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By D. M. Milovic

On the basis of relatively large number of field load tests of piles, the determination of the ultimate bearing capacity have been studied. Using the load settlement curves and the results of the cone or standard penetrat­ion tests, the ultimate bearing capacity was determined by Van der Veen?s, Mazurkiewicz?s and bilinear approximation method. Also, the evaluation of the modulus of deformation and the unit skin friction has been discussed.

Jan 1, 2010

By R. H. Wright

This paper describes the design philosophy and methods employed in constructing the foundation elements for the Little Britain Project in the City of London. The Contract is a design and construct package for the foundations of a 3-storey basement which will be built using "top-down" construction techniques and is to be carried out by Fairclough Piling and Marine on behalf of Wimgrove Nominees. The Project includes 8000 sq.m. of diaphragm wall and barrettes 139 No. large diameter piles ranging from 900mm to 3000mm in diameter and up to 45m deep, and 9 No. cruciform barrettes for the heaviest column loads. Major factors influencing the design of these foundations include differential settlement, heave analysis and a fast track construction approach. Little Britain will provide 43000 sq.m. of space in two linked buildings which will bridge a new road joining London Wall to Newgate Street. The foundation contract is well advanced and the building is due for completion in the Summer of 1990.

Jan 1, 1989

By Ping Yang, Tian-bin Li, Min-hui Wu

"The process of filtrate loss of low solid-phase drilling fluid at different content of polyanionic cellulose is investigated by the standard filtration test. The test results showed that when time of filtration is same, the filtrate volume decreases linearly with the increase of content of polyanionic cellulose. When content of polyanionic cellulose is same, the velocity of filter loss decreases nonlinearly with the increase of time and the velocity of filter loss will reach a stable value. The filtrate volume in 7 to 8 minutes can reach half of the total filtrate volume. At the same time, the velocity of filter loss of drilling fluid decreases nonlinearly with the increase of viscosity. When apparent viscosity is between 3.5~4.15 mPa.s, decrease speed of velocity of filter loss is quick. The results are helpful for characteristics evaluation of filtrate loss of drilling fluid and control of filtrate loss.IntroductionDuring the process of drilling, water of drilling fluid can leakage into stratum, the water can result in instability and collapse of borehole wall. At the same time, the original ratio of drilling fluid will change. The density of drilling fluid will increase, the performance of the drilling fluid will change. Controlling amount of filtration is important to drill successfully. The additives of controlling filtrate loss are mainly two types, particle materials and polymer materials. High-molecular polymer is a kind of high-molecular material, has the adsorption effect, high polymer protection, can improve the advantages of slurry viscosity (Xu,2004 and Dehghanpour,2001). Some scholars carried out some study on the polymer material fluid loss agent in recent years, these study mainly focused on CMC, HEC, MHEC, CMHEC, starch and its derivatives(Zhang,2005 and Chevron,2009).About PAC (polyanionic cellulose) as drilling mud additives, a few of scholars carried out some relevant work. Plank (1992) applied PAC into ordinary freshwater drilling fluid and analyzed temperature stability of freshwater drilling fluid. Bennion (2000) applied PAC into drilling fluid and analyzed effect of polyanionic cellulose on strata inhibitory. Huang (2011) analyzed effect of PAC on properties of the high-density water-based drilling fluid. Mahto (2004) applied PAC into fresh water and salt-water drilling fluid and analyzed effect of PAC on rheological properties of the drilling fluid. Wang (2008) applied PAC into alkaline drilling fluid to study various performance of drilling fluid. PAC is a renewable resource and has good application prospect (Ankara, 2005). So it is very important to understand the effect of PAC on filtration process of drilling fluid.The test was conducted by changing the content of the PAC in drilling fluid. The object of this paper is to understand effect of polyanionic cellulose on filtration process of the low solid-phase drilling fluid."

Jan 1, 2017

By Harry K. Weatherbee

The paper presents a design case study for a four-story correction facility addition in south Boston, Massachusetts, supported on friction piles driven into the Boston Blue Clay. 356 mm (14-in.) square prestressed-precast (PSPC) concrete piles were selected as they were found more effective and economical. A static load test was performed where the pile was brought to "failure". The load test data were evaluated to estimate the Ultimate Pile Capacity as well as the Ultimate Unit Skin Friction (Adhesion) to serve as a design tool for friction pile projects in the south Boston Area.

