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PILE-BOTTOM GROUTING TECHNOLOGY FOR BORED

CAST-IN-SITU PILE FOUNDATION

Zhiguo Zhang1, Member, ASCE, Tiejun Lu1, Yucheng Zhao2, Jingchun Wang1,
Member, CRMEI, Youdao Li3, P.E.

ABSTRACT: Grouting at the bottom of a pile may considerably increase the bearing
capacity, reduce settlement, and improve the property of pile-soil working together,
hence its wide application in recent years in China. This paper, based on a specific
case of construction, explains the mechanism of how grouting improves the bearing
capacity, the technical parameters of grouting, quality guarantee measures and
common problems in grouting. It is proved through test piles that grouting technology
is not only effective, but also economical and simple, therefore it is a worthwhile
technology to consider.

INTRODUCTION

Pile foundations are presently the most important type of deep foundation in civil
engineering construction in China and abroad. Especially within the recent one or two
decades, pile foundation technology has been developing very fast with the
development of collective, large or heavy-type structures in civil construction and tall
and super-tall buildings in city modification projects. Pile foundations have been
more and more popular thanks to high single-pile capacity, good adaptability to
__________________________________________
1
Associate Professor and 2 Senior Civil Engineer, Shijiazhuang Railway Inst., Dept.
of Civil Engrg., Post Code 050043, Shijiazhuang City, China.
3
Civil Engineer, 11th China Railway Construction Bureau, Railway Construction
Administration Center, Post Code 441003, Xiangfan City, China

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 various ground conditions and simplicity of construction machinery, without serious
squeezed soil effect and vibration or noise pollution. According to incomplete
statistics (W.X. Fu and Q.Y. Wang 1996b), more than 800 thousand piles are
constructed annually in China, among which 70% are bored cast-in-situ piles.
However, one problem that exists with the cast-in-situ piles is that it is difficult to
clear away the slimes at the bottom of the pile. Since the pile hole is usually bored
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below the underground water level, mud is used to protect the hole-wall. In the course
of boring, local collapse of the hole-wall due to different soil layers plus deposit of
the mud often lead to slimes as thick as 0.2~0.6m at the bottom, causing the pile to
stand on a soft soil base and producing a pile bearing capacity of only 150~250
kN/m2, which is about 10~30% the capacity of pre-cast or sunk pipe cast piles (W.M.
Gong and Z.T. Lu 1996a). This creates the potential for downward movement into the
soft soil under working loads, causing a relatively large settlement of the pile. In
order to meet the requirements of the bearing capacity and settlement, the level of the
pile end is usually designed deep enough to enter the base rock, increasing costs and
creating more difficulty in construction if the elevation of the base rock is low. It is
more difficult to guarantee the quality of the pile as the pile length increases.
Therefore it has been a topic of general interest for years among engineers how to
eliminate the potential soft spot at the bottom of the pile, improve the single-pile
capacity and reduce pile settlement, and making better use of the strength of the pile
itself.
In order to overcome this disadvantage of the pile foundation, pressure grouting has
been applied to the bottom and/or the lateral sides of the pile in many countries. In
China, grouting technologies for piles have experienced a wide application and fast
development in the past decade (B.H. Shen 2001a). In the following example of
pile-bottom grouting construction, the mechanism of capacity increase, construction
technology, grouting parameters, quality guarantee measures, common problems and
their solutions, and the effect of the application, etc, are explained and analyzed.

CAPACITY-INCREASE MECHANISM AND ADAPTABILITY OF

PILE-BOTTOM GROUTING FOR BORED CAST-IN-SITU PILES

Mechanism

The concept of pile-bottom-grouting is as follows: during concrete placement, a

grouting pipe is placed at the bottom end of the pile. After the concrete reaches
required strength, a specially mixed grout of cement (or other chemicals like silicate)
is injected by means of a high-pressure pump through the grouting tube to the bottom
of the pile, so as to increase the resistance against the pile tip and the pile capacity
considerably.

