Shallow and deep foundations

The Patrick & Henderson tensionless pier is a cylindrical concrete foundation used in the USA more than 5.000 times for steel towers of wind turbine generators. This type of foundation was developed and patented by Patrick & Henderson in 1996. The foundation is constructed of cementitious material poured in situ between an inner and outer cylindrical corrugated metal pipe (CMP). It is formed within an excavation pit and externally and internally backfilled.
At the bottom of the pier a circumferential ring is fully embedded therein. Two circumferential rows of elongated bolts are positioned in the pier and anchored to the bottom ring. Additional long plastic tubes which encased the bolts (anchors) are used to avoid contact between the bolts and the concrete material. The upper ends of the anchors projecting up outwardly of the top of foundation. Thus, a majority of the midportions are free of connection with the cementitous material. The anchors are fitted to a load spreading ring at the tower bottom which is often used for conventional foundations.
After installation of the pier the tower base flange is positioned downwardly upon the upper end of the foundation. The tower base flange is finally connected to the anchors and to the load spreading ring with nuts. The nuts are highly torqued in order to place the anchors (bolts) in heavy tension. The post-tension of the steel anchors ensures that the entire length of circumferential concrete pier remains in high compression, even when it is subjected to extreme loads of the wind turbine generator.