Jan 1, 2003

By Dan Brown

A method is outlined for computing the contribution of a micropile group to global stability of a sliding mass. The forces in the micropile are computed in a way which accounts for the effect of soil mass movement on the mobilization of axial and shear forces and which maintains compatibility between shear and axial force as a function of displacement. The method provides a rigorous model to incorporate the pile forces into the stability calculations, including the effect of pile forces on the resultant shear and normal forces at the sliding surface. This paper demonstrates the proposed solution using a simple example slope.

Jan 1, 2007

By David A. Staab

Numerical modeling was used to investigate the feasibility of using two geophysical imaging techniques, cross-borehole ground penetrating radar (XBGPR) tomography and electrical resistivity (ER) tomography, for detecting and characterizing defects in deep-mixed soil columns. XBGPR modeling was accomplished with a three-dimensional numerical forward modeling code and a two-dimensional inversion routine. Spatial variations in apparent dielectric constant (Ka) and attenuation (a) were mapped. Electrical resistivity modeling was accomplished with a three-dimensional numerical forward modeling code and a three-dimensional inversion routine. Spatial changes in electrical resistivity were then mapped. Three different types of defects were simulated, in addition to a defect-free column. The computer simulations suggest that XBGPR tomography and ER tomography might be useful, non-destructive methods for detecting and estimating the extent of defects in deep-mixed soil columns. The results show that small, isolated defects might be difficult to detect, but defects approximately equal to or larger than the sampling interval (for XBGPR) or vertical electrode spacing (for ERT) should be detectable.

Jan 1, 2004

By S. Kanai

Nodular piles is to be piles provided with several nodular projections along the pile shaft, as shown in Fig. 1. Nodular piles are usually installed through either driving method with hammer or preboring method. This paper presents that the bearing capacity installed through each method is considerably higher than that of cylindrical pile without nodules. This paper also proposes the statistically analyzed unique formulae of the bearing capacity of nodular piles.

Jan 1, 1989

By Padmavathi V. Sagi

In this paper, effect of cyclic loading on the behavior of a long, flexible, unrestrained vertical pile loaded laterally in soft clay is examined. For cyclic loading, the analysis is carried out using a new method for the construction of p-y curves and for static loading conditions, p-y curves proposed by Dewaikar and Poonam (2005) are used. An iterative analysis is employed with secant modulus approach using a matrix method known as moment area method developed by Sawant et al. (1994). For pile top deflection of 20% of pile diameter, the load values are computed for both static and cyclic conditions. The comparison of results with the field test results reported by Matlock (1970) shows a good agreement. A parametric study is further carried out to examine the effect of load eccentricity, pile embedment length, diameter and the number of cycles on the pile response. The results of this study are discussed in the paper.

Jan 1, 2006

By William F. Anderson

A series of pile load tests (maintained load tests, constant rate of penetration tests at different rates, and statnamic tests) was carried out on an instrumented model pile installed in clay beds prepared by consolidation of a slurry in a calibration chamber. The total load, shaft resistance and end bearing during the pile load tests were investigated. Following this, alternative methods of deriving the static load-settlement curve from a Statnamic test in clay taking into account damping effects have been proposed. These methods have then been used to interpret a statnamic test on a full size instrumented pile installed in a stiff glacial till.

Jan 1, 2006

By Kenneth Gavin

Design practice for piles installed in Irish glacial till has developed in an ad-hoc manner, based on the results of un-instrumented load tests. This had led to designers using similar design parameters for both CFA and displacement piles. To address the concerns of industry a series of instrumented pile tests were performed by two Irish Universities. These tests summarized herein, revealed that CFA piles develop higher shaft resistance than piles driven in glacial till. However, they exhibit low base stiffness and the end bearing resistance that can be mobilized at acceptable pile settlement is low. The use of simple non-linear elastic design approaches to predict the load-displacement response is considered. The methods are used to predict the capacity of two large diameter CFA piles installed in glacial till. While the predictions were reasonably accurate at predicting the initial load-displacement of the piles, significant creep settlement developed at higher load levels. The cause of the creep settlement was investigated through the use of plate load tests and the consequences for pile design are discussed.

Jan 1, 2009

By Mark X. Haley

Foundation design and construction in Boston has changed dramatically during the past 10 years. Prior to 1985, the primary foundation element in Boston, where deep foundations are required, was driven end-bearing piles. Since 1985, drilled or excavated high capacity foundation elements have been utilized more frequently. This paper will provide a historic perspective of their use and a summary of design parameters for elements installed and founded in the bedrock. TOPOGRAPHY Boston was founded in 1630 by the Massachusetts Bay Company of John Winthrop and his hearty band of Puritans. The settlement was chosen for: ? its safe harbor, ? abundant source of fresh water, and ? peninsula setting offering protection of the ocean on almost all sides with high ground for fortification. These three factors were a direct result of past geologic processes that created the Boston Basin by erosion of the soft bedrock underlying this area as compared to the harder granite rock to the north, west and south. As the glacial ice sheets melted and moved northward, various soil types were deposited. During ice sheet re-advancement the hills and islands of Boston took on their precolonial shapes. The Trimont, consisting of Beacon, Mt. Vernon and Pemberton Hill, rose to 150 ft above sea level with the smaller Copps and Fort Hill to the north and south.

