Critical depth: how it came into being and why it does not exist Dr B.H. Fellenius, Ping and A. A. Altaee 18 This Paper discumes the fallacy ofthe ‘concept ofthe evtieal depth. The fallacy is ‘due to neglecting residual loads ia fll scale teeta and stress seal efecto at ‘edel-cales, made measured load dis- {bution appear linear below a certain “eritial' depth. Ue is concluded that intor- pretations of results mad inthe light of fhe erica depth concept can result in ‘unsafe designs, Introduction Career ages of ttc pile load transfers In most areas of the wars, based on efectve ress cory, thatthe i a resistance teequal ta vale proportional effective ‘overburden ses plus effective cobesion. Simi Tay, theuit te esatance is uvalyeon- ‘dered tobe proportional tothe effective Sverburdn stress Indesign of ive piles, the fohesion i usually ignored butts orally retained for bored ples. Bxh the unt ska an toe resistance vanes ae often Imi ete by ! neximam given namerical vale rt the ale caleulted aa -ae ecitcal depth ‘The citcal depth hasbeen given authorative {redity by auch document the America Vetroicum Intute Recommended Prac or Planning and Design so the Conadian Ge techie! Enginering Maal 2 he cea! dept, ually esumced be locate 10-20 pie diameters cee. ithe depth ‘haractried by dhe fat tha: down Co this Arpt che ni haf apd toe resistances follow the elective ates principe but below thie pin the sistance ae constant and equal to Therespetive vale atthe critica! depth. The big ofthe etic depth concep es it resus uf flea ple suis published by esi 1984, 1870, 1877)" "and Meseror (964, 14,4 and in results of model ets pablo by Reise These al scale ests were pe formed on instrumented piles and the aft resistance distrbaton published by Vesie {1970}? shown in Fig Isis equi referred to, Ves deebatone actly now that the Uni shat resitane eaves Blow te itil fepth (peak nit shal resistance which as ten explained as the fluence of he si di: Dlacement ner the ple we asoctated wih the Dale oes penetration, The curves als iadiease degradation of the weit shat esstance Wi Sep tat nthe ait haf resistance above ‘he ertial depth becomes sale the longer ‘he pile Similar rests were obind in the srodel tents The ese! depth wae very Avieky screed and much esearch has been Dublited supporting the concep, for example, “Tavents (1971) Felenias (1068) lowever. in tach of he cates of ullseale and mode cle piles, he ciel depth eiginate laa neglect Sa importa aspect, whic willbe explained fn he following Pall-seale behaviour 3. Forget foramnomen hat critical depth may exis and assiee thatthe effective tess Denepies and the Coulm elation fr snest Fesitance sta for theft reste fr, ~ Ba) along the fll lent of pile" thi ‘an instrumented tes ple onde ts fll Uliate eisance woslé show a resistane tition simile to that ation in Figs? assuming se presence of te resistance) Ia reality, However the inetrumectation wold ‘nos probably only register che loads applied to the pile during te test and direpard any Teas present i the pile before the est Suck prior loads are called “residual loads’ and are Induced inal ies, driven ae well as bored, during and folowing instalation. Pu spy ‘reside loa are load which ae sinay ‘resent ia pie even before messurements { taien or an analysis ie performed —and thew elects commen overlooked. ‘Residual loads are caused by sever it {erent pheromena, for example, wave aeaon during iving, soi quakes along te pie and ‘canzoidation of the so after the netallation Aisturbance Resi lat consist ausly of the su of sear frees doe ene sive skin fiction alg the upper partion of the pile inequilbrim withthe sat od te ves nce along the rst ofthe pile below the po ‘of equirium the neural plane, Very seal relative moverents between te ile shalt and the so are necessary to generat shear frees beeween ple ad the sai Theres, the residual toads can be calculated assuming ally Aeveloped shear along the ple shat neo teat at he pl oe larger movements ae casa to generate restance test fF Ariven i, the eid oe resistance i ence ally sale than theultimate oe reste Fig. Sshose he astsbtion of res fads the dashed portion the gure ndates that the neatral plane stersection i resty would how a carved transition (eur thenegaive ——a Gre Bore Seveh ene tos 118 Apes Geotechnical Brererng aver 003 ioe 13 en 1995 = el Univer of Otare a hada Pchotoy Lid, Comat _—AND ALTARE Fie, 1. Distribution ‘ef unit shes resistance (este, ss704) Fig. 2. Resistance siriution ot inate vesstance (stati loading test Unt shat estan AP ‘00. 