Geotechnical Engineering III

PILE FOUNDATIONS PART IV

Dr. Nu Nu Win
Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
Yangon Technological University

05/06/2024 1
Pile Load Tests

• High-rise buildings often require several piles to

support the building loads.
• We have seen in previous sections that there are
different methods for predicting the load carrying
capacities of the pile point and pile shaft, and the
ultimate load Qu thus determined can vary significantly
depending on the method and the factors used.
• Varying soil conditions, unreliable soil parameters, and
the assumptions and simplifications in the theoretical
model used in the prediction contribute to the
variability in the ultimate load Qu.
• The pile load test is a good way to verify the load-carrying
capacity of a pile.
• Figure (a) &(b) shows schematic diagrams of two different
pile load test arrangements for testing axial compression
in the field.
• The main difference between the two is the way the
horizontal reaction beam is held in place.

Pile load test: (a) using kentledge, (b) using reaction pile,
• In Figure a, a kentledge, consisting of heavy weights, is
required to hold the reaction beam in place, and the
hydraulic jack is used to jack against the beam and hence
apply the pile load.
• In Figure b, two reaction piles, located far away from the
test pile, anchor the horizontal reaction beam to the
ground.

Pile load test: (a) using kentledge, (b) using reaction pile,
• The loads are applied in increments as specified by the
relevant standards, with sufficient time between the
load increments. Generally, the piles are loaded well
beyond their working loads (e.g., 2 times).
• On reaching the maximum load for the test, the pile is
unloaded in steps. The dial gauges measure the
settlement of the pile head where they are mounted.
This is the total or gross settlement, denoted as
• Due to the compressibility of the pile material, the pile
it self undergoes some elastic compression, known as
the elastic shortening or elastic compression of the
pile, denoted here as .
 • The net settlement of the pile is the settlement of the pile
point, which is slightly less and is denoted as . Therefore, at any
load,

 Figure c shows a load-settlement

diagram obtained from field loading
and unloading. For any load Q, the
net pile settlement can be calculated
as follows:

Pile load test: (c) load

vs. total settlement
plots
(d) load vs. net settlement

• These values of Q can be plotted in a graph against the

corresponding net settlement, , as shown in Figure :d.
• The ultimate load of the pile can then be determined from
the graph.
• Pile settlement may increase with load to a certain point,
beyond which the load-settlement curve becomes vertical.
• The load corresponding to the point where the curve of Q
versus becomes vertical is the ultimate load, Qu , for the pile;
it is shown by curve 1 in Figure :d.
• In many cases, the latter stage of the load-settlement curve is
almost linear, showing a large degree of settlement for a
small increment of load; this is shown by curve 2 in the figure.
• The ultimate load, Qu , for such a case is determined from the
point of the curve of Q versus where this steep linear portion
starts.
• One of the methods to
obtain the ultimate load Qu
from the load-settlement
plot is that proposed by
Davisson (1973).
• Davisson’s method is used
more often in the field and
is described here. Referring
to Figure:, the ultimate load
occurs at a total settlement
level () of
Figure 12.33 Davisson’s method
for determination of Qu
• The load test procedure just described requires the
application of step loads on the piles and the
measurement of settlement and is called a load-
controlled test.
• Another technique used for a pile load test is the
constant-rate-of-penetration test, wherein the load
on the pile is continuously increased to maintain a
constant rate of penetration, which can vary from
0.25 to 2.5 mm/min.
• This test gives a load settlement plot similar to that
obtained from the load-controlled test.
• Another type of pile load test is cyclic loading, in which an
incremental load is repeatedly applied and removed.
• In order to conduct a load test on piles, it is important to
take into account the time lapse after the end of driving
(EOD).
• When piles are driven into soft clay, a certain zone
surrounding the clay becomes remolded or compressed,
as shown in Figure 12.34a.

(a) Remolded or compacted zone around a pile driven into soft clay;
Figure (b) nature of variation of undrained shear strength () with time
around a pile driven into soft clay
• This results in a reduction of undrained shear strength,
(Figure :b). With time, the loss of undrained shear strength is
partially or fully regained.
• The time lapse may range from 30 to 60 days For piles driven
in dilative (dense to very dense) saturated fine sands,
relaxation is possible.
• Negative pore water pressure, if developed during
pile driving, will dissipate over time, resulting in a
reduction in pile capacity with time after the driving
operation is completed.
• At the same time, excess pore water pressure may
be generated in contractive fine sands during pile
driving. The excess pore water pressure will
dissipate over time, which will result in greater pile
capacity.
• Several empirical relationships have been
developed to predict changes in pile capacity with
time.
An excellent review of most of the works has been given by
Sawant et al. (2013). Figure shows the load test results of a
20 m long concrete pile (406 mm x 406 mm) embedded in
sand. Using Davisson’s method, determine the ultimate
load Qu. Given: Ep = 30 x kN/.
Elastic Settlement of Piles
• The settlements in piles are relatively low when
compared to their shallow foundation counterparts.
• Under working loads with a factor of safety on the
order of 2–3, the settlement is about 1% of the pile
diameter.
• Two methods of estimating the pile settlements are
discussed in this section. The first one is a simplified
method based on what was proposed by Poulos and
Davis (1974).
• The second one is a more rational and rigorous method
proposed by Vesic (1977).
• They are both based on elastic analysis
METHOD OF POULOS AND DAVIS