Jan 1, 1994

By Timothy C. Siegel

A piled raft refers to a shallow foundation that is structurally connected to the piles, while composite ground refers to a soil-pile matrix where the piles are not structurally connected. The design objectives for both a piled raft and composite ground are (excluding special considerations such as expansive soil): (1) to provide a sufficient ultimate resistance and (2) to distribute the load into the soil-pile matrix so that the settlement experienced by the shallow foundation is within tolerable limits. A simplified model is proposed for a shallow foundation on composite ground where the foundation settlement is estimated as the sum of the downward movement of the piles plus the downward movement of the shallow foundation relative to the pile head. The proposed simplified model is applied using conventional geotechnical analyses for two hypothetical examples of shallow foundations undergoing compression settlement.

Jan 1, 2011

By SungWon Park

The efficiency of the current design methods for computing pile resistances is evaluated using field load-settlement tests results. Twelve load-settlement test data for drilled shafts and bored piles were obtained from the literature. These load-test data were fitted using the ?t-z? method. Subsequently, the ultimate resistances were evaluated based upon the failure criteria from following methods: (1) the Davisson?s approach and (2) settlement corresponding to 5% or 10% shaft diameter approach. The ultimate resistances for these drilled shafts and bored piles were also predicted using methods based on the design code from North America (United States, Canada), Europe, and Asia (Japan). The pile resistances determined from field load-settlement tests were compared with those calculated using the design codes. The comparisons show that most design codes predict a conservative resistance for drilled shafts and bored piles. However, in the case of drilled shafts, we find that some of the design codes can over-predict the resistance and, therefore, should be applied cautiously. This research also shows that ?t-z? method can be successfully used to predict the ultimate resistance and the load transfer mechanism for a single pile.

Jan 1, 2009

By Stefano Trevisani

Abstract The FIEC Sustainability Vision states that “risks should be identified and allocated in a fair manner across the project team from the early stages of the design phase. A partnering approach, where objectives and timescales are agreed in advance together with all relevant partners in the value chain, offers a useful solution to improve on site efficiency and reduce disputes”. An alliance or collaborative form of contract involving all parties is the best way to ensure fair contract conditions and proper risk allocation in construction projects. Collaborative contracts are particularly useful where there is uncertainty or undefined information or in the event of technical difficulties and other risks difficult to allocate among the parties involved in the project. Owners sometimes require even special output in terms of innovative technical solutions or special performance. In addition, this particular form of cooperation has been construed and developed with the intention of avoiding and mitigating another great risk associated with the construction industry (especially in complex projects): disputes and conflicts, which are often a major cause of delays, increased costs, loss of reputation and opportunities. In contrast, Alliances are a way to increase and strengthen business relationships, technical and economic innovation and effectiveness, in a worldwide global context where the waste of resources must be avoided in order to guarantee future recovery and growth. Of course, the total cost of a project is usually a key factor and the main driver for the Owner and the Contractors in deciding the type of relationship between them as well as the subsequent relationship with subcontractors and lower-tiers. This paper and presentation, will explain the main features and the principle benefits that the use of collaborative contracts can bring to all parties involved in the construction project, including the sustainable financial return that might be achieved if costly and time consuming disputes can be avoided.

Jan 1, 2014

By Heman Manchanda, Jyoti Agarwal

Several infrastructure projects are under construction in India; many of them involves construction of deep foundations like reinforced concrete and steel piles to support super structures. As most of the piles being constructed in India are reinforced concrete bored piles, there are always uncertainties relating to the quality of construction, and in this case non-destructive methods to ascertain quality of piles becomes very crucial to success of any project. Non-destructive pile testing is becoming more and more popular with growing technologies wherein geophysical techniques and wave propagation theories are being used for pile quality and length analysis. Low-strain pulse echo method and cross-hole sonic logging testing are two pile integrity testing techniques being currently practiced in India which are cost effective and provides reliable near accurate results if analyzed properly. Paper presents current practices being adopted in India for conducting these two tests, highlighting the critical site considerations and analysis techniques. The paper also discusses various execution and interpretation challenges faced by practicing engineers and recommends a way forward.

