Investigation of pile penetration in calcareous soft rock using X-ray computed tomography

Abstract

Penetration of open- and closed-ended model piles into intact chalk, a soft calcareous rock, was investigated using microfocus X-ray computed tomography (XCT). Three-dimensional images of the specimens showed that the piles crushed and densified the chalk in their path, creating a crushed chalk annulus around the shaft, a region of compressed destructured chalk below the tip, and fractures across cemented regions of the specimen. Laser-diffraction particle-size analyses of the crushed chalk annulus after exhumation showed limited difference with laboratory-remoulded chalk, which suggested thorough de-cementation. Installation stresses and XCT-derived densities were paired using a simplified cylindrical cavity expansion solution to estimate effective radial stress–void ratio states at the pile tip during penetration. More complex numerical solutions could not be applied using the available data. This approach posed significant problems, as it could not suitably incorporate hardening and non-linear stiffness behaviours of chalk during pile penetration, nor account for the creation of discontinuities. However, effective radial stress–void ratio estimates were found to converge with the reconstituted critical state line of the material at high stresses and low void ratios. This partially supported the use of a critical state framework to characterise pile penetration in chalk, as proposed in recent literature.