Pile foundation

Analysis and design

Foundations and earth retaining systems

 What is pile foundation (Deep foundation) ?

Pile foundation is a special kind of deep foundation, where

the depth of the foundation is much greater than the
width of the foundation.
 Today, pile foundation is much more common than any other
type of deep foundation.

 It is used;
1.where the soil is compressible,
2.where the soil is water logged and
3.when stratum of required bearing capacity is at greater depth.

 The major uses of piles:

To carry vertical compression loads,
To resist uplift loads
To resist horizontal or inclined loads
 Classification of piles

 Based on the function;

1. End bearing Pile
2. Friction Pile
3. Compaction Pile
4. Tension Pile or Uplift Pile
5. Anchor Pile
6. Fender Pile and Dolphins
7. Batter Pile
8. Sheet Pile

 Based on the material & composition;

1. Concrete Pile
2. Timber Pile
3. Steel Pile
4. Composite Pile: Concrete & Timber, Concrete & Steel

 Based on the method of installation;

1. Driven Pile
2. Cast-in-situ Pile
3.Driven and cast- in- situ Pile
  PILE FOUNDATION

1. Types of piles and their structural characteristics

1. Steel piles,
 Consist of pipe piles or rolled steel H-section piles
 The allowable structural capacity of steel piles :

Qall = As f s
Where : As – cross-sectional area of steel
fs – allowable stress of steel

 Use of additional thickness and epoxy coating are used

to avoid corrosion, and typical condition of splicing
(sambat) when needed is shown in Figure1.

Figure 1: Steel Piles

2. Concretepiles
 Two categories of concrete piles are (a) precast and (b) cast-in- situ
 Precast piles, Figure 2
-prepared with ordinary reinforcement in the shape of square or
octagonal
 Figure 2 Precast piles with ordinary reinforcement

 Cast-in-situ or cast-in-place, Figure3 :

- made by driving a steel casing with mandrel into the ground
- upon reaching the desired depth, mandrel is pulled out and
the casing remain
- with or without pedestal
- uncased piles :
- casing is driven to the desired depth, and filled with
fresh concrete later gradually withdrawn
- -with or without pedestal
where :
allowable loads :
As – cross sectional area of steel
cased pile : Qall  As f s  Ac f c Ac - cross sectional area of concrete
uncased pile : Qall  Ac f c fs – allowable stress of steel
fc - allowable stress of concrete

Figure 3: Cast in place concrete piles

Table 1: Typical Prestressed Concrete Pile in Use (SI Units)
3. Timberpiles
 Three classifications are :

o Class A : to carry heavy loads; min butt dia. = 14in (356mm)

o Class B : to carry medium loads; min butt dia. = 12-13in (305-330mm)
o Class C : used as temporary works but permanently for submerged
structure; min butt dia. = 12in (305mm)

 Splicing can be done by means of pipe sleeves or metal straps or bolts, Figure 4
 The allowable load-carrying capacity :
Where :
Qall = Ap f w
Ap – average cross-sectional area of the pile
fw – allowable stress for the timber

Figure 4 Splicing of timber piles (a) use of pipe sleeves (b) use of metal
straps and bolts

4. Composite piles

 Upper and lower portions of composite piles are

made of different material
 They may in the form of : steel-cast-in-place
concrete or timber-concrete piles
 Types of Piling

Concrete Steel Timber Steel H Pre-cast Composite

Pipe Concrete
  Pile in term of their function support
capacity, Figure5:
a) Bearing pile, (b) friction pile, (c) piles under uplift,
(d) piles under lateral loads, (e) batter piles under lateral loads

Figure5: Pile in term of their function support capacity.

