Base load – displacement response of piles in sand

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a series of laboratory and field model pile tests performed to study the factors controlling the base pressure – settlement reponse of piles in sand. One series of tests involved the installation and load testing of steel open- and closed-ended piles in loose sand contained in a large pile testing chamber. A second series involved tests on open- and closed-ended steel piles and a concrete bored pile at a dense sand test bed site. The experiments were designed to investigate the effects of pile type, sand consistency, and installation resistance on a pile’s base response during static loading. The tests revealed that both the base capacity and stiffness of piles in sand are controlled by the degree of prestress imposed on the soil below the pile tip. Simple expressions, which require the small strain stiffness and cone penetration test data as the input parameters, are developed to predict the base pressure – settlement response. The final part of the paper employs other field tests on full-scale displacement piles and bored piles to verify the validity of the proposed approach.