VERTICAL LOAD CARRYING CAPACITY OF A SINGLE VERTICAL PILE

The bearing capacity of a single pile depends upon:

 Type, size and length of pile,
 Type of soil,
 The method of installation

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The design should comply with the following requirements:
 It should ensure adequate safety against failure; the factor of safety used depends on the importance of the
structure and on the reliability of the soil parameters and the loading systems used in the design.
 The settlements should be compatible with adequate behavior of the superstructure to avoid impairing its
efficiency.

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Load Transfer Mechanism
Statement of the Problem
Fig. 1(a) gives a single pile of uniform diameter d (circular or any other shape) and length L driven into a
homogeneous mass of soil of known physical properties. A static vertical load is applied on the top. It is
required to determine the ultimate bearing capacity Qu of the pile.

When the ultimate load applied on the top of the pile is Qu, a part of the load is transmitted to the soil along
the length of the pile and the balance is transmitted to the pile base. The load transmitted to the soil along the
length of the pile is called the ultimate friction load or skin load Qf and that transmitted to the base is called
the base or point load Qb. The total ultimate load Qu is expressed as the sum of these two, that is,

……………………………………….( 1 )

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Ashis Kumar Bera,PhD 4
Consider the pile shown in Fig. 1(b) is loaded to failure by gradually increasing the load on the top. If
settlement of the top of the pile is measured at every stage of loading after an equilibrium condition is
attained, a load settlement curve as shown in Fig. 1(c) can be obtained. Fig. 1(d) (Tomlinson, 1986) for a
large diameter bored and cast-in-situ pile in clay.

If the pile is instrumented, the load distribution along the pile can be determined at different stages of
loading and plotted as shown in Fig. (b).

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Figure 2 Types of failure of piles. Figures (a) to (e) indicate how strength of soil determines the type of failure:
(a) buckling in very weak surrounding soil; (b) general shear failure in the strong lower soil; (c) soil of uniform strength;
(d) low strength soil in the lower layer, skin friction predominant; (e) skin friction in tension (Kezdi, 1975)
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…………………………………………………………….( 2 )

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METHODS OF DETERMINING ULTIMATE LOAD CARRYING CAPACITY OF A SINGLE VERTICAL PILE

The ultimate bearing capacity, Qu, of a single vertical pile may be determined by any of the following methods.

1. By the use of static bearing capacity equations.

2. By the use of SPT and CPT values.
3. By field load tests.
4. By dynamic method.

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GENERAL THEORY FOR ULTIMATE LOAD CARRYING CAPACITY

According to Vesic (1967), only punching shear failure occurs in deep foundations irrespective of the
density of the soil so long as the depth-width ratio L/d is greater than 4 where L = length of pile and
d = diameter (or width of pile).
The types of failure surfaces assumed by different investigators are shown in Fig. 3 for the general shear
failure condition. The detailed experimental study of Vesic indicates that the failure surfaces do not revert
back to the shaft as shown in Fig. 3(b).
The total failure load Qu may be written as follow:

…………………( 3 )

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Figure 3 The shapes of failure surfaces at the tips of piles as assumed by (a) Terzaghi, (b) Meyerhof, and (c) Vesic

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GENERAL THEORY FOR ULTIMATE LOAD CARRYING CAPACITY
The general equation for the base resistance may be written as
…………………( 4 )

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GENERAL THEORY FOR ULTIMATE LOAD CARRYING CAPACITY
For cohesionless soils, c = 0 and the term l/2γDNγ becomes insignificant in comparison with the term qoNq
for deep foundations. Therefore Eq. (4) reduces to

…………………( 5 )

If we assume, for all practical purposes, W and q0Ab are roughly equal for straight side or moderately
tapered piles, Eq. (5) reduces to

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GENERAL THEORY FOR ULTIMATE BEARING CAPACITY

…………………( 6 )

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PILES IN GRANULAR SOILS( Ref: IS 2911 ( Section1/part1)

…………………( 6.1 )

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GENERAL THEORY FOR ULTIMATE BEARING CAPACITY
Cohesive Soils For cohesive soils such as saturated clays (normally consolidated), we have for φ= 0, Nq=1
and Nγ = 0. The ultimate base load from Eq. (4) is
…………………( 6 )

Equations (5) and (6) are used for analyzing the net ultimate load capacity of piles in cohesionless and
cohesive soils respectively. In each case the following types of piles are considered.
1 . Driven and cast-in-situ concrete piles (Ref: IS2911, Part1/Sec1)
2. Bored Cast In-situ Concrete Piles (Ref: IS2911, Part1/Sec2)
3. Driven Precast Concrete Piles (Ref: IS2911, Part1/Sec3)

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ULTIMATE LOAD CARRYING CAPACITY OF PILE IN COHESIONLESS SOILS
Effect of Pile Installation on the Value of the Angle of Friction:

When a pile is driven into loose sand its density is increased (Meyerhof, 1959), and the horizontal extent
of the compacted zone has a width of about 6 to 8 times the pile diameter.