 Requirements and conditions for pile foundations, Figure6 :

Figure 6 Conditions for use of pile foundations

- transmit load to the stronger underlying bedrock, 6(a)
- gradually transmitting the load to the surrounding soil by means of
frictional resistance at the soil-pile interface, 6(b)
- subjected to horizontal load while supporting the vertical load
transmitted by superstructure, 6 (C)
- built extended into hard stratum under collapsible soil (loess) to avoid the
zone of moisture change that lead to swell and shrink, 6(d)
- to resist uplifting forces for basement mats under water table, 6 (e )
- to resist scouring at the bridge abutments and piers that can lead to
possible loss of bearing capacity of soil underneath, 6(f)

 Estimating Pile Length, (Figure7)

Figure7 (a) and (b) Point Bearing Piles; and (c) Friction Piles

 Length of pile estimation depending upon the mode of

load transfer to the soil ; namely :

 Point Bearing Piles

- the ultimate capacity of the piles depends entirely on the

bearing capacity of the hard stratum
- hence the length, L of the pile is fairly well established
- the ultimate pile load is then; Qu  Qp  Qs Figure 7 (a)
where :

Qp – load carried at the pile point

Qs – load carried by skin friction developed at the side of the
pile

- piles can be extended into hard stratum with Qu  Qp Figure 7

(b)

 Friction Piles

- if no hard stratum presence, piles are driven through softer soil

to specified depths
- resistance to vertical loading, is provided mainly by the skin
friction; (in clayey soil is called adhesion)
- the ultimate load is given by : Qu  Qs

 Compaction Piles

- piles are driven in granular soil to achieve proper compaction of

soil close to ground surface
- the length depends on :relative density before and after
compaction as well as required depth of compaction
  Installation of Piles, Figure 8

Figure 8: Pile driving equipment

 Four method used in piles driving are ; drop hammer, single acting air
or steam hammer, double-acting and differential air or steam hammer,
and diesel hammer

- drop hammer, Figure8 (a)

o raised by a winch, and allowed to drop at a certain height H
o slow rate of hammer blows

- single acting air or steam hammer, Figure8b

o ram is raised by air or steam pressure and then drops by gravity

- double-acting and differential air or steam hammer, Figure8c

 o ram is raised and pushed downward by air or steam
pressure

- diesel hammer, Figure8d

o consist of ram, an anvil block and a fuel-injection system
o ram is raised, fuel is injected near the anvil, ram is
released, drops and compresses air-fuel mixture and
ignites it
o this causes; pile to be pushed downward and ram raised

 Vibratory pile driver, Figure8e; consists of counter-rotating

weights that produces centrifugal force that cancel each other
but sinusoidal dynamic vertical force produced pushes the pile
downward

 Pile Load Transfer Mechanism

The load transfer mechanism from a pile to the soil is complicated. To understand it,
consider a pile of length L, as shown in Figure 9 (a). The load on the pile is gradually
increased from zero to Qz=0 at the ground surface. Part of this load will be resisted
by the side friction developed along the shaft, Q1 , and part by the soil below the tip
of the pile, Q2 . Now, how are Q1 and Q2 related to the total load? If measurements
are made to obtain the load carried by the pile shaft, Q(z) , at any depth z, the nature
of the variation found will be like that shown in curve 1 of Figure 9.9b.

 Frictional resistance, f(z) with depth is given by :

Qz 
f z  
pz 

Where :

Qz  - increase in pile load Δz – increase in depth

P – perimeter of pile
 Figure 9: Load transfer mechanism for piles

 Equations for Estimating Pile Capacity

 Ultimate load-carrying capacity of pile Figure (10), Qu is :

Qu  Q p  Qs
Where :

Qp – load-carrying capacity of the pile point

Qs – frictional resistance

 Point bearing capacity, Qp is :

Qp  Ap q p A pcN cq'
c
*
Nq  *

Where :

Ap – cross sectional area of pile tip

c – cohesion of the soil supporting the pile tip qp - unit point
cohesion
q’ =γ’L – effective vertical stress at the level of the pile tip
L- pile length
N c , N q - the bearing capacity factors
  Frictional resistance, Qs is :

Qs   pLf
Where :
p – perimeter of the pile section
ΔL – incremental pile length where,
p and f is constant
f – unit friction resistance at any depth z

 Allowable Load, Qall

After the total ultimate load-carrying capacity of a pile has been determined by summing the point
bearing capacity and the frictional (or skin) resistance, a reasonable factor of safety should be used to
obtain the total allowable load for each pile, or

The factor of safety generally used ranges from 2.5 to 4, depending on the uncertainties
surrounding the calculation of ultimate load.

