Tension Piles in Sand: A Method Including Degradation of Shaft Friction During Pile Driving

Abstract

Estimation of the shaft resistance component of the axial capacity of a driven pile into sand involves considerable uncertainty, and most of the current design methods are not consistent with the observed pile behavior during installation and axial loading. In this paper, a method for the estimation of the ultimate uplift shaft resistance of a single pile driven into sand was developed based on a database of 34 pullout pile load tests collected exclusively from the current geotechnical literature. The collected database comprises steel and concrete piles (open- and closedended) driven into loose to very dense sand with varying normalized penetration depth with respect to pile diameter. The developed method accounts for the degradation of shaft friction during pile installation. At any given location, the earth pressure coefficient is assumed to degrade from a maximum value (near the pile tip) to a minimum value as an exponential or as a power function of the length of pile driven past that location. The maximum earth pressure coefficient value has been linked to sand relative density, level of effective vertical stress, and pile diameter. The method is extended for the estimation of the compressive shaft resistance of a driven pile into sand by applying De Nicola and Randolph (1) correction for the direction of loading. Comparisons of measured and predicted shaft friction profiles of some field cases showed reasonable agreement and indicated that the method is useful in estimating shaft resistance of driven piles in sand and has sound physical meaning.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

De Nicola

A. D.

, and Randolph

M. F.

. Tensile and Compressive Shaft Capacity of Piles in Sands. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 19, No. 12, 1993, pp. 1952–1973.

Wortly

C. A.

Great Lakes Small-Craft Harbor and Structure Design for Ice Conditions: An Engineering Manual. University of Wisconsin, Sea Grant Institute, Report WIG-SG-84-426, Madison, 1984.

Kulhawy

F. H.

, Trautmann

C. H.

, Beech

J. F.

, O’Rourke

T. D.

, McGuire

, Wood

W. A.

, and Capano

. Transmission Line Structure Foundations for Uplift-Compression Loading. Report EL-2870, Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, Calif., 1983, 412 pp.

Vesic

A. S.

NCHRP Synthesis of Highway Practice 42: Design of Pile Foundation. TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1977.

Lehane

B. M.

, Jardine

R. J.

, Bond

A. J.

, and Frank

. Mechanisms of Shaft Friction in Sand from Instrumented Pile Tests. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, Vol. 119, No. 1, 1993, pp. 19–35.

Jardine

R. J.

, and Chow

F. C.

. New Design Methods for Offshore Piles. MTD Publication No. 96/103, Center for Petroleum and Marine Technology (CPMT), London, 1996.

Jardine

R. J.

, Overy

R. F.

, and Chow

F. C.

. Axial Capacity of Offshore Piles in Dense North Sea Sands. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 124, No. 2, 1998, pp. 171–178.

Jardine

R. J.

, Everton

S. J.

, and Lehane

B. M.

. Friction Coefficients for Piles in Cohesionless Soils. Proc., SUT International Conference on Offshore Site Investigation and Foundation Behavior, Kluwer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 1992, pp. 661–680.

Uesugi

, and Kishida

. Frictional Resistance at Yield Between Dry Sand and Mild Steel. Soils and Foundations, Vol. 26, No. 4, 1986, pp. 139–149.

10.

American Petroleum Institute. API Recommended Practice for Planning, Designing and Constructing Fixed Offshore Platforms. API RP2A, 1984, p. 115.

11.

Kraft

L. M.

Performance of Axially Loaded Pipe Piles in Sand. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 117, No. 2, 1991, pp. 272–296.

12.

Kulhawy

F. H.

Limiting Tip and Side Resistance: Fact or Fallacy? Symposium on Analysis and Design of Pile Foundations, ASCE, San Francisco, Calif., 1984, pp. 80–98.

13.

Toolan

F. E.

, Lings

M. L.

, Bristol

, and Mirza

U. A.

. An Appraisal of API RP2A Recommendations for Determining Skin Friction of Piles in Sand. Proc., 22nd Annual Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, Tex., 1990, pp. 33–42.

14.

Randolph

M. F.

, and De Nicola

A. D.

. Tensile and Compressive Shaft Capacity of Piles in Sands. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 19, No. 12, 1993, pp. 1952–1973.

15.

Heerema

E. P.

Predicting Pile Driveability: Heather as an Illustration of the Friction Fatigue Theory. Ground Engineering, April 1980, pp. 15–37.

