CONSTRUCTION & FOUNDATIONS

i.Pile - the advanced pile integrity tester

FPrimeC's i.Pile provides best in class mobile instrumentation for integrity evaluation of piles

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i.Pile is an advanced wireless instrument for cost-effective and reliable evaluation of integrity and consistency of piles and deep foundations. It benefits from an advance low-voltage low-noise acceleration sensor and enhanced Bluetooth connectivity for extra precision and mobility. A rugged large screen (8in) tablet comes with a powerful yet user-friendly application to make data collection and analysis easy.

A general pile integrity tester has three main components: motion transducer (acceleration or velocity sensor), data acquisition unit, and a source of impact (usually handheld hammer.

A hammer (with or without force measurement unit) is used for impacting pile top; the impact should be applied axially with the pile. Motion transducer should be capable of detecting and recording the reflected echoes over the pile top. Acceleration, velocity, or displacement transducers can be used for this purpose. Several impacts are applied to the top of the pile. The reflected echoes are then recorded for each individual impact. The reflected signal is analysed to determine the pile length and identify potential defects in the pile element.

The i.Pile unit benefits from low noise, high precision acceleration sensor that meets the requirements of ASTM D 5882, and has a powerful mobile app for receiving the data, and analysis. The mobile app provides all the necessary function to view and analyse reflectograms in Time Domain or Frequency Domain. Please refer to device brochure for more information.

Low strain impact integrity testing provides acceleration or velocity and force (optional) data on slender structural elements (i.Pile meets the requirements of ASTM D5882). Sonic echo and impulse response are employed for the integrity test on deep foundation and piles. The test results can be used for evaluation of the pile cross-sectional area and length, the pile integrity and continuity, as well as consistency of the pile material; It is noted that this evaluation practice is approximate

i.Pile helps engineers and field technicians expose potentially dangerous defects such as major cracks, necking, soil inclusions or voids in slender piles. Moreover, i.Pile can be used for determining unknown length of piles.