Figure10: Ultimate load-carrying capacity of pile.

  There are many other methods for estimating Qp and Qs

 Meyerhof’s Method – Estimation of Qp

 The value of unit point resistance qp remains constant beyond the critical
embedment ratio, (Lb/D)cr, Figure11, and 12

 For piles in sand, c=0; but Qp should not exceed Apql,

Q  A q  A q' N * and Q  A q' N *  A q
p p p p q p p q p l

 The limiting point resistance is :

SI unit :ql k N /m2  50Nq* tan

Where : Ø – soil friction angle in the bearing stratum

Figure11:Nature of variation of unit point resistance in sand Figure12: Variation of the maximum values of N * with Ø

 For piles in clay, with saturated and undrained conditions

(Ø=0)

QP Nc *cu Ap 9cuAp

Where : cu – undrained cohesion (undrained shear strength) of the soil below

the pile tip
Table 3: Interpolated Values of
N*q Based on Meyerhof’s Theory
 Vesic’s Method – Estimation of Qp

Sand
Vesic (1977) proposed a method for estimating the pile point bearing
capacity based on the theory of expansion of cavities. According to this
theory, on the basis of effective stress parameters, we may write

1  2Ko 
 o' - mean normal ground effective stress =   q'
Where :  3 
Ko – earth pressure coefficient = 1 – sin Ø
N - bearing capacity factor (see Table 5)

*
In order to estimate Ir and hence Irr , the following approximations may be
used (Chen and Kulhawy, 1994)

Clay (φ=0)
In saturated clay (φ=0 condition), the net ultimate point bearing
capacity of a pile can be approximated as

where Cu = undrained cohesion

According to the expansion of cavity theory of Vesic (1977),

The variations of N*c with Irr for φ=0 condition are given in Table 4.
for saturated clay with no volume change, Δ= 0. Hence, Irr = Ir
O’ Neill and Reese (1999) suggested the following approximate
relationships for Ir and the undrained cohesion, cu.

Table 4: Variation of N*c with Irr for φ=0 Condition

Based on Vesic’s Theory
Table 5 : Bearing Capacity Factors N*s Based on the Theory of Expansion of
Cavities.
Janbu’s Method – Estimation of Qp NOT to be covered

 Janbu (1976) proposed value of Qp as :

Q P A pcN c * q' N q*

Where :

N c* , N q* - bearing capacity factors, Figure 13

Figure13: Janbu’s bearing capacity factors

Table 4: Janbu’s bearing capacity factors

 Coyle and Castello’s Method (Estimation of Qp in Sand) NOT
TO BE COVERED

 Coyle and Castello (1981) proposed value of Qp as :

Q  q' N * A
P q p

Where :
q’ – effective vertical stress at the pile tip
N * - bearing capacity factor, Figure 14
q

Figure15: Variation of N*q with L/D, (Coyle and Castello, 1981)

Example (Das)
Consider a 20-m-long concrete pile with a cross section of 0.407 m 3
0.407 m fully embedded in sand. For the sand, given: unit weight, ϒ=18
kN/m3; and soil friction angle, φ=35ͦ. Estimate the ultimate point Qp
with each of the following:
a. Meyerhof’s method
b. Vesic’s method
c. The method of Coyle and Castello
d. Based on the results of parts a, b, and c, adopt a value for Qp

Solution
Part a

Part b
From Table 5
Qp
Part c

For φ’=35ͦ and L/D =49.1, the value of N*q is about 34

(Figure 15). Thus,

Part d
It appears that Qp obtained from the method of Coyle and Castello
is too large. Thus, the average of the results from parts a and b is
Example 2
Consider a pipe pile (flat driving point—see Figure 1 (d) having an outside
diameter of 457 mm. The embedded length of the pile in layered
saturated clay is 20 m. The following are the details of the subsoil:

The groundwater table is located at a depth of 3 m from the ground

surface. Estimate Qp by using
a. Meyerhof’s method
b. Vesic’s method
Solution
Part a

Part b

From Table 3 for Irr =279.3, the value of N*c ≈ 11.4. Thus,