• First the pile is treated as incompressible, where there

is no elastic compression ( = 0). The settlement of the
pile head, which is the same as the settlement of the
pile point, is obtained from Eq. (12.83).

• where Q is the load applied on the pile head, L is the

pile length, Es is the modulus of elasticity of the soil,
and is the influence factor from Figure 12.36. Here, H
is the depth of the soil bed from the ground level to
the stiff stratum.
Figure 12.36 Influence factor
• The elastic shortening of the pile can be computed using Eq. (12.84)

where Qavg is the average pile load carried by the pile

shaft and Ep is the modulus of elasticity of the pile
material. Note that the load carried by the pile cross
section decreases with depth. Therefore, Qavg can be
taken as

where Qwp is the working load at the pile point.

The total settlement or the settlement of the head is
given by
Example 12.13
EA 500 mm diameter and 20 m long driven concrete pile
carries a column load of 1000 kN. It is estimated the shaft
carries 800 kN and the point carries 200 kN. Determine the
settlement of the pile head using the following data: Es = 20
MN/, Ep = 30 x MN/ ,= 0.2.
 The average pile load on the cross-section can be taken
as 0.5(1000 + 200) = 600 kN. From Eq. (12.84),
Vesic’s Method
• Vesic (1977) separated the total settlement of the pile
head into three components and suggested expressions to
determine them from elastic analysis.
• The three elastic components are:
• 1. Elastic shortening of the pile [ (1)]
• 2. Settlement of the pile due to the working load (Qwp) at
the pile point [ (2)]
• 3. Settlement of the pile due to the working load (Qws)
along the pile shaft [ (3)]
• The total elastic settlement of the pile head under the
working load of Qw is given by
• If there is no skin friction along the pile shaft, the pile load
remains the same (i.e.,Qw) at all depths, and the elastic
shortening becomes QwL/ApEp.
• Due to skin friction, se(1) will be different and depends on the
way the skin friction varies along the pile shaft. It can be shown
theoretically that
 • Figure 12.15 shows four different possibilities for the variation
of the skin friction f(z) with depth along the pile shaft.
• It can be shown theoretically that for f(z)-z variation shown in
Figures 12.15a and 12.15d (i.e., uniform or parabolic),  = 0.50,
and for situations where the skin friction f(z) increases or
decreases with depth, as shown in Figures 12.15b and 12.15c,
 = 0.67.

Variation of pile load Q(z)

and skin friction f(z) with
depth z
• The settlement of a pile caused by the load carried at the pile point
may be expressed in the form:
 Vesic (1977) also proposed a semi-empirical method for
obtaining the magnitude of the settlement of (2) . His
equation is

Representative values of Cp for various soil are given in Table

• The settlement of a pile caused by the load carried by the
pile shaft is given by a relation similar to Eq. (12.89), namely,

• Note that the term Qws/pL in Eq. (12.91) is the average

value of f along the pile shaft. The influence factor, Iws, has a
simple empirical relation (Vesic, 1977):
• Vesic (1977) also proposed a simple empirical relation
similar to Eq. (12.90) for obtaining (3) :
Example 12.14
The allowable working load on a prestressed concrete pile 21
m long that has been driven into sand is 502 kN. The pile is
octagonal in shape with D = 356 mm (see Table). Skin
resistance carries 350 kN of the allowable load, and point
bearing carries the rest. Use Ep = 21 x 106 kN/, Es = 25 x 103
kN/ , = 0.35, and  = 0.62. Determine the settlement of the
pile.
 From Table 12.3a, for D 5 356 mm, the area of pile cross
section, Ap = 1045 .Also, perimeter p = 1.168 m. Given:
Qws = 350 kN, so
Pile-Driving Formulas
• When a pile is driven into the ground, the penetration of the
pile point into the soil per blow is known as set, denoted by
S.
• If a ram weighing WR is dropped over a height of h and E is
the efficiency of the hammer, the work done per blow is h.
• For the pile point to penetrate the soil, the ultimate load
(Qu) carrying capacity has been developed, and the work
done is then QuS.
• Equating the two,
• Equation (12.120) is the rationale behind the different pile-
driving equations.
• Sometimes is replaced by the energy rating () of the
hammer.
• There are several pile-driving equations reported in the
literature. From the measured set and the hammer ratings, it
is possible to estimate, though crudely, the ultimate load-
carrying capacity of the pile. In light of the unreliable nature
of the piledriving equations for estimating Qu, very large
factors of safety are used in arriving at the working loads.
• The set is continuously measured throughout pile driving and
can be used as a guide to determine whether the pile has
reached a satisfactory bearing capacity so that the driving
can be stopped.
• Pile-driving formulas were popular in the early 1900s for
estimating the load carrying capacity of driven piles. In the
early days, the driven piles were mainly wooden and less
than 12 inches in diameter.
• They were driven by drop hammers or single-acting steam
hammers. The formulas were mainly for drop and single-
acting hammers.
• Double-acting, differential, and diesel hammers were not in
use then. One of the earliest pile-driving equations was the
Engineering News Record (EN) formula for driving timber
piles.
According to the EN formula, the pile resistance is the
ultimate load Qu , expressed as
• The pile penetration, known as set S, is usually based on the
average value obtained from the last few driving blows. In
the equation’s original form, the following values of C were
recommended:
Also, a factor of safety FS = 6 was recommended for
estimating the allowable pile capacity. Note that, for single-
and double-acting hammers, the term h can be replaced by ,
where E is the efficiency of the hammer and is the rated
energy of the hammer. Thus,

