SERIES IN GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING

Edited by

T. William Lambe
Robert V. Whitman
Professors of Civil Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

BOOKS IN SERIES:
Soil Testing for Engineers by T. William Lambe, 1951
Soil Mechanics by T. William Lambe and Robert V.
Whitman, 1968
Soil Dynamics by Robert V. Whitman (in progress)
Fundamentals of Soil Behavior by James K. Mitchell, 1976
Elastic Solutions for Soil and Rock Mechanics by H. G.
Poulos and E. H. Davis, 1974
Soil Mechanics, SI Version by T. William Lambe and
Robert V. Whitman, 1978

The aim of this series is to present the modern concepts

of soil engineering, which is the science and technology of
soils and their application to problems in civil engineering.
The word “soil” is interpreted broadly to include all earth
materials whose properties and behavior influence civil
engineering construction.
Soil engineering is founded upon many basic disciplines:
mechanics and dynamics; physical geology and engineering
geology; clay mineralogy and colloidal chemistry; and
mechanics of granular systems and fluid mechanics. Prin­
ciples from these basis disciplines are backed by experimen­
tal evidence from laboratory and field investigations and
from observations on actual structures. Judgment derived
from experience and engineering economics are central to
soil engineering.
The books iff this series are intended primarily for use in
university courses, at both the undergraduate and graduate
levels. The editors also expect that all of the books will
serve as valuable reference material for practicing engineers.
T. William Lambe and Robert V. Whitman
PILE
FOUNDATION
ANALYSIS
AND
DESIGN
H. G. POULOS
E. H. DAVIS
The University of Sydney

JOHN WILEY & SONS

New York • Chichester • Brisbane • Toronto • Singapore
Copyright © 1980, by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
All rights reserved. Published simultaneously in Canada.
Reproduction or translation of any part of this work beyond that
permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the 1976 United States Copy­
right Act without the permission of the copyright owner is unlaw­
ful. Requests for permission or further information should be
addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data:

Poulos, H G 1940-
Pile foundation analysis and design.
(Series in geotechnical engineering)
Bibliography; p.
Includes index.
I. Piling (Civil engineering) I. Davis, E. H., joint author.
II. Title. III. Series.
TA780.P66 624.1’54 80-14658

Printed in Singapore
10 9 8 7 6 5
PREFACE

This book deals with methods of analysis that may be use­ the interaction between two or more piles and, therefore,
ful in design of pile foundations. Many excellent text­ to examine the behavior of groups of piles.
books are concerned with the more practical aspects of pile The material contained in this book is organized as
foundations, such as the factors influencing the selection of follows:
the type of pile, the techniques of installation, and practical
details of construction and maintenance of piles. No 1. The behavior of piles under vertical loads (Chapters
attempt has been made to duplicate this type of inform- 2 to 6).
tion. The aims of the present book are to: 2. The behavior of piles under lateral loading (Chapters 7
and 8) and under combined vertical and lateral loading
1. Present a consistent theoretical approach to the predic­ (Chapter 9).
tion of pile deformation and load capacity. 3. The behavior of piled rafts (Chapter 10).
2. Present parametric solutions for a wide range of cases. 4. Piles subjected to vertical or lateral soil movements
-3. Demonstrate how such solutions can be used for design (Chapters 11 to 13).
purposes. 5. Miscellaneous topics such as pile buckling, dynamic
4. Review the applicability of these approaches to practi­ loading, and pile load tests (Chapters 14 to 16).
cal problems.
Although the text deals with a relatively wide range of
In any theory, a certain amount of idealization is neces­ topics, it is by no means exhaustive. Furthermore, since
sary to obtain a tractable mathematical solution; this is geotechnical analysis is advancing at a very rapid rate, there
especially so when dealing with problems involving soil. In may well be cases in which the analytical techniques we
dealing with the deformations of pile foundations in this describe may have been superseded by more versatile
book, we have generally considered the soil as an elastic methods capable of modeling real soil behavior more
material, with allowances made for pile-soil slip and soil realistically. Nevertheless, we feel that the techniques and
yield where appropriate. Although real soils possess few, if solutions presented in this book can be usefully applied to
any, of the attractive attributes of an ideal homogeneous most practical problems and provide a basic series of results
isotropic elastic material, they nevertheless can often be against which the results of more sophisticated analyses
treated as elastic over a limited range of stress, provided may be checked.
that the “elastic” parameters are determined for this stress Some worked examples are given to illustrate the appli­
range. When used in this manner, with due discretion and a cation of the solutions to practical problems. Because units
measure of engineering judgment, elastic-based theory has are by no means standardized as yet, some of the examples
had considerable success in predicting the deformation of are worked in SI units, some in British units, and a few in
both shallow and deep foundations. Although other simple the Continental metric system.
soil models have also been successfully used for various We thank the many people who have contributed to
aspects of pile analysis (for example, the theory of subgrade this book and in particular Dr. N. S. Mattes, of the Elec­
reaction as applied to laterally loaded piles), elastic theory tricity Commission of New South Wales, who obtained a
provides a unified basis for the analysis of all types of considerable number of the elastic solutions presented, Dr.
foundation; it also makes possible identification of the J. R. Booker and Dr. P. T. Brown of the University of
parameters that exercise a significant influence on pile Sydney, who provided a great deal of assistance with
performance. Since elastic theory allows consideration of various aspects of the theoretical analyses, Mr. P. J. N.Pells
stress transmission through a mass, it can be used to analyze who provided valuable information on the subject of piles
vi PREFACE