209 q 10 q 20 beh besa 4 Fa x 40 vs io + ‘Unt shat estore postive direction of shear instead ofa “hink ‘rode. In Figs dand 5 the dashed portion of the line corresponds to the dashed portion in Fig. 3.) Ordinarily, the instromentation woul ‘dicate zero load atthe star ofa static leading test, thus disregarding the eesdeal load. Then, the measured resistance distribution would not show the ee shape of Fig 2, but the false ‘Shape shown in Pig, made up ofthe tue value ‘ims he reid Loa, ‘5. Ina static lading test, one does not measure a contiguous resistance curve, ony the load in the fee points where the gauges are located, say in four locations as illustrated ia Fig 5 To this case, when connecting the load values, a resistance distribution resus, similar torthat shosen inthe figure. This isteibuion is ‘ite different tothe tre distribution also Shown in Fig. 5. The false shape would indiate fan upper zone, where the unit shaft resistance increases progressively with epth, thats, roe to the effective sess principle, fliowed by a zone where the resistance is essentially Vines Ergo. the rites! depth is indicated. 6. Figure 6 shows the results of state loading test ona 285mm diameter, 15 ong square concrete pile in homegeneous sand (see ‘Rises era") The igure shows the loads te the test measured at failure by means of nine suges embedded inthe pile and the dstribu- fons of tre resistance and residual load, (Note that the residual load distribution transfers igadually from increasing Toad to decreasing Trad, ie, no kink at the neutral pane }Obyi ‘ously, ad the residual lad bee nected the test would Have proven the existence of eri ‘al depth tan embedient of about & m (28 ple meters Fig 7 shows the distribution of unit Shaft esstance forthe plead fra Wdencical Lm long adicent tet pile indicating fr bts piles thatthe shaft resistance i proportional to the effetve sires (except fora one in the tmmeiteviintyof the ple toe) fon the other hand, the resiual load is removed from the analysis results, the unit shat resistance diagrams offer avery differen picture, as shown in Fig. 8. Note che similarity of the two figures with those shown in Fig. 1- Note aso that she apparent values of unt shaft resistance are about wie as Terge a the trae values ‘Shown in Fig 7 7 Iris quite clear that critical depth has no foundation in reality, but the result of the neglect ofthe resid load. Critical depth is scssed forther in the htrature."- “Model-scale behaviour ‘BA critical depth was also found to exist in small stale tests on moe ies in sand, ‘where residual loads are very smal. The inte- rotation ofthe tests still wrong because it ‘lect an aditional nfuencing fact. The behaviour of sands subjected toa stress increas follows the principles of steady state soil mechanics also called rites state soil ‘mechanics, which states that at every stress level mean stress) there is a certain (eritical) oid ratio, the value of which reduces with increasing stress (the fonction i neat if Dotted as void ratio versus logarithm of mean Sere) If the void ratio of the snd is at higher valve than the eitical voi ratio, the sand wil have a tendency to contract when ‘hese forces are induced If at Tower vale, theen ig. 5. Residual load present in the pile tmomediately before th star of the tate ang test Fig. 4. False resistance distribution appearing sehen raring the residual load coxrricaL DEPTH ange ae Fig, 6. Resistance dictribution a determined {from four load gouges placed i the ple and Der hfore the start of the tests compared tothe tras distribution Dept Fig. 6. Distribution of true tad, residual toad, and false load in a 15 m lon test pile m sud (Altace tat, 1993")PELLENIUS AND ALTABE Un rat stan: AP A a) 4 p . € i é é et & pt ete 4 Por pea pe " ig, 7 Disribtion of tue unit shaft resistonce in two ples, 11 m and 15 m long in sand (Altace et al, 1983) Apparent nt en estan HPs een 1s! Fig, 