6 Major Reasons for Failure of Pile

Foundation!
There are mainly six basic reasons, which may lead to failure of cast-in-situ end bearing
piles, they are as follows

01. The hard stratum such as rock below the pile toe may be defective:
The rock stratum supporting piles must be capable enough to sustain the load transmitted
through pile tip without failing in shear and settlement. In such cases, the thin layer of
sound rock overlaying unsound or weak rock and deep pits or crevices in the rock surface
affect the sound rock.

02. Pile toe or junction of pile toe and rock stratum:

There must be sufficient area of contact between the pile toe and the supporting stratum
so that the load from pile can be safely transmitted to the stratum below. Sometimes,
construction may end with defective pile toe and/or improper seating of pile toe over the
supporting stratum. This condition may lead High order of settlements. In some cases, pile
toe concrete surface may be partly in contact with the supporting stratum and
subsequently, under the design loads, large intensities of stresses may develop in toe
portion concrete which may get crushed and subsequently leading to excessive settlement
of a pile.

03. Pile shaft body:

Pile shaft body must behave as a solid column to transfer the load of the superstructure to
the supporting stratum. The defects in the cast-in-situ piles may often be due to the
consequence of faulty concreting. Sometimes, use of deleterious concrete materials,
improper mix designs etc. produce a poor quality of pile body.

04. Behaviour of the junction of the pile top, pile cap and super-structural column:
During construction, more or less, all the piles get eccentrically positioned. The effect of
eccentricities is generally more where laid on hard stratum, or casing pipes were removed
after concreting of piles, or the depth of piles varied between 10 to 20 m, or during
construction. The super-structural frame was found to be tilted and was out of plumb by
about 30cms.

05. Chemical aggressiveness of sub-soil water:

Aggressive chemicals such as water soluble chlorides and sulphates, if present in subsoil
water in quantity more than the permissible limits, may adversely affect the cast-in-situ
concrete and may corrode the reinforcement of the pile body leaving behind a useless pile
as far as the function of load transformation from the superstructure to hard stratum is
concerned.

06. Negative drag on pile body:

Consolidating recent fills and clayey soils induce progressively a downward drag on the
pile body. This negative drag has been a predominant cause of failures of some pile
constructed in reclaimed areas.