 54 at its outer
• circumference is also equipped with a screw thread 53 that extends over the entire length of the section 54.
• the screw connection 55 is provided with complementary internal thread such that it can easily get connected to both the sections 50, 54.
• curable substance gets injected into the ground via the outlet openings 53.
• a curable volume 56 can advantageously be formed around the head section 50, which volume automatically gets compacted by the introduced sonic vibration frequency.
• a head section 70 is used that comprises a cutting head 71 as drilling portion.
• the cutting head 71 is fully closed in the longitudinal direction x at its front side. See fig. 8.
• the cutting head 71 is connected to a hollow tube section 72 of the head section 70.
• a hollow tube section 74 gets connected to the head section 50 by means of a screw connection 75, after which the sonic drilling of the connected sections 72, 74 is continued.
• the hollow tube sections 72 and 74 at their outer circumferences here have a smooth surface.
• a reinforcement 77 gets inserted into the hollow space inside the tube sections 72, 74. After that the hollow space inside the tube sections 72, 74 gets filled with a curable substance like grout. If desired, a sonic vibration then can get introduced into the connected sections 72, 74 again for compacting the substance inside those sections 72, 74. After the substance has cured, the foundation pile is ready to get coupled to some kind of object for example by having an object like a building bearing with (part of) its weight upon it.
• the various parts can be made out of all kinds of materials.
• the head sections and the rod sections are made out of steel or another suitable metal. They can however also be made out of a (reinforced) plastic material as long as the sections are strong enough to be able to deal with sonic vibrations that get introduced therein.
• the sonic vibration is at least introduced into the connected sections after they have reached a depth of more than 10.00 m or when the ground conditions become stiffer or harder than clay. This is probably because from that length on, standing resonant wave patterns can more easily start to form inside the connected sections.
• an advantageous method is developed for forming anchor or foundation piles in the ground with the aid of introducing sonic vibration frequencies directly into connected rod sections of those anchor or foundation piles during the drilling process. Also according to the invention an advantageous method is developed for removing anchor or foundation piles out of the ground with the aid of introducing sonic vibration frequencies directly into connected rod sections of those anchor or foundation piles during the upwards pulling process.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Structural Engineering (AREA)
• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• General Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Mining & Mineral Resources (AREA)
• Paleontology (AREA)
• Civil Engineering (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Piles And Underground Anchors (AREA)

Priority Applications (3)

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Publications (1)

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Citations (3)

Family Cites Families (18)

• 2014
  • 2014-12-30 NL NL2014075A patent/NL2014075B1/en active
• 2015
  • 2015-12-29 DK DK15837147.6T patent/DK3240931T3/da active
  • 2015-12-29 PT PT158371476T patent/PT3240931T/pt unknown
  • 2015-12-29 ES ES19175074T patent/ES2994687T3/es active Active
  • 2015-12-29 WO PCT/NL2015/050915 patent/WO2016108690A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 2015-12-29 EP EP19175074.4A patent/EP3546654B1/de active Active
  • 2015-12-29 EP EP15837147.6A patent/EP3240931B8/de active Active

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