Field and Theoretical Analysis on the Response of Destructive Pile Subjected to Tension Load

Abstract

Most field tests are carried out using working piles for verification purposes in China, and loading tests are terminated before achieving true pile capacity. In this work, two full-scale destructive loading tests on tension piles instrumented with strain gauges were conducted to capture true pile capacity. The load-displacement response, load transfer, and threshold of the pile-soil relative displacement for fully mobilizing skin resistance in the uplift case were discussed. It was found that the shaft resistance degradation is observed to be along the pile depth with a reduction factor of 0.905 to 0.931, and the thresholds of pile-soil relative displacement for fully mobilizing skin resistance of the tension pile in different soils are found to be in the range 0.67% to 1.34% of the pile diameter. Based on the field test results, a simple softening model was proposed to describe the degradation behavior of skin friction along the pile-soil interface. Further study was conducted to assess the influence of the threshold of pile-soil relative displacement for fully mobilizing skin friction and the reduction factor on the skin friction. As to the analysis of the response of single pile subjected to tension load, a highly effective iterative computer program was developed using the proposed skin friction softening model. Comparisons of the load-settlement response for the well-instrumented tests were given to demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed simple method.