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 The factors related to the grouting effect mainly include the type of soil at the
bottom of the pile, the pressure of grouting, the quantity of grouting, the diameter and
length of the pile, etc. Due to the various factors that are interrelated and the limited
number of tests conducted, no method of calculation of single-pile capacity of the
bottom-grouted pile is given in the present specifications.
The function and capacity-increase mechanism of pile-bottom grouting of bored
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cast-in-situ piles can be summarized in the following four aspects:

(1) The grout under high pressure tends to split, penetrate, fill, compact and solidify
the slimes and the surrounding soil at the bottom of the pile so as to form a new type
soil mixture with a much higher strength and resistance to loads transmitted from the
pile tip.
(2) The soil around the pile end is considerably compressed and deformed by the
high-pressure grout to form an expanded pile end and hence the effective area of the
pile end is increased.
(3) With the high-pressure grout, the strength of the pile section of mixed slime and
concrete is improved and its compression deformation is completed earlier, hence the
vertical deformation of the pile under design load is reduced and full use is made of
the bearing capacity of the pile-end.
(4) Part of the high-pressure grout seeps upward along the pile-soil interface to form
an integrated body of the lower section of the pile with the mud peel and adjacent soil
so that lateral resistance of the soil near the pile tip is improved.

Applicable Ground Conditions

Pile-bottom grouting technology is applicable to soil layers with good permeability,

such as gravel, cobble, crushed stone soil, various sands and light clay, etc., but not to
silty soils. With soil layers of larger sized grains (such as cobble, gravel, sand, etc.),
the increase of bearing capacity of the pile is relatively larger due to a higher rate of
grout seepage. By contrast, with finer-grained soils (such as clay or silty soil), the
increase of the bearing capacity is smaller. Pile-bottom grouting technology can also
be applied to piles in rock stratum to eliminate the negative influence of the slimes
and the crushed rocks around the pile bottom so as to make the most of the resistance
against the pile end.

CASE STUDY

Background

The project is a high-rise residential building located in Xiangfan City of Hubei

province in China. It has 22 floors above the ground level and a basement under the

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 ground level, with a construction area of 23569m2, and the skeleton works adopts the
shear wall structure. In order to increase the single-pile capacity and reduce the
lengths and settlement of the piles, pile-bottom grouting is adopted in the design of
the bored pile cast-in-situ foundation. The foundation works consists of 146 piles,
including 2 test piles (dia = 800mm, L = 30.5m), 8 anchor piles (dia = 1000mm, L =
30.5m), and 136 engineering piles (dia = 800mm, L = 29.5m). The designed pile
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concrete is C30 and the single-pile capacity should be no less than 7500 kN.
Geological conditions: This building is located at the middle edge of a Grade I
terrace deposit of the Hanjiang River, which consists of two distinct geological layers
in the investigated area, with the upper layers being silty clay, silts and muddy soil,
and the lower layers being well-rounded gravel. Hydrogeological conditions are:
perched water in the upper clayey soil layers and artesian water in the lower gravel
layers. The gravel layer is the target bearing stratum for the pile end.

Procedure of Pile-bottom Grouting Technology for Bored Cast-in-situ Piles

The procedure consists of the following steps: survey and locating, installation of
the casing, boring the hole (meanwhile preparing the reinforcement cage, grouting
pipes, and components), clearing the hole first time, installing reinforcement and
grouting system, clearing the hole second time, and casting concrete. The concrete
is cured for 3 days, the grouting system is connected and the pipes are flushed
through with pressurized water. Finally, the grout is mixed and placed, and the
temporary pipes are removed and cleaned.

Arrangement and Installation of the Grouting Pipes

Three grouting pipes, which are made of 25-mm diameter × 3-mm seamless steel
pipes, are evenly arranged along the outside of the reinforcement cage, with 20 cm
extending below the cage at the bottom and 20 cm above the natural ground level.
The grouting device at the bottom is 40 cm long and is inserted directly to the bottom
of the slime. Four 8-mm diameter grouting holes are evenly drilled on the grouting
device vertically every 5 m from the upper edge of the device, totaling 20 grouting
holes for each grouting device. The grouting holes are wrapped tightly with rubber
and binding wire in order to prevent them from being blocked. The lowest 10 cm part
of the grouting device assumes a reversed conic shape, closed and welded at the
bottom with 25-mm steel tube as a connecting joint. The grouting pipes are welded to
the stirrups and fixed to the main bars with #10 iron wire at every 2~4 m, and
installed together with the reinforcement cage.