However, in dense sand, pile driving decreases the relative density because of the dilatancy of the sand and
the loosened sand along the shaft has a width of about 5 times the pile diameter (Kerisel, 1961).

On the basis of field and model test results, Kishida (1967) proposed that the angle of internal friction
decreases linearly from a maximum value of φ2 at the pile tip to a low value of φ1 at a distance of 3.5d from
the tip where d is the diameter of the pile, φ1 is the angle of friction before the installation of the pile and φ2
after the installation as shown in Fig. 4. Based on the field data, the relationship between φ1 and φ2 in sands
may be written as :
…………………………………………( 7 )

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Figure 4 The effect of driving a pile on φ

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With regard to driven and cast-in-situ piles, there is no suggestion by any investigator as to what value
of φ should be used for calculating the base resistance. However, it is safer to assume the in-situ φ value for
computing the base resistance.

With regard to bored and cast-in-situ piles, the soil gets loosened during boring. Tomlinson (1986)
suggests that the φ value for calculating both the base and skin resistance should represent the loose state.
However, Poulos et al., (1980) suggests that for bored piles, the value of φ be taken as

φ= φ1 -3 ………………………… ( 8)
where φ1 = Angle of internal friction prior to installation of the pile

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CRITICAL DEPTH
Let Lc be the depth, which may be called the critical depth, beyond which both point bearing and skin
friction of pile remain constant.
Experiments of Vesic have indicated that Lc is a function of φ.
Poulos and Davis, (1980) giving the relationship between Lc/d and φ°.

The φ values to be used for obtaining Lc /d are as follows (Poulos and Davis, 1980)

where φ1 = angle of internal friction prior to the installation of the pile.

Critical Depth for cohesionless soil as specified by IS Code:2911

15 D for loose sand and 20 D for dense sand

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TOMLINSON'S SOLUTION FOR qb ( Point Bearing ) IN SAND
For Driven Pile:
As per Tomlinson, the maximum base resistance qb is normally limited to 11000 kN/m2 (110t /ft2 ) whatever
might be the penetration depth of the pile.
For Bored and Cast-in-situ Piles
As per De Beer (1965), the base resistance qb of a bored and cast-in-situ pile is about one third of that of a
driven pile.
MEYERHOF'S method
For Clay Soil (0 = 0)
The base resistance Qb for piles in saturated clay soil may be expressed as

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THE ULTIMATE SKIN RESISTANCE OF A SINGLE PILE IN COHESIONLESS SOIL

The effective overburden pressure does not increase linearly with depth and reaches a constant value
beyond a particular depth Lc, called the critical depth which is a function of φ. It is therefore natural to
expect the skin resistance fs also to remain constant beyond depth Lc. The magnitude of Lc may be taken
as equal to 20d.

Table 1

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BEARING CAPACITY OF PILES IN GRANULAR SOILS BASED ON SPT VALUE
Meyerhof (1956) suggests the following equations for single piles in granular soils based on SPT values.
For displacement piles or (Driven Cast In-situ Concrete Piles):

The first term gives the end-bearing resistance and the second term gives the frictional resistance

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For non-plastic silt or very fine sand the equation has been modified as:
For displacement piles or (Driven Cast In-situ Concrete Piles)

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BEARING CAPACITY OF PILES IN GRANULAR SOILS BASED ON SPT VALUE (Bored Cast In-situ Concrete Piles ):
The correlation suggested by Meyerhof using standard penetration resistance, N in saturated cohesionless
soil to estimate the ultimate load capacity of bored pile is given below. The ultimate load capacity of pile (Qu ),
in kN, is given as:

The first term gives the end-bearing resistance and the second term gives the frictional resistance

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Bored Cast In-situ Concrete Piles:
For non-plastic silt or very fine sand the equation has been modified as:

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 BEARING CAPACITY OF PILES BASED ON STATIC CONE PENETRATION TESTS (CPT)
Various methods for using CPT results to predict vertical pile capacity are as follow:
 Vander Veen's method.

 Schmertmann's method

Vander Veen's Method for Piles in Cohesionless Soils

In the Vander Veen et al., (1957) method, the ultimate end-bearing resistance of a pile is taken, equal to the
point resistance of the cone.
To allow for the variation of cone resistance which normally occurs, the method considers average cone
resistance over a depth equal to three times the diameter of the pile above the pile point level and one pile
diameter below point level.

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BEARING CAPACITY OF PILES BASED ON STATIC CONE PENETRATION TESTS (CPT)
The skin friction on the pile shaft in cohesionless soils is obtained from the relationships established by
Meyerhof (1956) as follows:

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BEARING CAPACITY OF PILES BASED ON STATIC CONE PENETRATION TESTS (CPT)
Ultimate end bearing resistance (qu ), in kN/m2 , may be obtained ( as per 2911) as:

This method similar to Schmertmann's method

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BEARING CAPACITY OF PILES BASED ON STATIC CONE PENETRATION TESTS (CPT)
Ultimate skin friction resistance can be approximated to local side friction (fs ), in kN/m2, obtained from
static cone resistance as given in Table 2

Table 2

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