Evaluation of lateral response of single piles to adjacent excavation using data from cone penetration tests

Abstract

Excavation inevitably induces stress changes in the surrounding soil, which causes significant lateral movements, additional forces, and bending moments in the existing pile foundations. To prevent or minimize damage to adjacent piles, this paper presents an actual full-scale instrumented study to examine the lateral response of existing piles to an adjacent test pit excavation. Cone penetration tests (CPTs) near the test piles before and after excavation are conducted and compared. A simple p–y evolution model for lateral piles during excavation is proposed. The proposed model is defined by the pre-excavation and post-excavation p–y curves from CPT data, which can provide better predictions by comparison with the field measured results. Additionally, for analysis of the pile behaviour after excavation, the observed lateral bearing capacity of full-scale tests are compared with those computed by the pre-excavation and post-excavation p–y curves. The post-excavation p–y curve can generally give a satisfactory prediction of the residual pile bearing capacity after excavation. The calculated results from the free-field cone parameters have a serious overestimation and are detrimental to the service design of pile foundations.