to rock, and Dr. T. J. Wiesner, who obtained some of the made the facilities of the Department available to us, to
solutions presented in Chapter 10. The Civil Engineering C. J. Peiti, B. Crook, J. Kilpatrick, S. Picken, J. Knight and
Graduates Association of the University of Sydney gave B. Rocke who undertook the typing and assembly of the
financial support for the post-graduate course on pile manuscript, and R. Brew and H. Papallo who prepared
foundations that formed the basis of this book. Grateful many of the diagrams.
acknowledgement is given to Professor J. W. Roderick, H. G. Poulos
former Head of the Department of Civil Engineering, who E.H. Davis
CONTENTS

1 GENERAL PRINCIPLES 1 3.3.2 Pile Groups in Sand 35

3.4 Piles to Rock 38
1.1 Introduction 1
3.4.1 Point Bearing Capacity 38
1.2 Structural Approach 1
3.4.2 Pile-Rock Adhesion 40
1.3 Basic Theory Required 2
3.5 Use of In-Situ Tests 41
1.3.1 Failure Theory 2
3.5.1 Static Cone Penetrometer 41
1.3.2 Elastic Theory 2
3.5.2 Standard Penetration Test 43
1.3.3 Changes in Soil Type 3
3.6 Special Types of Pile 43
1.3.4 The Role of Idealization 3
3.6.1 Large Bored Piers 43
1.4 Examples of Theoretical Pile Calculations 3 44
3.6.2 Under-Reamed Bored Piles
1.4.1 Vertically Loaded Foundations on
3.6.3 Screw Piles 44
Deep Clay 4
3.7 Uplift Resistance 45
1.4.2 Vertically Loaded Foundations on
3.7.1 Single Piles 45
Clay over Gravel 4 3.7.2 Pile Groups 48
1.4.3 Foundations Subject to Rotation 4
3.8 Load Capacity of Bent Piles 49