8. Distribution of apparent alse) shart resistance inthe twa test piles (Altace et a, 1998 mn Fig, 9, Distribution of horizont! earth pressure ‘cotfcint agains he two test ples {Altare etal, 1993") sd ill dilate instead. The void ratio differ nce i aed the Upsilon value, positive above the steady state line aud negative below. Sand inan iil contractible condition s very lose, ‘nd the Upsilon values positive. Sand in an intial dlmable condition well below the steady sate linet dense, andthe Upsilon vale i= regatve, Sand ina inital contractible state {an easily iqueycollape, in fact—and pile devieg near stracures but in such sand ean ‘use severe setlement damage othe struc: tures. Sands ina state below, but near the sendy state Hine are alo iqueiable and may compact uring pile driving inthe vicinity) ‘The larger the initial void ratio in comparison withthe critical void ratio, the greater this en feney Correspondingly, for dense sand. the ‘aller the youd ratio compared tothe critical ‘oid ratio the lege the distance to the steady State in) the greter the tendenes to date, and, f restrained, the lege tbe herzon “Sressenindiced during sheat ‘Therefore for data sand, whichis snuch more prevalent than canrartible ane, tear the ground saelace, where the mean srest ‘Samal and the wo ratio difference tothe sendy state lines larger, sn soduced move nent causes the hortomtal force to neease in 8 Tanger degree (Le, develop a larger‘efficient, a opposed toa movement induced further down inthe si 10. This ie demonstrated in Fig. 9, which presents the earth pressure coefficient, Ky, acting against the two test piles. The highest tah pressure coefficient is close to 3 and bccuts near the ground surface from where it reduces with depth. Below a depth of abot 2m the coefficient is approximately constane and ‘equal to about 07. Ths is independent ofthe diameter ofthe ple. The coefficients, of course, proportional to the earth pressure co efficient. Shaft resistance isa function ofthis ‘ecreasng p coefficient times a increasing value of overburden stress. Therefore, an ‘instrumented mode pile will even with ul Consideration of residual oad, show a dist Son of uni saft resistance that iret increases and then becomes relatively constant. This, of faurse, can easly be interpreted to be the result ofthe presence ofa rita! depth Conclusion UU, The critical depth sa fallacy which criginates in the fire to interpret the results of fll and modeb-scae pile tests propery. In fallssale rest, neglecting the presence of residual Inds makes a meassred load ested tion appear linear below a certain depth, called the “extcal depth In model-sale ples, whieh are tested at shallow depths, the nelect of siress-scale eects gives similar error of interpretation. The two independent soe ations sem 0 prove the same thing, I not surprising, therefore, tha he fallacy s rail ‘ined acceptance ts important that it be ree- ‘ognized as fallacy, however, case inter breting tet results in the light of the rte epi concept makes for eroneos coelusions and unsafe designs References 1 Vee AS. Investguions of bearing apsity of piles ean Proc Ns Conon Dep Fond fons enc iy. 1964 2 Vet A.S Tests on insrumeated piles. Ogechee River site J So Stck Foundn ng Dts Am Soe Ci Pir, I 98 S256 38, 8 Vii AS. Pasion of pil feunatons, Naot Congeatve Highway Research Program, Trae portation Research Boar, Naina Reach Coun Nations Academy of Sone, Wohin tun, 197, Syesi of Milnay Prato 2 4 Mrance("Teuinte boring capacity of foundations. Gotchnign, 181, 2. No.4, 200 ae 5, Mrweannr 6.6. Beating capacity an eement ple foundations. The Eleventh Tesapt, Lear Now. 178 Gtrh De cm Su. (ie ings 186,108, GT, 195-228 1 Ren} Diep foundation —bosi cxperimeetl facts Proc. Nm Conon Deep Fost, esis Gry, 186 1. Taveaas A Lond ston tion pies in snd Con Gotech J. 1071/8 Na 13-22 A Fern ts Pritonpllrsbrformien Royal Smee Academy of Eghnerog Secs, Commission of Pile Research, Staci, 198 Ieper 28 9, RUSSEL, Unified deen of piles ond ile soaps. Transporation Kstarch Board, Wath feat, 180, FRE Record 160, 0-82 Uo. Hee A Hand Daas MT Mesarenents ‘ot pile ad rancor yee Som Parormanes 17 buep Foundations. Sen Brow, 196, et. ican Society Yor Testing and