CFA

Continuous Flight Auger Piles

Method Statement

BAUER Maschinen GmbH

2019

© BAUER Maschinen GmbH • 86529 Schrobenhausen • Tel. (08252) 97-0

CFA - Continuous Flight Auger Piles
Method Statement

Table of Contents

1 Definition and construction principle .................................................................. 3

2 Construction procedure ........................................................................................ 3

2.1 Preparation of the site and setting up of the rig ...................................................................3
2.2 Drilling and concreting the pile ............................................................................................4
2.3 Inserting the reinforcement cage .........................................................................................5

3 Drilling Rig and Drilling Equipment ..................................................................... 7

3.1 Drilling rig ...........................................................................................................................7
3.2 Tools ..................................................................................................................................7

4 Material Specifications .......................................................................................... 8

4.1 Reinforcement ....................................................................................................................8
4.2 Concrete .............................................................................................................................8

5 Quality Control and Quality Assurance ............................................................... 8

6 Safety ...................................................................................................................... 9

7 Annexes................................................................................................................ 10
7.1 List of Equipment ..............................................................................................................10
7.2 Recommended Manpower ................................................................................................10

8 Disclaimer ............................................................................................................ 11

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CFA - Continuous Flight Auger Piles
Method Statement

1 Definition and construction principle

CFA piles are cast-in-situ piles, where a hollow-stem continuous flight auger is rotated and driven
into the ground at a controlled speed to the specified pile depth. Concrete is then pumped under
continuous positive pressure through the hollow stem of the auger to fill the borehole as the auger
is withdrawn.
Once the auger is completely out of the borehole a reinforcing cage can be inserted and driven into
the fresh concrete to the designed depth.
Following the development of high torque rotary heads and drilling rigs with extended masts and
high crowd and extraction forces, the range of diameters and depths for CFA piles has increased
significantly and it is possible to install CFA piles through a wide variety of soils including clays,
silts, peat, sand and sandy gravels. It is possible, using the high crowd forces that the Bauer rigs
can - together with new, automatic control systems - install CFA piles through stiff soil layers and to
socket them into rock.

The method is suitable for cohesive, non-granular soils:

• Undrained shear strength: cu > 15 kN/m²
• No boulder presence

2 Construction procedure

The working sequence for the construction of CFA piles comprises the following key steps:
• Preparation of the site and setting up the rig,
• Drilling and concreting the piles.
• Inserting the reinforcing cage.

2.1 Preparation of the site and setting up of the rig

A level, stable working platform must be prepared at the pile position to support the weight and
pressures imposed by the drilling rig. The inclination of the working platform should not exceed 3%.
The drilling rig is placed in position so that the tip of the CFA is exactly on the pile position. The
mast is then levelled using the automatic levelling device included in the Bauer base carrier.
The bottom end of the hollow shaft is sealed with a disposable tip.

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CFA - Continuous Flight Auger Piles
Method Statement

2.2 Drilling and concreting the pile

1 2 3 4 5

Fig 1: Construction steps

Once the drilling rig is set up over the pile position, the CFA drill string is drilled into the ground to the
required depth, extended by optional Kelly extension (2), by the torque generated by the rotary drive
of the drilling rig and the crowd pressure generated by the crowd winch (1 & 3).
During this operation care must be taken to ensure that the speed of rotation of the auger is not
excessive in respect to its rate of penetration. If the speed of rotation is too high there is a risk of
"Overflighting" i.e. the removal of soil from the sides of the borehole and moving this to the surface,
thus reducing the geotechnical characteristics of the pile/soil interface. This phenomenon becomes
especially important when the CFA meets hard layers of soil or rock and the speed of penetration
slows. The speed of rotation must be adjusted accordingly.
If the rig is fitted with the "Drilling Assistant" module, after having entered the geometric
dimensions of the auger, the computer will regulate automatically the speed of rotation with
respect to its penetration speed.

Once the founding level is reached, the concrete pump is activated and concrete is pumped
through the swan neck and swivel to fill the hollow shaft of the CFA. A pressure sensor on the
swan neck measures the concrete pressure. An additional sensor records the pump strokes. The
volume per stroke (determined by calibration) is typed into the B-Tronic, so that the flow rate is
known. Concrete pressure and concrete volume are displayed on the B-Tronic screen. As soon as
the entire hollow shaft is filled up with concrete, extraction of the auger will start (4).

