The Application of Self-Consolidating Concrete (SCC) in Full Scale Drilled Shafts

Abstract

Drilled shafts are being built larger and deeper, and this has increased the challenge in creating quality drilled shafts. Due to longer placement times and more required reinforcement, problems have been discovered with the use of ordinary drilled shaft concrete in these more challenging drilled shafts. Self-consolidating concrete (SCC) is a solution to some of the concrete problems experienced. This paper summarizes two field projects that were conducted to examine the feasibility of SCC in drilled shafts. The first field project compared ordinary drilled shaft concrete to two types of SCC. A different concrete mixture in each, three shafts were constructed, exhumed, and cored. This project concluded that SCC provides a drilled shaft with a much better cover region. The second project was conducted to analyze the first ever use of SCC in production drilled shafts in the state of Alabama. This project documented problems that occurred on the site, tested the variability of the concrete arriving to the site, and analyzed the flow of the concrete through the reinforcement cage. It is concluded that high-quality drilled shafts can be created by using SCC for challenging drilled shafts.