Mate, hls. hi 106-117 1 Hasta TAL and TAR. HS The havior of Tong pes under oopressiv oan san. Cem Gatch [1973 10,2 13-30 12, Franoaisit and Seuss Testing of die aii of concrete piles and dtr to eae liye lay. Can: Gotch J 1975, 13,02 138 15, Hoon DM, Cao. GW. and Vis 8. The flee of resiea rving steeple pestrmace de axial ands Proe. 100 OF Shore Technet Con ovsion, 1918 4, 225— v8 14, PouoetG, Analysis of residual tes elles in bles J Goatees. So Cit Eras 18%, 1a No. 8 26-224 16, Pauawta oR) Prediction ot pile capacity. Sip. on Predicted and Obvereed Benastr of Pe, American Sosy of Cl ng ers New Ver, 189, Spi! Paton 2 0-02 16, Frais, Summary of ile capacity pred ‘one and comparison wih breed beta J Geatrh. Dts Am. Soe Ge. Engrs 198,117, ise tos, 1, AUtabe A, Fran Hod Eves, Axil lob wansier fo esse sand: Tes an, inseumente peas ple Com Geoteck J1982 weno t-2 1 Atrase A Evans Band Fence, Axia Ina transfer for ples i sun Nemes! aay Ca eure. 198, 8, No, 2-9, 19, Ava A BvoweE and Pen bond (einfr te ples sp sant andthe crit depth on Geotech J 108, 30,80 3.8598 2 Ruuay it Liming tip a ie estan: facto lacy? Pro Symp Anas ‘Devgno ie Foondtns, Re) Mayes, ior, ‘Sin Francisco, 1868 American Sey Cis Engineers, New Pork a8 Bhat J1 les in sand: a method inching residual tess J Coteck Der Am Sor Cr ‘Bers, 1986, 10,11, 16861580, 22 Rane # Dan Caomset |. C Iterpretation a pile od rest conieringresua areses J Gatch Dre sim Soe ib gs, 987, 1, No, ‘0a 25 aad LM Performance of ail landed pipe piles nan J Ceseehee Am.Soe Ci ters, {oat 1, No 2 22298, 24, Cine 1A Perormanee fail lade ie ples fan, Discusion J Grote Dr. Tim See Ce npr 1982 148 No 8632 BS 25. Raoul capac in andthe eal sept Aust. Geomechoie WHEL No 24 ste a carrican pevritiscussION 24 Critical depth: how it came into being and why it does not exist BH. Fellenius and A. A. Altace EH. Kulhawy, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University Iris pleasure to welcome Pelleias and Altace to the lesion of ue who have dispelled the concept ofa eritcal dept. Perhaps the first very Important person to espe this concept was the late A'S. Vesic, to whom the concept generally thas been ateributed through his 1980s research, In his definitive NCHRP 42 study in 1977) this concept is not discussed because he no longer Considered it correct. Thad many discussions ‘vith bir about this concept shen he served 36 Consultant and advisor to 2 multi milion gelar (5) research project of mine during the late seat 1980s, and he always described the critical depth asa "tenatve working hypothesis land nothing more, that he disregarded by the ‘nid 19708. Unfrtonatly, the concept as Simple, atacive and only required minimal feotechnical knowledge and input 1 also eave Conservative answers for design beyond the = ‘alle eritical depth (10-20 diameters). not tunsate designs as state! by the authors. The design could be rather uneconomical ifthe ‘allowed tp and side resistances ae limited (0 ortain values that ae less than the acta ones but this practice would not be nsate. Two instead be overly conservative, However i oad test dita are interpreted sith crc depth then some fauly design parameters could result 1. The socalled extcal depth probe bis many aspects. The authors have focused om tly to of them and suggest that they explain the whole problem, At fallscale. the reason attributed to residual loads at modelsele, the Feason i atribted to dilatancy induced sires While resid loads, calolated by the ators assuming fllydeveloped shear along the ile Sha may be an important factor with driven pales, they ate of far lesser importance in died foundations. And the dlatancy induced stress effect can only explsin a part ofthe problem tnd only for dilate sil and stress ates, TH. Instead, atemion must be lacased on the inst sil characteristics, a8 svete indiretly by Vesc in 1977. Ae | pointed ot Tater in my 18 paper the dominating ‘characteristics for the side resistance are the K Profile and its general decrease with depih and the redaction of peak fevion angle with inereoning tress evel, For the tp ressance the dominating characterises are the reduction of both peak friction angle and rigiity index ‘vith incteasing stress level, Kraft.” Randolph Snd