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CFA pile2023-11-10T11:28:00+01:00

Project Description

Soletanche Bachy presents its complete range of piles: continuous flight auger piles.

CFA (Continuous Flight Auger) piles are often used for deep foundations or for discontinuous retaining walls.

What is a continuous flight auger pile (CFA) ?

Piles are defined as structural elements placed in the ground to transfer loads and reduce deformation. Their aspect ratio is unlimited. Pile shafts can be straight, telescopic, wide and with a wide base or prefabricated.

Piles are either isolated or in groups. They can also form a retaining wall in the form of either a mixed curtain wall, adjoining piles, secant piles or a composite curtain wall, such as a Berlin-type wall or similar. Piles are also used as stanchions to be integrated into the structure of a building with basement levels.

These columns are put in place before any earthworks and can be used to bear part of the superstructure load when it is built in parallel with construction of the basement levels. They can be angled according to specifications indicated in the construction standards.

What are the different types of piles?

CFA piles are an alternative to bored piles particularly suitable for piles of average depth (generally less than 40m).

This technique allows faster mobilisation of smaller teams and faster completion speed in specific ground conditions.

CFA piles can be used as load-bearing piles for structural foundations or to create discontinuous retaining structures, such as a wall in secant piles.

Les techniques CFA ont évolué rapidement au cours des 30 dernières années et Soletanche Bachy a été à la pointe de ces évolutions techniques développant notamment le procédé Starsol® en France ou RodioStar® en Espagne ainsi que la technique CSP particulièrement développé au Royaume Uni.

The benefits of this technique

A good production performance in granular soil

Mobilisation of smaller teams

Less vibration disturbance

Environnemental benefits

Threaded pile

Soletanche Bachy has developed threaded pile processes. This technology reduces the carbon footprint of projects thanks to :

  • the reduction in the volumes of concrete used
  • the almost total absence of spoil, eliminating truck traffic to remove it.

Les pieux refoulés, une innovation pour réduire l'empreinte carbone

Implementation of a CFA pile

Procédé de réalisation d'un pieu foré CFA
Procédé de réalisation d'un pieu foré CFA

Soletanche Bachy’s advantages

Major innovations : Starsol® (and RodioStar®) piles with its superior bearing capacity authorised by standards and CSP piles combining speed and precision.

Major innovations : Starsol® (and RodioStar®) piles with its superior bearing capacity authorised by standards and CSP piles combining speed and precision.

A modern and versatile in-house fleet.

A modern and versatile in-house fleet.

Design and manufacture of special tools.

Design and manufacture of special tools.

Permanent or continuous research and development of new tools.

Permanent or continuous research and development of new tools.

A dedicated laboratory and very specific concrete formulations.

A dedicated laboratory and very specific concrete formulations.

Dedicated software for quality control of works.

Dedicated software for quality control of works.

Assurance of high-quality piles, especially if the Starsol® process is used.

Assurance of high-quality piles, especially if the Starsol® process is used.

Execution controls and monitoring

Concrete quality

Soletanche Bachy has developed very sophisticated high-performance machines with on-board electronic systems to ensure reliable construction of the piles according to the diameter of the aggregates and the concreting conditions.

The Starsol® system ensures the high quality of the pile’s concreting.

Drilling data management

The drill rigs in the Soletanche Bachy fleet are equipped with a verticality measurement system and parameter acquisition linked to the Zetta-Lyze® system developed by Soletanche Bachy. The Z-Lyze® tool is used to process and collect computer data generated in real time by the tools’ on-board acquisition systems.

Did you know?

Soletanche Bachy’s Starsol® (and RodioStar®) piles are a patented development of the traditional CFA technique in relation to the concreting process and the ability to drive into rock with resistances of up to 50 MPa.

Starsol® piles are CFA piles which are concreted using a hydraulically activated dip tube placed inside the stem of the hollow auger. At the end of the excavation, the tube is extended by activating hydraulic cylinders.

Starsol® piles are recognized by a number of standards as providing superior performance, allowing improved design parameters when calculating pile capacity.

End of October 2020, Soletanche Bachy Fondations Spéciales set a new record by the construction of a Starsol® pile, with full-height reinforcement, at a depth of 50m using its Fundex F-5000 rig.

Machine de pieux Starsol sur le chantier de Testimonio 2 à Monaco

 

The CSP (Cased Secant Pile) system was developed to combine the most profitable CFA technique with temporary casings which are more traditionally associated with pile driving or boring methods.

A dual-winding rotary actuator, rotating in opposite directions, allows simultaneous extraction of the soil and installation of the casing. This technique guarantees a very precise verticality which makes it particularly suitable for the realization of pile or intersecting walls or works adjacent to existing structures.

T-Piles® are another innovation based on CFA or Starsol® piles. In the right soil conditions, a cutting tooth is deployed mechanically by activating the dip tube.

A positive rotation of the auger train during extraction allows a spiral thread to be excavated around the pile shaft, thereby considerably increasing the bearing capacity of the pile with minimal additional use of concrete

T Pile permet de réduire la quantité de bétonnage

 

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