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CFA - Continuous Flight Auger Piles
Method Statement

The extraction speed controlled by the “pulling assistant”. It

depends either on the flow of concrete or on the concrete
pressure.
During the concreting and extraction phase the auger is
normally not made to rotate. Nevertheless some project
specifications permit rotation of the auger during extraction. In
this case care must be taken to ensure that the auger is made
to rotate in the drilling direction otherwise it will discharge soil
and contaminate the concrete.

Fig 2: Pressure sensor

It is strongly recommended to activate the auger cleaner

during the concreting and extraction phase. Cleaning of
the flights prevents spoil dropping from height and
possibly causing injury to nearby personnel.

Fig 3: Auger cleaner

2.3 Inserting the reinforcement cage

In the CFA method, contrary to other piling methods, the reinforcing cage is installed after the
borehole has been concreted (4). Depending on its design the pile can be reinforced over part of
its depth or, with limitations, to its full depth.
In order to ensure that the cage will penetrate easily into the fresh concrete, particularly at depth, a
number of characteristics need to be ensured:
• The reinforcing cage must be designed and built stiff.
• The concrete mix must be designed to ensure that it will remain fluid for a period of time
sufficient to ensure insertion of the cage, particularly where the cage is long or is inserted
in more elements that need to be spliced together.
• In permeable soils – especially in sand - there will be a loss of fluid from the concrete mix
over a short period of time and the mix will become stiff and resist penetration of the cage.
The concrete mix must therefore be designed accordingly.
• Installation of the reinforcement cage should start immediately after the concreting phase.

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CFA - Continuous Flight Auger Piles
Method Statement

The reinforcing cage will normally penetrate under its own weight, or with a little manual help, to
depths of about 6 – 10 m. Beyond this depth, the use of a vibrator (Fig.4) is needed to push the
cage to its designed depth. For that case it is essential that the rebar cage sections are welded.

Fig 4: Rebar installation with vibrator Fig 5: Rebar installation with drawdown beam and vibrator

When cages are long, they become slender and tend to buckle when pushed into the concrete mix.
In these cases it is better to fit the cage with a central driving element (normally a large diameter
steel tube or I-beam) with a bayonet connection at the bottom of the cage. A vibrator is fitted to the
top of the driving element and the cage is drawn into the concrete mix from the bottom rather
driven from the top. (Fig. 5)
This method of operating ensures that the cage does not buckle and enables cages to be inserted
to depths beyond 20 m.

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CFA - Continuous Flight Auger Piles
Method Statement

3 Drilling Rig and Drilling Equipment

3.1 Drilling rig

All Bauer BG drilling rigs with a crowd winch can be easily
Lattice boom extension (optional)

converted to the CFA mode. They are all fitted with CFA crowd
systems and high extraction force capabilities.
CFA shaft extension (optional)

The CFA depth capability of the rig is determined by the stroke of

the rotary head. On some rigs mast extensions are available to
increase the stroke and therefore the depth capability of the
machine (The Bauer technical department must be consulted to
determine limitations to the mast lengths).
Care must be taken however, when using CFA drill shaft
extensions, as the upper part of the borehole, in correspondence
with the shaft extension, is not supported and may collapse
causing extra resistance to the extraction of the tool during the
concreting phase.
For an optimized extraction force various winch combinations are
available depending on the type of rig.

3.2 Tools
CFA´s are available in diameters ranging from
Stroke of sledge

400 mm to 1200 mm. The bottom end of the CFA can be

fitted with different starters to suit the predominant ground
CFA auger

formation on the project (See the Bauer catalogue for the design
of different starters).

Auger
cleaner

Fig 6: BG with drill shaft extension

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CFA - Continuous Flight Auger Piles
Method Statement

4 Material Specifications

4.1 Reinforcement
All steel shall be in accordance with the specifications set out in the contract documents.
Reinforcing cages must be designed and built stiff to prevent them from buckling when driven into
the freshly concreted borehole.
Reinforcing cages must be fitted with appropriate spacers to guarantee the design cover. Their
lower part should be tapered inwards to keep the cage central in the borehole during insertion.