2 EFFECTS OF INSTALLATION OF PILES 6

4 LOAD CAPACITY BY DYNAMIC METHODS 52
2.1 Introduction 6 4.1 Introduction 52
2.2 Effects of Pile Driving in Clays 7
4.2 Pile Driving Formulas 53
2.2.1 Influence on Soil Shear Strength
4.2.1 Derivation of General Formula 53
and Pile Capacity 7
4.2.2 Practical Driving Formulae 54
2.2.2 Pore Pressures Developed During
4.2.3 Readability of Dynamic Formulae 54
Driving 7
4.3 Pile Driving Analysis by the Wave Equation 58
2.2.3 Dissipation of Excess Pore Pressures 9
4.3.1 The Wave Equation 59
2.2.4 Displacements due to Driving 10
4.3.2 Smith’s Idealization 59
2.3 Effects of Pile Driving in Sands 13
4.3.3 Basic Equations 61
2.3.1 Single Piles 13
4.3.4 Values of Soil Parameters 63
2.3.2 Pile Groups 14
4.3.5 The Effect of‘Set-Up’ 65
2.4 Effects of Installing Bored Piles 15
4.4 Typical Solutions from Wave Equation
2.4.1 Clay Soils 15
Analysis 66
2.4.2 Sands 17
4.4.1 Resistance versus Set Curves 66
4.4.2 Pile Stresses 68
3 ULTIMATE LOAD CAPACITY OF PILES 18 4.5 Reliability of Wave Equation 68
4.6 Pile Impedance 69
3.1 Introduction 18
3.2 Ultimate Load Capacity of Single Piles 18
3.2.1 General Expression 18 5 SETTLEMENT ANALYSIS OF SINGLE PILES 71
3.2.2 Piles in Clay 19
3.2.3 Piles in Sand 24 5.1 Introduction 71
3.3 Pile Groups 30 5.2 Theoretical Methods of Analysis 72
3.3.1 Pile Groups in Clay 30 5.2.1 Load Transfer Method 72
vii
 vili CONTENTS

5.2.2 Analysis Based on Elastic Theory 74 7.2 Single Piles 143

5.2.3 Finite Element Analysis 83 7.2.1 Conventional Statical Approach 144
5.2.4 Comparison between Solutions from 7.2.2 Broms’s Theory 146
Mindlin Approach and Finite 7.2.3 Plane Strain Solutions 152
Element Analysis 83 7.2.4 Piles with Significant Base Resis­
5.3 Theoretical Solutions for Settlement and tance 153
Load Distribution 84 7.2.5 Socketed Piles 153
5.3.1 Stress and Load Distribution in Pile 84 7.2.6 Piles Subjected to Inclined Loading 154
53.2 Load Transferred to Pile Tip 85 7.2.7 Battered Piles 156
5.33 Settlement of Pile 86 7.3 Pile Groups 157
5.3.4 Settlements in a Soil Mass Resulting 7.3.1 Groups of Vertical Piles 157
From a Pile 94 7.3.2 Groups Containing Battered Piles 159
53.5 Immediate and Final Settlements 96 7.4 Use of Piles to Increase Slope Stability 160
5.4 Simplified Method for Constructing Load- 7.5 Methods for Increasing the Lateral Resis­
Settlement Curve to Failure 99 tance of Piles 161
5.5 Determination of Soil Parameters 101
5.5.1 Laboratory Triaxial Tests 102
102 8 LOAD-DEFLECTION PREDICTION FOR
5.5.2 Pile Loading Tests
LATERALLY LOADED PILES 163
5.53 Empirical Correlations 102
5.5.4 Typical Values of K 103 8.1 Introduction 163
5.6 Some Comparisons between Observed and 8.2 Subgrade-Reaction Analysis 164
Predicted Pile Settlements 104 8.2.1 Basic Theory 164
8.2.2 Solutions to Linear Theory 166
8.2.3 Modulus of Subgrade Reaction 172
6 SETTLEMENT OF PILE GROUPS 109 8.2.4 Nonlinear Analysis 175
6.1 Introduction 109 8.3 Elastic Analysis for Single Piles 177
6.2 Analysis of Group Settlement 110 8.3.1 Basic Theory 177
6.2.1 Two-Pile Interaction Analysis 110 8.3.2 Solutions for Floating Pile in Uni­
6.23 Interaction Factors 110 form Soil 182
6.2.3Analysis of General Groups 117 8.33 Solutions for Floating Pile in Soil
6.3 Theoretical Solutions for Freestanding with Linearly Increasing Modulus 192
Groups 120 8.3.4 Solutions for Socketed Piles 199
6.3.1 Settlement of Floating and End- 8.4 Analysis of Pile Groups 209
Bearing Groups 120 8.4.1 Introduction 209
63.2 Load Distribution in Groups with 8.4.2 Elastic Analysis of Interaction
Rigid Cap 126 Between Two Piles 209
6.33 Groups with Equally Loaded Piles 128 8.4.3 Solutions for Two-Pile Interaction 211
6.3.4 Approximation of Group as a Single 8.4.4 Elastic Analysis of General Pile
Pier 129 Groups 216
6.4 Settlement of Groups Caused by Compres­ 8.4.5 Elastic Solutions for Square Groups 217
sible Underlying Strata 132 8.4.6 Approximate Prediction of Load-
6.5 Preparation and Use of Design Charts 133 Deflection Curve for a Group . 221 '
6.6 Surface Settlements Around a Group 135 8.5 Determination of Soil Modulus 223
6.7 Observed and Theoretical Group Behavior 135 8.6 Comparisons Between Theoretical and Ob­
6.7.1 Settlements 135 served Load-Deflection Behavior 225
6.7.2 Load Distribution 139
6.7.3 Group Behavior Predicted from
9 GENERAL ANALYSIS OF PILE GROUPS 233
Single-Pile Test Results 141
9.1 Introduction 233
9.2 Simple Statical Analysis 233
7 ULTIMATE LATERAL RESISTANCE OF PILES 143
9.3 Equivalent-Bent Method 234
7.1 Introduction 143 9.3.1 Principle of Method 234
 CONTENTS ix