others have made similar observations. An ‘ditional important factor t be addressed as rel s the influence of soil structure. Ie stress level or instalation factor cases a collapse of the soil structure, then the stress, strength and rigidity factors can be altered, perhaps drast cally 15, To summarize, the socalled critical depth concept rests from many actors, most fof which are dominated by the ipsity soi characteristics. The influence of residual loads for top of these fctors, particularly for driven piles, fs jst ne further part of the explaation to dispel this concep Authors’ reply The authors appreciate being welcomed {0 the legion Tred, many more shoud joi, bec contrary to Kelhawy's satement, a design based fom the “esicl dep’ can easily be "sae OF course. interpreting results ofa slate hading test in context wih the concept and applying the interpretation co piles of longer lent conservative although an ertor isa an ere However, when the interpretation is ape to piles of shorter length, the resting design i indeed unsafe, The fst author has tigation eserionce of sh a ease and the cortetin (0 the unsafe design was wer cart ane of the priipants in the case 17 The authors agree with Ku that erie has bee credited somewhat anfaiy as being the main instigator of the hyputhess of existence of el depth In fae, the Hest futhor remembers having discussion in Orta in carly 1980 wil De Vesie om the occasion of his trans-Canoda Tecture ta, when hh disclainel beng the main orginal proponent of he ‘eda depth 1 The authors tied to explain how the same erroneous concep! could originate fee {iferent types of misintepecaton of data that is the “eric depth applies 10 and explains etservations bane i Both field test and in interpreting the Fel dat, the feror ies inthe nee oF the eesidual load, ‘hile ia ierpreting dats from model tests in Sand, ities inthe ignorance of steady-state soit Inuchaics "The authors did not dell on the fact that for deep embedment piles in homer ieneous deposi the shat resistance is ot a tnd est, nto Bran ‘ser, 110 Oe, Paper 08698 TS. Ape, 1Oar ae aa Ur as OF OT Oe Ge Te ‘ig 10. Laadtmovement ese a diferent depths (Reese eta, 1970)" Fig 11. Laadvensfey cures for © died pier (eae oo, 19780" constant futon af he awerburden stress, ut decease wh deh, Kulhawy mentions Hoesen the authors do no eomider that explain the fat y oteans of ierease ofthe Keproie with dept and reduction of Beak ‘tion angle ih sncreaing sre Ios {eel The suthors have addres the spect, Ivan garlic paper Altace and Fein ied) tig that the scares sit mech nic andthe sid rat “stance To the stead Stateline the upslon parameter) is ame {ect and set approach OF coe, the at Ws dteresing, ut the reduction of sha Fig 12, Disbuton of shaft resistance (Reese erat, 1976)" resistance occurs only gradually ani it does ot Serve well as am explanation to ow the ‘rial depth concept could arse 1, The authors donot agree wih Kuawy cn the point of the residual Toads being of Teaser importance in dee foundations that ore piles a opposed 1 deven piles. The literature contains several case holes iu sng bored pies, where the interpretation he ata appears to have missed thatthe measure rents are infuenced by resi ou. Fur example, Reese ef a (1970)" presented test data on an nsrumented, Sinch C0 mm) ‘bored pile wih an embedet of 208 (Sm) Sina Sanda cay sol Fg. 1 shows the wait shat eestlance veruit movement at diferent eps inthe ple, ering hat the fall sat ‘eabtance wat inblized along the pie, Fi. LD shows the lnddranfer data alg the Pile sugeerting that the ukimate resistance Feduced with 'dpth. The silty between the gran Sd that show inthe authors Figs 3 land ff stking Fig. 12 shows the unt shat resistance evated rom the mwarerens ‘ih fs pict arable shape 50 recorizabe From Fas 5, a6 of the auors arte Reese fa. (970) arte the bee to imeracton between he ple te and the fret poction of tbe shal However. we tik tht the resid, which was oe osidered in the ‘aluation ofthe dt, fs he main case of the late eedction of sha resistance wi eat References ALTA an PALES HH, 1G, Physi Indl in sid. Con Ont [1 Neh fens! C. BANK ET and ONS ML Wis chor dee pir ae xl dig, Jim Sie Ci Rages ANC, 102. CEE SSI DISCUSSION. a 2S