The EN formula has been revised several times over

the years, and other piledriving formulas also have
been suggested.
• The coefficient of restitution n used in some of the pile-
driving formulas is a measure of the bounciness of the
hammer, in the range of 0–1. It is the ratio of the relative
velocity between the pile and the hammer after and before
the impact.
• The maximum stress developed on a pile during the driving
operation can be estimated from the pile-driving formulas
presented in Table 12.17. To illustrate, we use the modified
EN formula:
• In this equation, S is the average penetration per hammer
blow, which can also be expressed as
• Different values of N may be assumed for a given hammer and
pile, and Qu may be calculated. The driving stress Qu/Ap can
then be calculated for each value of N.
• This procedure can be demonstrated with a set of numerical
values. Suppose that a prestressed concrete pile 24.4 m in
length has to be driven by a hammer.
• The pile sides measure 254 mm. From Table, for this pile,
Plot of stress versus blows/25.4 m

• Both the number of hammer

blows per inch and the stress
can be plotted in a graph, as
shown in Figure 12.44. If such a
curve is prepared, the number
of blows per inch of pile
penetration corresponding to
the allowable pile-driving stress
can easily be determined.
• Actual driving stresses in wooden piles are limited
to about 0.7fu . Similarly, for concrete and steel
piles, driving stresses are limited to about 0.6fc and
0.85fy , respectively.
• In most cases, wooden piles are driven with a
hammer energy of less than 60 kN ∙ m. Driving
resistances are limited mostly to 4 to 5 blows per
inch of pile penetration.
• For concrete and steel piles, the usual values of N
are 6 to 8 and 12 to 14, respectively.
 Pile-Driving Analyzer

• These days, it is very common to see a pile-driving analyzer

(PDA) used for monitoring pile driving. It can be used to
determine the load-carrying capacity of a driven pile and is
seen as an alternative to a pile load test.
• Figure 12.45 shows a pile-driving analyzer connected to a
square concrete pile that is being driven into the ground.
Figure 12.45 (a) Pile-
driving analyzer; (b)
a square pile
connected to the PDA
(Courtesy of N.
Sivakugan, James
Cook University,
Australia)
• In a typical project, a very limited number of piles (e.g., 1% of
the piles) are subjected to static pile load test due to the high
cost.
• A relatively larger proportion (e.g., 5–10% of the piles) are
tested by PDA.The PDA setup consists of strain gauges,
acceleration transducers (accelerometers), and a portable
computer.
• The impulse generated by the pile hammer, in the case of
driven piles, or separately using a drop weight, in bored piles, is
analyzed for determining the integrity of the pile and to
estimate its load-carrying capacity.
• The analysis is carried out using a signal matching program
known as Case Pile Wave Analysis Program (CAPWAP). These
days, it is possible to have real-time monitoring from remote
locations using the Internet and mobile phones.
Example 12.18
A precast concrete pile 0.305 m x 0.305 m in cross section is
driven by a hammer.Given:
• Maximum rated hammer energy = 40.67 kN ∙ m
• Hammer efficiency = 0.8
• Weight of ram = 33.36 kN
• Pile length = 24.39 m
• Coefficient of restitution = 0.4
• Weight of pile cap = 2.45 kN
• Ep =20.7 x kN/
• Number of blows for last 25.4 mm of penetration = 8
• Estimate the allowable pile capacity by the
• a. Modified EN formula (use FS = 6)
• b. Danish formula (use FS = 4)
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR ATTENTION

05/06/2024 50