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