Attenuating Mass Concrete Effects in Drilled Shafts

Drilled shafts are large diameter cast in place concrete foundation elements that until recently were not viewed with the same scrutiny as other massive concrete elements when considering mass concrete aspects. Upon closer review, even small diameter shafts (as small as 4 ft) develop mass concrete conditions which gave rise to this project. This study addressed three aspects of temperature generation in drilled shafts: (1) construction of drilled shaft with a full length centroidal void to minimize internal heat, (2) thermal integrity measurements of drilled shafts, and (3) field measurements of mass concrete elements taken to corroborate model findings with the intent of refining the definition of detrimental mass concrete conditions.