19-02-2024

What is Pile?
• Pile is a slender, structural member made of steel, concrete, timber, plastic, or
composites used to transmit structural loads deep within the soil mass.
Analysis & Design of Geotechnical Systems • Skin friction stress or shaft friction stress or adhesive stress (fs) is the frictional or
(Bearing Capacity of Shallow Foundation)
adhesive stress on the shaft of a pile.
• End bearing stress or point resistance stress or tip resistance stress (fb) is the stress
at the base or tip of a pile.
Paramita Bhattacharya
Department of Civil Engineering
IIT Kharagpur

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Practical situation
Importance
• Pile foundations are often used when
• The soil near the surface has insufficient bearing capacity to support the
structural loads.
• The estimated settlement of the soil exceeds tolerable limits (i.e., settlement
greater than the serviceability limit state).
• Excessive differential settlement due to soil variability or nonuniform
structural loads.
• The structural loads consist of lateral loads, moments, and uplift forces,
singly or in combination.
• Excavations to construct a shallow foundation on a firm soil layer are difficult
or expensive.

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Figure 1 Pile construction in a waterfront project. 4

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Key terms Types of piles

• Ultimate load bearing capacity (Qult) is the maximum vertical load that the pile can
transfer to the soil.
• Allowable load bearing capacity or safe load bearing capacity (Qa) is the working
load that would ensure a margin of safety against the collapse of the structure from
shearing. The allowable load bearing capacity is usually a fraction of the ultimate
load bearing capacity.
• Factor of safety or safety factor (FS) is the ratio of the ultimate load bearing
capacity to the allowable load bearing capacity. In geotechnical engineering, a factor
of safety between 2 and 3 is used to calculate the allowable load bearing capacity.

5 Figure 2 6

Types of piles Types of piles

Figure 4

Figure 3 7 8

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Pile Installation Pile Installation

• Piles have to be installed into the ground. The method of installation
affects the structural integrity of the piles and the strength and •Impact Hammers
deformation characteristics of the soil. Consequently, the load
Pile driven by a ram that is
capacity is strongly dependent on pile installation methods. released from above the pile
suddenly strikes the pile head.

Figure 5
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Pile Installation Pile Installation

•Vibratory Driver / Extractors

 Drop Hammers
 Air or Steam Hammers
 Diesel Hammers
Steam
Drop hammers  Hydraulic Impact Hammers
hammer Figure 6

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Figure 7
Key points Bearing Capacity Assumption
• The ultimate load capacity, Qult, of a pile is conventionally
• Piles can be installed using simple drop hammers but, most often, taken as consisting of two parts.
they are installed using steam or pneumatic hammers. One part is due to friction, called skin friction or
shaft friction or side shear, Qf.
• Drilled shafts are installed in a pre-bored hole. The other part is due to end bearing at the base or
• Pile installation methods can cause structural damage, remold the tip of the pile or pile toe, Qb.
Wp
soil and reduce the pile load capacity. • If the skin friction is greater than about 80% of the end-
bearing load capacity, the pile is called a friction pile and,
if the reverse, an end-bearing pile. If the end bearing is
neglected, the pile is called a floating pile.

Ultimate load capacity (Qult ) = skin friction (Qf) + end bearing (Qb) – pile weight (Wp)

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Allowable bearing capacity Load Transfer

• The allowable or safe load bearing capacity is • For coarse-grained soils, the load
transfer is approximately linear with
depth  higher loads at the top and
𝑄
𝑄 lower loads at the bottom.
FS
• In fine-grained soils, the load transfer
is non-linear and decreases with
FS is the factor of safety ranging from 2 to 3 depth  elastic compression of the
pile is not uniform; more
compression occurs on the top part
than on the bottom part of the pile.

Figure 8

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Load Transfer Methods of Determining Pile Load Capacity- driven piles

• The full skin friction and full end bearing are not mobilized at the same • Statics -  and  method + (other methods) semi-empirical
displacement.
 For mobilizing the full skin friction a vertical displacement of 5 to 10 mm is required. The • Pile load test
actual vertical displacement depends on the strength of the soil and is independent of the
pile length and pile diameter.
• Pile driving formulae
 The full end-bearing resistance is mobilized in driven piles when the vertical displacement is • Wave analysis (pile driving analysis)
about 10% of the pile tip diameter. For drilled shafts, a vertical displacement of about 30% of
the pile tip diameter is required. The full end-bearing resistance is mobilized when slip or
failure zones similar to shallow foundations are formed.
• IMPORTANCE: Different factors of safety can be applied to skin friction and to end
bearing.

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Pile Load Capacity Pile Load Test

Importance The purposes of a pile load test are:
To get an estimate of the pile load capacity, at least in the preliminary design • to determine the load capacity of a single pile
stages, recourse is made to Statics, experience and to correlations using lab and
field test results. • to verify load capacity estimated from statics
• to determine the settlement of a single pile at working loads
• STATICS
•  method – TSA • to obtain information on load transfer in skin friction and end bearing.
•  method – ESA • to verify pile length.
• Pile Load Test • To check the structural integrity of the pile, especially the effects of the
proposed installation method.

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Set Up of Pile Load Test

Pile Load Test

http://www.panynj.gov/airtrainnewark/images/construction_history/08-98/08-98_5.jpg
Figure 10
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Figure 9

PILE LOAD TEST IN ACTION -1 Pile Load Test Results

load
Failure D

load
reloading
B

Shaft friction

A
End bearing
unloading

O C
settlement settlement

Figure 12
• OA  ELASTIC; SHAFT FRICTION ONLY
• AB  ELASTO-PLASTIC ; MOSTLY SHAFT FRICTION
Figure 11 • BC  UNLOADING; OC = PERMANENT SET (PLASTIC)
• CD – RELOADING – END BEARING INCREASES BEYOND A, MAXIMUM SHAFT FRICTION MOBILIZED; END BEARING ONLY TOWARDS D.
VERY NEAR TO D, MAXIMUM END BEARING REACHED  PILE PLUNGES DOWN
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Interpretation of Failure Load Key points

• A pile load test provides the load capacity and the settlement of a pile
at the working load at a particular location in a job site.
• Various criteria and techniques are used to determine the allowable
load capacity from pile load tests.
• The tests require accurate measurements of loads and displacements
and careful installation.

Figure 13 25 26

EXAMPLE Solution
• Step1: Plot displacement-load graph.
The results of a load test on a 0.45m diameter pile are shown in the
table Determine (a) the ultimate pile load capacity (b) the allowable
load for a factor of safety of 2 (c) the allowable load capacity at 10%
pile displacement.

27 Figure 14

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Solution Solution
• Step 2: Determine ultimate pile load capacity. • Step 3: Determine allowable pile load capacity.
The failure load is ill-defined. Locate the intersection of the FS = 2
𝑄 1780
tangents at the beginning and the end of the curve. The 𝑄
𝐹𝑆 2
890 kN
ordinate of this intersection is the ultimate pile load capacity.
Qult = 1780kN • Step 4: Determine pile load capacity at 10% pile
diameter.
Displacement = 450 x 0.01 = 4.5mm
From the figure, Qa = 510kN