9.3.2 Determination of Equivalent Bent 235 11.4.6 Pile in Soil Subjected to Variable
9.3.3 Torsional Response of Piles 237 Loads 284
9.4 Elastic Analysis of Pile Behavior 237 11.4.7 Data on Pile-Soil Parameters 285
9.4.1 Analysis of Single Battered Pile 237 11.5 Pile Groups 288
9.4.2 Analysis of Pile Groups 242 11.6 Comparisons Between Measured and Pre­
9.4.3 Parametric Studies of Pile Groups 243 dicted Pile Behavior 289
9.5 Comparison of Methods of Pile-Group
Analysis 248
12 PILES IN SWELLING AND SHRINKING SOILS 294
12.1 Introduction 294
12.2 Existing Methods of Analysis 295
10 PILE-RAFT SYSTEMS 250 12.3 Analysis Based on Elastic Theory 296
12.3.1 Basic Analysis 296
10.1 Introduction 250
12.3.2 Pile-Soil Slip 297
10.2 Analysis 250 12.3.3 Compression Failure of Pile 297
10.3 Elastic Solutions for Square Groups 253 297
12.3.4 Tension Failure of Pile
10.3.1 Influence of Poisson’s Ratios vs 257
12.3.5 Nonuniform Soil 297
10.3.2 Influence of Pile Arrangement 257
12.3.6 Variation with Time 298
10.3.3 Systems Containing Large Numbers
12.4 Typical Solutions for Pile Movement and
of Piles 257
Load 298
10.3.4 Effect of Pile Compressibility and
12.4.1 Purely Elastic Pile-Soil Interface 298
Raft Flexibility 258
12.4.2 Solutions Incorporating Pile-Soil
10.4 Simplified Analysis for Load-Settlement Slip 299
Curve to Failure 259
12.4.3 Effect of Tensile Failure of the Pile 303
10.5 Other Analytical Approaches 262
12.4.4 Differences Between Piles in Swelling
and Consolidating Soils 304
12.5 Design Curves 304
11 NEGATIVE FRICTION ON 12.6 Application of Theoretical Analysis to
END-BEARING PILES 265 Practical Problems 306
12.6.1 Prediction of Soil-Movement Profile 306
11.1 Introduction 265
12.6.2 Pile-Soil Interface Strength 307
11.2 Field Studies on Instrumented Piles 269
12.6.3 Soil Modulus 309
11.2.1 Observed Downdrag Forces 269
12.7 Observations of Pile Behavior and Compari­
11.2.2 Development of Downdrag with
sons with Theory 309
Time 269
11.2.3 Effect of Pile Driving on Negative
269 13 PILES IN SOIL UNDERGOING
Friction
LATERAL MOVEMENT 311
11.2.4 Methods of Reducing Negative
Friction 269 13.1 Introduction 311
11.3 Analysis of Downdrag Forces 271 13.2 Analysis 312
11.3.1 Introduction 271 13.3 Typical Results 314
11.3.2 Analysis of Final Downdrag Forces 272 13.3.1 Effect of Relative Pile Flexibility 315
11.3.3 Development of Downdrag with 13.3.2 Effect of Boundary Conditions 316
Time 273 13.3.3 Effect of Soil-Movement Distribu­
11.3.4 Modifications to Elastic Analysis 274 tion 316
11.4 Theoretical Solutions for Single Pile 274 13.3.4 Effect of Magnitude of Soil Move­
11.4.1 Final Maximum Downdrag Force 274 ment 316
11.4.2 Rate of Development of Downdrag 13.3.5 Effect of Pile Diameter 318
Force 278 13.3.6 Effect of Es andpy Distributions 318
11.4.3 Pile Settlement 279 13.4 Application of Analysis to Practical
11.4.4 Rate of Development of Settlement 282 Problems 319
11.4.5 Effect of Pile Crushing 283 13.5 Comparisons with Field Measurements 319
X CONTENTS