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 Grouting Parameters

Mix Design
Ordinary #425 portland silicate cement is adopted with water-cement ratios of 1:1
~ 0.5 :1. The mixed grout must be filtered before use. Grout mix parameters are
shown in Table 1.
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TABLE 1. Mixing of Grout

W/c Ratio Cement Quantity(kg) Water(L) Grout Mixed(L)
(1) (2) (3) (4)
1:1 200 200 264.52
0.8:1 250 200 280.65
0.5:1 300 150 276.77

Time of Grouting
After 3 days of pile curing, water is circulated through the grouting pipes to clear
the slimes at the hole bottom. Grouting is done around the 7th day of curing.
Grouting too early might damage the integration of the pile bottom due to insufficient
strength of pile concrete; but if grouting is too late, the grouting device would be
solidified in concrete and grout would be blocked, or too great grouting pressure
would cause an accident.

Grouting Pressure
In the round gravel stratum with relatively large pores, the grout cannot both seep
and split into the gravel unless the grouting pressure reaches a certain value. The
grouting pressure can be calculated according to Coulomb-More damage theory (as
shown in Figure 1).
c
c'

1- h
1- h
1

FIG. 1. Grouting Pressure Calculation Model

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 The grouting pressure causes the effective stress to decrease. The geological layer
shall be damaged when the grouting pressure P0 reaches the standard as decided by

the following formula:

P0 = 0.5ω (1 + η ) − 0.5ω csc ϕ ′(1 − η ) + c ′ctgϕ ′ (1)
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Where: P0 --grouting pressure (MPa), η --main stress ratio, c ′ --effective cohesion

(kPa), ϕ ′ --effective internal friction angle(o), ω --pressure difference(kPa),

ω = γh − γ ω hω , γ ω --unit weight of water(kN/m3), hω --water level depth(m).

It can be seen from the above that the grouting pressure is an important index to
control in pile-bottom grouting for bored cast-in-situ piles. In this project, based on
the geological and hydrological conditions and the test pile grouting, the grouting
pressure at the beginning is 2-3 MPa, and when the grouting passages are through, the
pressure reading on the gauge drops sharply. Then the grouting pressure should be
controlled manually at 1-2 MPa.

Quantity of Grout
Under normal conditions, when the pump pressure is no more than 2 MPa, the
quantity of grout for each pile is controlled at 2.5 t (cement). If no more grout can be
pumped in due to special conditions after 80% of that quantity is grouted, the
grouting for the concerned pile can also be regarded as acceptable.

Quality Control Measures

(1) A seamless steel pipe is required with an inner diameter of 25 mm and a

thickness of 3 mm as the grouting pipe. Each grouting pipe must be pressure tested
and approved before use. Use a threaded connection at the joints of pipes and the net
thickness at the threads should be no less than 2/3 of the original thickness of the pipe
so as to avoid damage to the threaded part.
(2) The grouting pipes should be point-welded firm to the stirrups of the
reinforcement cage. Before putting it down into the hole, check carefully the sealing
of the grouting nozzle to prevent blockage of the nozzle due to leakage of sand or
sand.
(3) The grouting pipes should be lowered down together with the reinforcement
skeleton, and sealing material should be applied to the threads at the threaded
connection of the pipes. After each segment of cage is lowered into the hole, water is
injected into the grouting pipes to check and ensure their watertightness. After the