16.

Kolkman

P. A.

, Lindenberg

, and Pilarczyk

K. W.

. Modeling of Soil-Water Structure Interaction SOWAS 88. Proc., International Symposium on Modeling Soil-Water Structure Interaction, 1988, pp. 285–293.

17.

Chow

F. C.

Investigations into Displacement Pile Behavior for Offshore Structures. Ph.D. thesis. University of London (Imperial College), London, 1997.

18.

Coyle

H. M.

, and Castello

R. R.

. New Design Correlations for Piles in Sand. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 107, No. GT7, 1981, pp. 965–986.

19.

Randolph

M. F.

, Dolwin

, and Beck

. Design of Driven Piles in Sand. Geotechnique, Vol. 44, No. 3, 1994, pp. 427–448.

20.

Mansur

C. I.

, Robert

, and Kaufman

J. M.

. Piles Tests, Low-Sill Structure, Old River, Louisiana. Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 123, No. 2936, 1958, pp. 715–743.

21.

Sherman

W. C.

Jr. , Holloway

D. M.

, and Trahan

C. C.

. Analysis of Pile Tests. Technical Report S-74-3, U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg, Miss., 1974.

22.

Mansur

C. I.

, and Hunter

A. H.

. Pile Tests—Arkansas River Project. Journal of the Soil Mechanics and Foundations Division, ASCE, Vol. 96, No. SM5, 1970, pp. 1545–1582.

23.

Vesic

A. S.

Tests on Instrumented Piles, Ogeechee River Site. Journal of the Soil Mechanics and Foundations Division, ASCE, Vol. 96, No. SM2, 1970, pp. 561–584.

24.

Beringen

F. L.

, Windle

, and Van Hooydonk

W. R.

. Results of Loading Tests on Driven Piles in Sand. Recent Developments in the Design and Construction of Piles, Imperial College England, London, 1979.

25.

Gregersen

O. S.

, Aas

, and Dibagio

. Load Tests on Friction Piles in Loose Sand. Proc., 8th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Moscow, Vol. 2, 1973, pp. 109–117.

26.

McClelland Engineers, Inc. Pullout Tests, Piles Driven into Sand. Padre Island, Tex., Report to Shell Oil Company, Texas, 1958.

27.

McCammon

N. R.

, and Golder

H. Q.

. Some Loading Tests on Long Pipe Piles. Geotechnique, Vol. 20, No. 2, 1970, pp. 171–184.

28.

Furgo

B. V.

Soil Investigation, Platform AD North Sea, Block 49/26. Report to Shell UK Expro., England, 1969.

29.

Nottingham

L. C.

Use of Quasi-Static Friction Cone Penetrometer Data to Predict Load Capacity of Displacement Piles. Ph.D. thesis. University of Florida, 1975, pp. 1559–1564.

30.

Furgo

B. V.

Soil Investigation, Platform BD North Sea, Block 49/26. Report to Shell UK Expro., England, 1969.

31.

Reese

L. C.

, and Cox

W. R.

. Pullout Tests of Piles in Sand. Proc., Offshore Technology Conference, Paper No. 2472, 1976.

32.

Brucy

, Meunier

, and Nauroy

J. F.

. Behavior of Pile Plug in Sandy Soils During and After Driving. Proc., 23rd Annual Offshore Technology Conference, OTC 6514, Houston, Tex., 1991, pp. 145–154.

33.

Yen

T. L.

, Lin

, and Chin

C. T.

. Interpretation of Instrumented Driven Steel Pipe Piles. Foundation Engineering: Current Principles and Practices, Vol. 2. American Society of Civil Engineers, New York, 1989, pp. 1293–1309.

34.

Mey

, Oteo

C. S.

, Sanchez Del Rio

, and Seriano

. Field Testing on Large Driven Piles. Proc., 11th International Conference on Soil Mechanics, San Francisco, Calif., 1985, pp. 1559–1564.

35.

Hettler

Approximate Formulae for Piles Under Tension. Proc., IUTAM Conference on Deformation and Failure of Granular Materials, Delft, Netherlands, 1982, pp. 603–608.

36.

Meyerhof

G. G.

Scale Effects of Ultimate Pile Capacity. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 109, No. 6, 1983, pp. 797–806.