Journal of Bio-Environment Control ISSN:1229-4675(Print) 2765-3641(Online) 생물환경조절학회지

Wood piles are rarely used in the construction of a greenhouse in Korea, but they are relatively more often used in other countries, such as the Netherlands. There are several advantages associated with wood piles: they are more cost-effective, less time-consuming, and more ecofriendly than the steel pipes (SPs) and pre-stressed highstrength (PHC) piles. However, one of the limiting conditions is that they have to be installed below the groundwater level to prevent decay. Since the groundwater levels are generally high in the reclaimed lands in Korea, wood piles are expected to be used often as reinforcements for foundations of greenhouses in these areas. In this study, we measured the uplift capacities of wood piles through in-situ uplift capacity tests with an aim to provide basic design data for wood pile foundations. In order to test their applicability, we then compared these experimentally measured ultimate uplift capacities with the ones calculated through some of the existing theoretical equations. The wood piles used in the loading tests were made of softwood (pine wood), and the tests were performed using piles with different diameters (Ø25cm and Ø30cm) and embedded depths (1m, 3m, and 5m). The test results revealed that the uplift capacity of the wood piles showed a clear linearly increasing tendency in proportion to the embedded depth, with the ultimate uplift capacities for the diameters 25cm and 30cm being 9.38 and 10.56tf, respectively, at the embedded depth of 5m; thus demonstrating uplift capacities of ≥ 9tf. The comparison between the actually measured values of the uplift capacity and the ones calculated through equations revealed that the latter, which were obtained using the α method, were generally in an approximate agreement with the in-situ measured values.