Análise experimental da influência da armadura principal de tração em blocos sobre estacas constituídas de perfis metálicos

Abstract

Piling caps are foundation elements that are responsible for transmitting the loads from the columns to the piles. Several methods and models have been developed in the literature aiming to understand the proccess of transference and the current efforts, with emphasis on the Strut-and-tie Method, a method whose initial premise is the existence of a dimensional truss inside of the blocks, where the struts compressions are resisted by the concrete and the tie tensils are resisted by the pile cap reinforcement. The aim of this thesis was to analyze the behavior of pile caps when using steel piles. The first part of the thesis was a study of the experimental tests of several authors, analyzing the results through different design models and literature limits, in order to observe the differences between the models. With these analyses, it was found that the design models and limits in the literature are different from each other and, therefore, a throughout analysis was required, emphasizing the importance of knowing the hypotheses and limitations of each subject. The second part of the was a experimental test of four pile caps on two metal piles where the variable was the position of the rebar of the pile cap. After the experiments, it was observed that when rebar is positioned laterally to the top of the metallic pile, there is a greater ramification of the cracks, while the pile cap with rebar positioned on the top of the pile presents a greater stiffness. Furthermore, the tests showed that the pile caps tested presented as same behavior as studied by other authors in the literature, also confirming two hypotheses presented in other studies: the force on the tie is not constant throughout its length and the pile is subject to flexion-compression efforts.