1. Introduction
With the acceleration of urbanization, urban rapid rail transit systems, represented by subway tunnels, have been extensively constructed. However, due to the rapid growth in the number of urban structures, situations involving the construction of new bridges or subway tunnels near or through existing buildings have become increasingly common. In order to ensure the safety of the upper structures, pile foundation replacement technology is often employed to transfer the superimposed loads from existing piles, ensuring the smooth progress of new construction projects [1-6]. Pile cap replacement technology is an effective construction technique that involves the creation of a new replacement beam and replacement piles to efficiently transfer the existing load-bearing system. This process redirects the loads previously borne by the existing piles onto the newly constructed replacement piles, effectively managing the stresses and deformations in the existing upper structure [7-9].
As urban underground construction continues to grow rapidly, the significance of pile foundation replacement construction technology for urban development becomes increasingly prominent. The pile foundation underpinning technology was first applied to Winchester Cathedral in the United Kingdom. Divers dig a trench through the peat and chalk layers to access the gravel layer, then fill it with concrete to carry out underpinning construction [
10]. Germany has conducted several theoretical and practical investigations into pile foundation underpinning technology since the 1950s, employed this technology in numerous projects, and included pile foundation underpinning technology in its industrial standard (DIN) [
11,
12]. Shan et al. [
13] conducted pile underpinning research on an actual building, and the results indicated that the piles acted well as an underpinning role in transferring structure load into surrounding geomaterials, which may offer enough support for the rebuilt structure. Xu et al. [14-15] based on the engineering background of shield tunnel crossing through group pile foundation of a road bridge with pile underpinning technologies in Shanghai verified the feasibility of pile underpinning technology to solve this problem. Li et al. [
16] investigated stress transfer mechanism during underpinning process by conducting the refined numerical simulation of the pile foundation underpinning construction using FLAC3D, and found that pile foundation underpinning technology could effectively transferred the overlying load on the underpinning pile to a new underpinning pile. That confirmed the significance of pile foundation displacement construction technology to urban infrastructure projects.
There are numerous factors that influence the safety of pile foundation replacement beam construction. Employing appropriate construction methods and effective safety control measures are essential safeguards for pile foundation replacement beam construction technology. In this regard, scholars both domestically and internationally have conducted extensive research. Li et al. [
17], Dong et al. [
18], Wang [
19] and Huang et al. [
20] investigated the mechanical performance of replacement piles under replacement loads and proposed a method for predicting the pile's bearing capacity. Huang Xi et al. [
21], by analyzing the transfer of replacement loads, the settlement patterns of pile foundations when t tunnel traverses the pile foundation of flyover, and the impact of design parameters on the safety of pile foundation replacement construction, have found that active replacement is superior to passive replacement. Furthermore, they observed a positive correlation between the pile length, pile diameter, replacement beam height, and the safety of the pile underpinning replacement structure. Through the orthogonal experiment of scaled models of the wrap-underpinning joints under frame columns in moving engineering, Zhang et al. [
22] investigated the influences of the shear-span ratio, longitudinal reinforcement parameter, and stirrup ratio in the underpinning joint surface on the orthogonal experiment of scaled models of the wrap-underpinning joints under frame columns. They also provided the formula to calculate the bearing capacity of underpinning joints. Xu et al. [
15] conducted a seismic analysis of pile foundation replacement structures to elucidate the load transfer mechanism of bridge structures throughout the entire construction process. Meanwhile, Zhang et al. [
23] established a numerical simulation model that accounted for the entire foundation replacement structure and construction steps to validate the feasibility of the pile foundation replacement construction scheme. Yue et al. [
24] tested sixteen prototypes considering different shear span-to-depth ratios, underpinning joint heights, and reinforcement ratios and discovered that the underpinning beams can fail in shear or flexure-shear. During loading, the interface between the column and the beam would also be prone to failure. Yan et al. [
25] studied the shear and slide characteristics of the joint and developed a revised method for determining shear capacity using three local node models of the underpinning structures with a similarity ratio of 1/1. Horpibulsuk et al. [
26], Wang et al. [
27], Kou. [
28] Tu et al. [
29] and Igba U.T. et al. [
30] proposed an optimized pile cap replacement construction scheme based on practical engineering applications. The aforementioned research has elucidated the key factors affecting pile foundation replacement beam construction technology, including pile foundations, replacement beams, and replacement piles. It has also proposed relevant computational models, laying a solid foundation for the practical application of pile foundation replacement beam systems and paving the way for further exploration in novel pile foundation replacement techniques.