14 BUCKLING OF SLENDER PILES 323 15.5 Pile Response to Earthquake Forces 353

14.1 Introduction 323

14.2 Fully Embedded Piles 323 16 PILE LOAD TESTS 354
14.2.1 Basic Subgrade Reaction Theory 323 16.1 Introduction 354
14.2.2 Solutions for Constant k/, 324 16.2 Maintained Loading Test 355
142.3 Solutions for Linearly Varying kh 325 16.2.1 Procedure 355
14.3 Partially Embedded Piles 327 16.2.2 Interpretation of Load Tests 356
14.3.1 Theoretical Approach 327 16.3 Constant-Rate-of-Penetration Test 358
14.3.2 Solutions for Constant fc/; 327 358
16.4 Method of Equilibrium
14.3.3 Solutions for Linearly Varying kf, 327 16.5 Sources of Error in Settlement Measure­
14.4 Effect of Practical Complications 328 ments in Pile Load Tests 359
14.4.1 Axial Load Transfer Along Pile 328 16.5.1 Errors Resulting from Use of Re­
14.4.2 Initial Imperfections 329 ference Beam 359
14.4.3 Inelastic Buckling 330 16.5.2 Errors Resulting from Jacking
14.4.4 Group Effects 330 Against Anchor Piles 360
14.5 Analysis Using Elastic Theory 330 16.5.3 Errors Resulting from Jacking
14.5.1 Analysis 331 363.
Against Ground Anchors
14.5.2 Typical Solutions 332 16.6 Lateral Load Tests 365
14.5.3 Comparison with Subgrade-Reaction
16.7 Torsional Testing 365
Solutions 335

APPENDIX A
15 DYNAMIC LOADS ON PILES 336
INTEGRATION OF MINDLIN’S
15.1 Introduction 336 EQUATIONS FOR
15.2 Estimation of Dynamic Loads 337 PILE-SETTLEMENT ANALYSIS 366
15.2.1 Machine Loads 338
15.2.2 Wave Forces 338 APPENDIX B
15.2.3 Earthquake Forces 338 ELASTIC EQUATIONS USED
15.3 Pile Response to Axial Loads 339 FOR LATERALLY-LOADED
15.3.1 End-Bearing Piles 339 PILE ANALYSIS 369
15.3.2 Floating Piles or End-Bearing Piles
with Load Transfer 341
15.3.3 Pile Groups 345 REFERENCES 371
15.4 Pile Response to Lateral Loading 347
15.4.1 Equivalent Cantilever Systems 348 AUTHOR INDEX 383
15.4.2 Finite-Difference Analysis 348
15.4.3 Novak’s Analysis 351
15.4.4 Pile Groups 351 SUBJECT INDEX 389
PILE
FOUNDATION
ANALYSIS
AND
DESIGN