Sep 1, 2022

By Trevor L. L. Orr

"AbstractThe background to the harmonization of geotechnical standards that has taken place in recent years in Europe has been the move to more economic and political integration following World War II that has led to the formation of the European Union. Prior to 2010 the standards used in the European countries for geotechnical design, investigation and testing and for the carrying out geotechnical work, such as the installation of piles, were the different national standards, which were not harmonized. The harmonization of geotechnical standards in Europe started in 1981 with work on a model Eurocode 7 for geotechnical design that led eventually to publication by CEN, the European Committee for Standardization, of the European Standard version of Eurocode 7 in 2004. In parallel with the work on Eurocode 7, a large number of associated harmonized standards have been, and are being, prepared by CEN and by the International Standards Organization (ISO) for geotechnical investigation and testing and for the execution of geotechnical works. Standards published by CEN must be adopted by the CEN member countries and all conflicting standards withdrawn. Hence all the CEN countries have adopted the same the harmonized text of Eurocode 7, but with National Annexes that allow national choice with regard to Design Approach and partial factor values. The adoption of Eurocode 7 and its associated geotechnical standards has removed the barriers to geotechnical activity in Europe due to the presence of different national standards. It has also enhanced the ability of EU firms to compete in the global market.Background to harmonization of geotechnical standards in EuropeThe initial moves towards the harmonization of geotechnical standards in Europe can be related to the economic and political developments that took place in the period immediately following World War II to revive the economies of Western Europe. Europe at that time was divided by a political and, in many places, a physical barrier, known as the Iron Curtain, into two very different and separate zones: communist in the east and non-communist in the west. In 1952 the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was formed, linking 6 countries: Belgium, West Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, and establishing a common market in coal and steel. The ECSC was the first international organization to be established on the basis of supranational principles whereby negotiated power is delegated to an authority by the governments of the member states. In 1957 the ECSC became the European Economic Community (EEC), also known as the Common Market in the English-speaking world, with the aim to bring about economic integration. With the addition of Denmark, Ireland and the UK in 1973 and Greece in 1981, followed by Portugal and Spain in 1986, this led to the formation of the European Union (EU) in 1993. East and West Germany were reunified in 1990, following the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. In 1995, Austria, Finland and Sweden joined the EU, and since then the numbers of countries in the EU has increased to 28, many of which are countries that were formerly behind the Iron Curtain."

Jan 1, 2014

By Wei Zheng

A pulverized coal fired power plant is being built in Osceola, Arkansas, along the Mississippi River. The subsurface soil conditions consist of a certain amount of very soft clayey silt and clay underlain with a medium dense sand layer and a dense sand layer. The site has been raised four to five feet with fill material consisting of sand and gravel. Consolidation settlement due to the fill is expected to cause negative shaft resistance (downdrag) on the pile foundations. The site is located in a high seismic hazard area - the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ). The liquefaction analyses indicated that there is a high liquefaction potential in the medium dense sand layer. Load tests are needed to determine the shaft resistance and the end bearing of each soil layer for design purpose. Two types of pile foundations ? augered pressure grouted displacement pile (APGD) and partial augered pressure grouted displacement pile (P-APGD) were considered for this project. Ten pile load tests, including five compression tests and five tension tests, were performed for three different areas. Strain gauges were installed for the compression tests. The APGD and P-APGD piles were installed side by side for comparison. In addition, three additional dynamic tests were performed to supplement the information from the static load tests. Load deflection curves for the compression tests were predicted, and the failure loads were interpreted using four different methods. The shaft resistance and the end bearing were determined from the strain gauge data and were used to back calculate the ultimate capacity. The back-calculated capacities are in good agreement with the predicted failure loads; they were further verified with the tension load test results.

