Design of Helical Piers in Frozen Silt

摘要

Helical piers have been used as foundations for board walks, utilidors and fences in rural Alaska in cold and warm permafrost. The piers are becoming more and more popular due to their light-weight, ease of transportation and installation, and resistance against pile jacking. However, engineers have been hesitant to specify them as foundations for buildings due to the lack of design guidelines for frozen ground. To increase the use of helical piers as cost effective foundation alternative, Alaska Science and Technology Foundation funded a study to create these guidelines. This paper presents the development of a finite element model for helical piers in frozen ground and an example of design of helical piers in frozen silt.