Keynote Speaker: Life-Cycle-Based Considerations in Design of Driven Piles-PPT Presentation

PPT Presentation

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The presentation examines how life-cycle assessment (LCA) can support more sustainable driven-pile design while maintaining safety and performance. The authors developed a cradle-to-construction assessment framework that includes materials, transportation, and on-site installation, and applied it with a unified CPT-based design method for driven piles in sand.<br /><br />Analysis of 39 case histories found that pile-material production dominates global warming potential (GWP): it accounts for about 74% of impacts for concrete piles and 91% for steel piles. Average GWP per capacity was approximately 1.4 kg CO₂e/kN for concrete and 4.5 kg CO₂e/kN for steel. Pile geometry, material, and soil relative density (DR) all affect impacts, though material production often makes GWP relatively insensitive to modest design changes. In idealized analyses, trends differed by pile type: greater slenderness reduced impacts for square concrete piles but could increase them for steel pipes. Recycled steel reduced GWP by roughly 35% compared with virgin steel.<br /><br />The study also explored uncertainty through probabilistic analysis of soil properties and applied loads. Preliminary results suggest that a deterministic factor of safety (FS) of 2.5 can achieve at least a “below average” performance level for about 84% of piles, while reducing GWP by 31% for steel piles and 24% for concrete piles compared with an FS of 4.<br /><br />The work demonstrates how combining pile-design methods with life-cycle analysis can reveal lower-impact alternatives without relying solely on conservative safety margins. Further research is needed to generalize results across site conditions, account more fully for variability and uncertainty, and refine probabilistic performance measures.

Keywords

life-cycle assessment

driven piles

sustainable design

global warming potential

concrete piles

steel piles

CPT-based design

pile geometry

recycled steel

factor of safety