Jan 1, 2007

By Karl A. Higgins

In 1976, Prof. G. G. Meyerhof published a famous article in the Journal of Geotechnical Engineering titled ?Bearing Capacity and Settlement of Pile Foundations?. This article presents the authors opinions on calculating pile capacities in clays and sands, group capacities and pile settlement. A portion of the article presents correlations of shaft friction and end bearing to the Standard Penetration Test (SPT) N-value. Subsurface exploration via the Standard Penetration Test is the most widely used exploration tool in the United States, so correlations of pile capacity to N-value are significant to the practice of geotechnical engineering. Meyerhof?s SPT-N correlations are relatively simple calculations compared to other pile capacity computation methods presented in the article or found in other text books (such as the a-method, b-method, Nordlund, Vesic, Meyerhof?s semi-empirical, others) and therefore are popular amongst practicing geotechnical engineers. At the time these correlations were published by Prof. Meyerhof, utilization of dynamic testing with the Pile Driving Analyzer (PDA) was not widespread in geotechnical engineering practice. Prof. Meyerhof?s correlations appear to be based upon conventional static pile load testing of instrumented piles. Dynamic pile measurements to estimate a pile?s static capacity provides certain advantages over conventional static load testing, namely the determination of unit shaft friction values at discrete intervals along the pile, and the unit end bearing support value. The author has compiled a database of driven, displacement piles tested with dynamic methods (ref. ASTM D4945, Test Method for High-Strain Dynamic Testing of Piles). The data was collected between 2002-2010 and is comprised of displacement piles driven into coastal plain sediments in the mid-Atlantic states of Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. In layered soils, dynamic testing in particularly helpful as it reveals the differences in unit shaft friction for varying soil types. One hundred ninety (190) piles are included in the database, with a corresponding 1,373 discrete shaft friction and 190 end (toe) bearing measurements. The pile type typically consisted of 12 and 14 inch square, prestressed, precast concrete piles; however, a significant number of piles were steel HP 12 or 14 inch sections. The database was sorted based upon soil type, and then correlations of shaft friction and end bearing were derived in the same or similar manner as Meyerhof?s original 1976 publication. The new correlations are compared to Meyerhof?s original values.

Jan 1, 2011

By Gustavo Armijo

Slippery and unstable working platforms spoiled not only by natural weather conditions but also by the effects of the construction process (drilling mud, grout slurry) are among the main sources of hazards. Due to this fact a set of recommendations for execution and maintenance of working platforms are presented in this paper, which is based on a study on this subject that is being carried out by AETESS, the Spanish Federation of Geotechnical Contractors. The main objective of this paper is to establish the basis for the right execution and maintenance of working platforms for geotechnical jobs with the idea of increasing safety and productivity. All the aspects involved in working platform safety are analyzed: ground and equipment characteristics, geometric conditions and working platform maintenance. From this analysis a set of general requirements is proposed together with the necessary specific controls before and after the equipment arrival to the job site. In order to facilitate this analysis some flow charts and tables and specific appendixes for each geotechnical technique are included.

Jan 1, 2006

By Rudolph P. Frizzi

"Abstract Pile design for building structures in the United States is typically performed by: 1) investigating and assigning engineering parameters to the respective ground bearing materials, 2) calculating ultimate pile to ground (geotechnical) capacity which is then reduced by a Safety Factor deemed appropriate by a registered Design Professional thereby arriving at an allowable pile geotechnical pile capacity, and 3) determining the required pile structural section using allowable pile section material properties. It is advantageous to use a Working Stress Design Method (WSDM) approach as one system of loads (service loads) are used in both the geotechnical and structural evaluation. There are a variety of methods used to determine the ultimate and allowable geotechnical capacity, and Building Codes often require a registered Design Professional to determine the appropriate method(s) and capacities. The International Building Code is the Code typically referenced in building design and construction in the United States. Structural design usually follows Building Code requirements and Allowable Stress Design (ASD) procedures. As design of the overlying structure typically follows a Strength Design Method (SDM) approach using factored loads, in some cases piling is first designed for pile-to-soil interaction using service loads, followed by evaluating the pile geometry for factored loads. Construction is the finalization and implementation of the designed piling. As such, project-specific technical specifications are typically developed by a registered Design Professional such that a project Owner can bid, buy, and instruct a Contractor as to the desired piling work and acceptance criteria. There are several Industry groups, including DFI, PDCA, ADSC, and ACI that provide guidance documents which the registered Design Professional can refer to in developing the piling technical specifications. It is the author’s opinion that the registered Design Professional is best suited to observe and verify the piling installation; many Building Departments require verification and documentation by a registered Professional as a condition of final acceptance.INTRODUCTIONPile design for building structures consists of: investigation, design, specification, and verification. In major metropolitan areas within the United States, Building Codes typically identify minimum requirements for each of the above steps. The International Building Code (ICC, 2012) is the Code typically referenced in building design and construction in the United States. Recognizing the ground conditions as well as piling construction means and methods can vary on a site-by-site basis, latitude is given to the registered Design Professional and Contractor to optimize the piling system for the respective project conditions. Field testing and quality control / assurance measures are typically implemented to verify the design intent is attained for the production pile elements."

Jan 1, 2014