Meyerhof also found higher values of f3 for tapered

piles, reflecting the higher horizontal stresses produced.

For piles bored or driven into stiff overconsolidated
clays the Ko and hence Ks value can be expected to vary
with depth. Meyerhof (1976) stated that, for bored
piles, Ks varies from about 0.7 Ko to 1.2 Ko but for
driven piles it varies from about Ko to more than 2Ko'
Randolph and Wroth (1982) suggest a relationship
between f3 and the ratio c / (j '. However, although it u v
is clear that shaft resistance is governed by effective
stresses, the empirical correlations required to determine
values of f3 make this approach no better than the
traditional total stress or a method, at the present time.
Driven piles in sand
Effects of installation
Driving piles into loose sands compacts them, increasing
their density and angle of internal friction and
increasing the horizontal stresses around the pile.
Driving piles into dense sands may not compact
them. Instead, dilatancy and negative pore pressures
may temporarily increase the pile load capacity, make
driving difficult and possibly result in overstressing
and damage to the pile. Dissipation of this negative
pore pressure after driving will cause the pile load
capacity to decrease so a false impression of load
capacity can be derived from the driving records. This
is often referred to as relaxation.
The extent to which driving may increase the
density of the sand could be up to 4-6 diameters away
from the pile and 3-5 diameters below the pile (Broms,
1966). This zone of influence is larger for loose
sands than dense sands and will obviously affect the
driving of piles in groups where piles are typically
2-3 diameters apart.
It is also presumed that the sands are hard, clean
quartz grains which will not deteriorate under driving
stresses. Softer crushable grains will produce lower
angles of friction after driving and be more compressible.
The design of a pile must consider installation
effects and the final state of the sand. It can only be
considered as approximate and should be checked by
in situ pile loading tests.
End bearing resistance qb (Figure 10.7)
The conventional approach to end bearing resistance is
to use the surcharge term of the bearing capacity
equation (Equation 8.11) as c' = 0 and the width of a
pile is small compared to its length:
(10.15)
where 0' is the vertical effective stress at the base of v
the pile and N is a bearing capacity factor. The values q
of N provided by Berezantsev et al (1961) are comq
monly used, Figure 10.7.
\000
/
/'
L
\00 /
./
./
/'
/'
/
V
30 35 40 45
Angle of internal friction 1/>'
Figure 10.7 Bearing capacity factor N" for piles in
sand (From Berezantsev et 01. 1961 )
Critical depth (Figures 10.8-10.10)
Equation 10.15 suggests that as the pile penetrates
more deeply into the sand the end bearing resistance
will increase with depth. However, field tests have
shown that end bearing resistance does not increase
continually with depth. It seems more logical that end
bearing resistance depends on the mean effective stress
at pile base level rather than just the vertical stress:
o '=1(0 '+20 ,) m 3 v H (10.16)
Since 0H' = Ko 0v' end bearing resistance will then be
affected by the Ko value which forThe Mohr-Coulomb criterion for soils at higher
stress levels often shows some curvature rather than
the straight line assumed. Thus as the stresses at pile
base level increase the <P' value and, hence, the bearing
capacity factor Nq decreases. Arching is also considered
to be a contributory factor. The combined effect
is to obtain decreasing end bearing resistance with
depth.
The simplest way of incorporating this effect into
pile design is to adopt the concept of a critical depth Zc
as shown in Figure 10.8. Even though the vertical
effective stress 0/ increases with depth the end bearing
resistance qb and the skin friction/, are considered
as constant below the critical depth, having the value at
the depth zc' The critical depth has been found to be
shallow for loose sands and deeper for dense sands.
T
critical
depth
-I
Figure 10.8 Critical depth in sands
At the present time, values of this critical depth are
somewhat tentative, the values suggested by Vesic
(1967) and Meyerhof (1976) are given in Figure 10.9.
For the determination of Nq and Zc on Figures 10.7
and 10.9, respectively, the angle of internal friction <P'
should relate to the state of the sand after pile installation
so the values given in Table 10.1 are suggested
(Poulos, 1980).