4.2 Concrete
The concrete and its components shall comply with the specifications set out in the contract
documents.
The maximum size of aggregates should not exceed 16 – 20 mm, but it is fundamental when
constructing CFA piles that the mix be fluid enough to facilitate insertion of the reinforcing cage.
This fact becomes particularly critical when piles are long or when they are built in permeable soil
where there is the risk of loss of fluid and stiffening of the mix.
The design strength class of the concrete shall be at least of grade C 20/25 or C 30/37. For
reasons of workability and its self-compacting properties the following criteria should be met (even
if they are higher compared to the requirements of the contract specifications)
• Cement content (placement - dry) > 325 kg/m3
• Cement content (placement - submerged) > 375 kg/m3
• Water/cement ratio < 0.6
• Slump flow (consistency classification F 5) 560 – 620 mm (slump 160 – 180 mm)
Prior to starting works trial mixes should be prepared to check suitable mix proportions, workability
and strength.

5 Quality Control and Quality Assurance

The use of a reliable monitoring and data recording system during the whole construction process
is fundamental.
All Bauer drilling rigs are fitted with automatic verticality control systems to ensure that the masts
and tools are kept vertical at all times thereby assisting the operators to drill properly aligned holes.
The Bauer B-Tronic system will record all parameters during the construction process. These can
be reproduced and printed for QA/QC assurance.
The use of the Bauer "Drilling and Pulling Assistants" will further guarantee quality and the good
behavior of the pile.

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CFA - Continuous Flight Auger Piles
Method Statement

Fig 7: B-Tronic screenshots – left: Drilling Assistant – right: Pulling Assistant

The use of this equipment is highly recommended

For QA/QC work all drilling and concreting data are available in real time.

6 Safety

To avoid any danger or injury during the piling works the following measures may be taken:
• When extracting the soil-filled continuous flight auger a (hydraulically operated) auger
cleaner should be used.
• Protect all working and storage areas that are to be off limits to the public, by temporary
site fencing clearly marked with hazard or danger signs.
• During rest days and rest hours cover up or protect all open bores with fencing at least
1.5 m in height.
• During rest days and rest hours store safely and lock all tools & machines.
• When working at night provide adequate platforms and lighting.
• When carrying out maintenance on machines and equipment follow strictly the
manufacturer's recommendations.
• Proper working attire should be worn by all persons engaged on site, inclusive of safety
appraisals such as helmets, proper shoes or boots safety harnesses etc.
• Comply with all other safety measures prescribed by the general conditions of contract.

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CFA - Continuous Flight Auger Piles
Method Statement

7 Annexes

7.1 List of Equipment

The following is a list of typical equipment required to construct CFA piles

Nos. Description
1 Bauer BG drilling rig with CFA kit and auger
1 Concrete pump with capacity between 60 to 120 m3/h
1 Vibrator for rebar installation with top cage bell or drawdown beam
Excavator for moving drill spoil and for assistance during cage
1
installation
1 Optional: Service crane (handling of reinforcement cage)

7.2 Recommended Manpower

The following manpower chart is based on 1 shift per day at peak performance.

Drilling operation: Number

Foreman / Engineer 1
Operator 1
Frontman 1
Reinforcement and Concreting
Concrete pump operator 1
Excavator operator 1

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CFA - Continuous Flight Auger Piles
Method Statement

8 Disclaimer

The purpose of this Method Statement is to generally describe the Continuous Flight Auger Piling
Method and the sequence of activities required to execute the method. It describes also the main
equipment which will be needed to execute the work.
We emphasize that this Method Statement is a description of events given at the planning stage.
Varying soil conditions or differing site conditions may result in a modification of the construction
methodology.
All data used are either data gathered from various documents or verbal information provided by
the customer or assumed by Bauer to be able to complete the MS.
The MS is provided to the customer free of any consideration and as a guide only.
The customer shall check all the data used and recommendations made and come to their own
conclusion as to adopt the system proposed or use other or improved methods.
Under no circumstances shall Bauer or the persons preparing this MS accept any type of liability
to the same unless agreed through written contract.
Bauer Maschinen GmbH retains its copyright on this MS and extracts of it.
The MS is an internal document. Its distribution or publication is allowed only with the expressed
written permission of Bauer Maschinen GmbH.

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