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 pipes are filled with water, the water level should be stable and not descend, which
shows the pipes are reliably watertight, otherwise, the cage should be lifted and the
cause of the leakage must be determined and corrected. Then lower the cage and
check again until it is satisfactory. Only after that can the next segment be installed.
The cage must be lowered into the hole slowly and lightly to avoid damage to the
grouting devices and pipes. After the installation is completed, the mouths of the
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pipes should be covered to prevent anything from entering them and causing
blockade of the pipes. The grouting pipe should extend above the ground by 20cm.
Too much surplus length is not only unnecessary but may be liable to be damaged in
the construction of other piles.
(4) In order to guarantee the through passage of grout, inject pressure water into the
pipes to make the passages through after 3 days of curing of the pile.
(5) BW-150 or other types of grout pump that can provide a grouting pressure over
10MPa should be used. Free fall type JZ-350 mixer may be adopted to mix the grout.
The steel wire woven rubber tubes to deliver the grout should have a pressure
resistance over 10MPa.
(6) Grouting is usually done after 7 days of curing of the pile. First break through
the grouting holes with clear water. Before starting the pump, open the return valve.
When water injection is begun, close the return valve slowly and observe the changes
of the gauge reading and record the pressure to force through the grouting path. In
case of difficulty in breaking through, then press the water in intermittently to create
pulse pressure to break through the holes. In case of failure to break through even
with a pressure as high as 10MPa, then investigations must be made to make clear the
cause. After the grouting path is forced through, first inject thinner grout with a w/c
ratio of 1:1, then gradually transcend to thicker grout till a w/c ratio of 0.5:1 in the
end. A specific person should be responsible for the observation and recording of the
changes of readings of the gauge in the course of grouting.
(7) The mixing of the grout must be in accordance with the mix design. A specific
person should be assigned to add water, with marks made on the water barrel to
control the water quantity. The mixed grout should go through a wire net before
entering the grout storage barrel in order to filter out the bigger sized grains to avoid
blockade of the nozzle of the grouting nozzle. In order to prevent the ready-made
grout from depositing, an agitator should be installed in the storage barrel to stir the
grout from time to time.
(8) Control of the grouting pressure: A specific person should be assigned to
observe the readings of the gauge, which should be normally controlled at
1MPa~2MPa. If the pressure is smaller than 0.4MPa, the grout can not be pressed to
the pile bottom. Then check and see whether the grout comes back to the ground, and
if it does, immediately stop grouting and wait until after about 7 days to do the
make-up grouting till the designed quantity. On the other hand, too great pressure that

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 is over 3MPa may destroy the soil structure.
(9) Completion: The completion of grouting is mainly controlled by the cement
quantity that is grouted, with the grouting pressure as an auxiliary means of control.
Grouting is finished when the designed quantity of grout is injected. Or if the
grouting pressure is over 3 MPa after 80% of designed quantity is grouted and it
becomes very difficult to inject more grout, then grouting can also be regarded as
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completed.
(10) After grouting is finished, wash clean the pump and high-pressure rubber tubes
with water. Make proper records and submit for approval.

Common Problems and Relevant Measures in Pile-Bottom Grouting

Inter-Pile Grouting
Sometimes while grouting is being applieed for one pile, the grout suddenly shoots
out from another pile, and this is called inter-pile grouting. The causes of inter-pile
grouting may include too high grouting pressure, the existence of cavities in the soil
layers that are disturbed by boring, too small distance between two piles, too tick
loose soil layers like sand or sandy cobble at the pile bottom that are easy to collapse,
etc.
Once inter-pile grouting is observed, stop the grouting immediately. Firmly block
the pipe mouths of “visited” pile where grout is coming out. Then resume grouting
until finished. After that, proceed with the grouting for the “visited” pile immediately
and before the initial setting of the “visiting” grout inside the grouting pipes of the
visited pile. Inter-pile grouting may produce a group-piles effect and affect the
bearing capacity and deformation of the piles, therefore sufficient attention should be
paid to it.

Dead Pile
If the grouting pipe refuses to take in grout just after the grouting is begun and at
the same time the pressure is increased sharply to a very high value, then this is a
dead pile phenomenon. The causes of a dead pile may include: (1) The pipe or the
joint between pipes are blocked in the course of the construction of the bored
cast-in-situ pile; and (2) The lower mouth or lower segment of the grouting pipe has
been blocked by cement grout from the grouting of other piles, forming a state of
inter-pile grouting or semi-inter-pile grouting.
In case of the dead pile, immediately stop grouting, insert a φ6 reinforcement bar
into the pipe till the blocked part, hammer the bar to break through the blockade, then
resume grouting.