However, there is a notable lack of research addressing the issue of the connection between newly cast replacement beams and existing structures in pile foundation replacement beam construction technology, specifically, the adhesive properties at the interface between old and new concrete. bond slippage between the new and old concrete contact surfaces of pile foundation underpinning beam structures has become the key to limiting the use of underpinning construction technology in large-scale projects due to insufficient anchoring technology and bond material limitations. Fortunately, the development of polymer composite reinforcing adhesive anchoring technology for pile foundation underpinning has created new ideas. Epoxy resin reinforcing adhesive of planting rebar as a commonly used composite building structural adhesive materials, with excellent adhesive properties, chemical stability, and strong heat resistance, has attracted scholars in various fields of research [31-32], while also adding a variety of new polymers of composite epoxy resin materials and new epoxy resins with specific properties have also appeared one after another, such as the novel in-situ polytriazolesulfone modified epoxy and the epoxy resin modified with biodegradable polymer [33-35]. Liu et al. [
36] pointed out that cracks in building structure adhesives can be self-healed in various ways and proposed a new epoxy with self-repairing properties for environment-friendly building structure adhesives, which is helpful to the prolongation of the reinforcing adhesive of planting rebar’s working life in complex climatic and engineering environments and also opens the door to the future application of a new type of the reinforcing adhesive of planting rebar to pile foundation underpinning technology. He et al. [
37] conducted a study on the mechanical properties of a new epoxy resin reinforcing adhesive for planting reinforcement in highway engineering and discovered that the use of a new composite material can not only greatly improve bond strength between structures but also greatly improve over-all structural load-bearing performance. Gou et al. [
6] proposed five different beam-column joint forms and demonstrated that the combination of “tongue and groove + anchor bar + prestressed force” can effectively guarantee the safety of beam-column joints. That provides a valuable reference for the combination of the new type of epoxy resin reinforcing adhesive and reinforcing bar construction technology. It can be seen that the epoxy resin reinforcing adhesive composite material has the high bonding characteristics that traditional planting reinforcement construction requires. Now, the epoxy resin composite material has been widely used in various fields with a good research foundation and technical reserve, which is beneficial to the realization of pile foundation underpinning technology in the complex project, and it is worth introducing into the attempts. However, aiming at reinforcing adhesives excel-lent material performance, it must be combined with reasonable planting reinforcement construction technology, such as the rough interface - prestressing - planting re-bar - reinforcing adhesive construction technology methods, such as joints with a rough interface + planting reinforcement + prestressing + epoxy resin reinforcing adhesive of planting rebar connections.
In summary, researchers have conducted more practical engineering applications for pile foundation underpinning technology; however, the safety of “chiseling - prestressed reinforcement - epoxy resin bonding” for treating the interface between old and new concrete has yet to be thoroughly tested and studied. Based on this, the paper uses an actual pile foundation underpinning project of an urban overpass as a prototype, employs a method involving chiseling - prestressed reinforcement - epoxy resin bonding simultaneously designs and creates a model structure with a similarity ratio of 1/6, and analyses and discusses the overall working performance and failure mode of them. We expect that this paper's study can lay the theoretical and experimental foundation for the smooth development of similar projects. It also lays the foundation for the future development of the deep integration between the novel epoxy resin reinforcing adhesive and the great planting rebar technology.