The initial angle of internal friction <PI', before
installation of the pile, is not an easy parameter to
determine, since sampling disturbance will largely
destroy the initial mineral grain structure, making
laboratory tests meaningless. The <P/ value is usually
obtained from correlations between the SPT 'N' value
or the cone penetrometer qc as illustrated on Figure
10.l0.
Pile Foundations 227
15~------~--------~~-+----~
5~~-----4--------~------~
33 38 43
Angle of internal friction ¢f
Figure 10.9 Values of critical depth
Table 10.1
Values of<P' after installation (From Poulos, 1980)
Values of <P after installation
Requirement
Bored piles Driven piles
Nq
<Pi + 40
-2-
tA' - 3
zc/d
3/44>1' + 10
K,tan8 <PI'
<P I ' is the <P value before installation
Skin friction/. (Figures 10.11 and 10.12)
Assuming effective stresses acting on the pile/soil
surface the unit skin friction/, at a depth z below the top
of a pile is given by:
f =K a 'tan8 s s v (10.16K = coefficient of horizontal stress
0'= angle of friction between the pile surface and the
soil.
400
Since both Ks and tanS will be governed by the
method of installation, and values of these factors may
be difficult to assess separately, a simple approach is to
consider values of the lumped parameter Kstano (cf. f3
for effective stress approach to piles in clay, Equation
10.14). Values of this parameter are given in Figure
10.11 related to the initial angle of internal friction.
These are based on Ks values given by Meyerhof
(1976), the lj> values given in Table 10.1 and assuming
o = 0.75lj>', for a normally consolidated sand. Higher
values may be possible for overconsolidated sands.
1.2~-------------+----~~------~
It has been found that skin friction values also
decrease with depth in a similar fashion to end bearing
resistance so a critical depth Zc approach should be
adopted. Values of Zc can be obtained from Table 10.1
and Figure 10.9.
The total shaft load must then be summated from the
shaft loads Q,), QS2' etc, as illustrated in Figure 10.12.
0.8~-------------+'~------~~--~
0.4 f-------,f-----;~+---__r_'------1
35
Initial angle of internal friction ¢i)'
Figure 10.11 Skin friction parameter K, tanb
(From Poulos. 1980)
40Bored piles in sand
Boring holes in sands loosens an annulus of soil around
the hole and reduces horizontal stresses, so bored piles
constructed in initially dense sands can be expected to
have low load capacity. If jetting techniques are used
then the loosening can be even more severe. Casting
concrete in situ will produce a rough surface but this
effect is diminished by the loosening of the sand.
Poulos (1980) suggests using the methods given for
driven piles but with reduced values of the final angle
of internal friction as given in Table 10.1. Meyerhof
(1976) suggests that for preliminary estimates the base
resistance of a bored pile could be taken as one-third of
the value determined for a driven pile with about onehalf
for the shaft resistance.
Factor of safety
A factor of safety is applied to safeguard against the
uncertainties in the ground conditions and installation
effects, and to limit settlement to a permissible value.
Although piles are often designed by applying a
factor of safety to the ultimate load to obtain a working
load, the over-riding performance criterion for a pile is
that it must not settle more than a permissible amount.
Tomlinson (1987) stated that, from his experience for
piles up to 600 mm diameter, if an overall factor of
safety of 2.5 is adopted to give:
k· I d ultimate load
wor mg oa = factor of safety (10.17)
the settlement of the pile under the working load is
unlikely to exceed 10 mm.
;;,
------------1-- ;;, I
3 • t
Qb (Value at critical depth)
For piles larger than 600 mm diameter, it has been
found that, in clays the two components, shaft resistance
and base resistance are mobilised at different
amounts of settlement. Approximately, the full shaft
resistance is mobilised at a pile head settlement of
about 1- 2% of the pile diameter, whereas to mobilise
the full base resistance the pile must be pushed down
about 10--20% of the diameter. This is illustrated in
Figure 10.13.
\
\
~-
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
Base
Load
Working load
SI aft
Load
Load on pile
Total
Load
Figure 10.13 Mobilisation of base and shaft loads
For a typical pile diameter and a permissible settlement
of Pall' it can be seen that when the working load
is applied to obtain this settlement a large proportion
of the shaft resistance is mobilised with only a small
proportion of the base resistance acting.