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 Sudden Increase or Drop of Pump Pressure
Normally the grouting pressure remains at 1-2MPa. In case of sudden pressure
change, stop grouting immediately and analyze the cause before making the decision
in order to prevent the cracks in the earth layer are excessively expanded or blocked,
which would cause loss or waste of cement grout.
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Effect of Pile-bottom Grouting

In the example of the high–rise building, after grouting was applied to the bored
cast-in-situ piles, according to the results of test pile vertical static load tests and high
strain dynamic tests, the single-pile bearing capacities all exceeded 8000 kN, higher
than the designed value of 7500 kN. The detailed test results are shown in Table 2 and
Table 3.

TABLE 2. Vertical Static Load Test Results of the Test Piles

Test Pile Pile Maximum Maximum Residual Ultimate
Pile Diameter Length Load (kN) Deformation Deformation Capacity
No. (mm) (m) (mm) (mm) (kN)
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)
S4 800 31.7 8000 3.01 0.19 ≥8000
S5 800 30.4 8000 7.97 2.03 ≥8000

TABLE 3. High Strain Dynamic Test Results

No. Pile Pile Length Pile Hammering Deformation Ultimate
(1) No. Tested (m) Diameter Energy WE (mm) Capacity
(2) (3) (mm) (kN-m) (kN)
(4) (5) (6) (7)
1 4 29.5 800 62.8 6.1 13512.2
2 8 29.5 800 59.2 4.9 14395.4
3 118 29.5 800 61.9 6.4 13748.4
4 116 29.5 800 92.9 9.7 13559.8
5 S4 29.5 800 32.2 6.6 11735.5

It can be seen from the test results in Table 2 and 3 that the single-pile vertical
ultimate bearing capacities all exceed 11735 kN, much greater than the design
standard of 7500 kN, showing that pile-bottom grouting can considerably increase the
single-pile ultimate bearing capacity of bored cast-in-situ piles. This new technology
can be used in engineering design and construction to replace longer piles with
shorter ones, and reduce the quantity of work and construction period. And if the pile
length remains unchanged, the adoption of this technology may increase the

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 single-pile capacity, improve the seismic and pullout resistances of the pile, and
reduce cost.

CONCLUSIONS

(1) Engineering practice has proved that pile-bottom grouting for bored cast-in-situ
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piles is an effective means to increase the capacity, rigidity, and stability of the pile,
reduce pile settlement, improve construction quality and lower the cost of foundation
construction, hence it is worthy of consideration by contractors and engineers.
(2) The theories and discussions about pile-bottom grouting technology for bored
cast-in-situ piles are mainly qualitative rather than quantitative. Therefore further
study is needed on the following issues: (i) relationship between grout quantity and
the bearing capacity, (ii) the optimum ratio of grouting pressure and grout quantity in
different geological conditions, and (iii) the magnitude of bearing capacity increase.
(3) There is not yet a general specification in China on pile-bottom grouting
technology, which presents difficulty to foundation designers, who have to guarantee
the safety of the structures on one hand and reduce as much as possible the diameter
and length and quantity of the piles on the other hand. Hence it is suggested here that
concerned experts be organized to make related studies and analyses and develop
general national specifications for pile-grouting technology for bored cast-in-situ
piles to be referred to in engineering construction, management and design.

REFERENCES

Weiming Gong, Zhitao Lu (1996a). “Innovation of cast-in-place pile--grouting at

bottom.” Industrial Construction, 26(3), 33-37.
Wenxun Fu, Qingyou Wang (1996b). “Review on pressure grouting pile.” Beijing
hydraulics, 12(2), 35-40
Baohan Shen (2001a). “Post grouting pile technique—the invention and development
of post grouting piles.” Industrial Construction, 31(5), 64-66.
Ping Yang, Zhenbin Peng (2001b). “Mechanism and calculation model of
post-grouting technique.” Geotechnical Engineering World, 5(3),54-56.
Yaofeng Xie, Yunqiu Wang (2002a). “Research on rising the effect of post-grouting
bored pile.” Port and Waterway Engrg., 340(5), 47-50.
Shuting Jia(2002b). “Discussion on the construction technique of post-grouting bored
piles.” Geotechnical Engineering World, 5(4),59-61.

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