International Symposium on Advances in Foundation Engineering (ISAFE 2013)

5-6 December 2013, Singapore

Phoon, K. K., Chua T. S., Yang, H. B. & Cham, W. M. (editors)

PILE CAPACITY REDUCTION OF JACK-IN PILES WITH EMPTY

PREBORED HOLE AT META-SEDIMENTARY FORMATION IN
PENINSULAR MALAYSIA
LIEW SHAW SHONG
G&P Geotechnics Sdn Bhd, Wisma G&P, 39-5, Jalan Tasik Selatan 3, Bandar Tasik Selatan,
Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia

HO SHU FENG
G&P Geotechnics Sdn Bhd, Wisma G&P, 39-5, Jalan Tasik Selatan 3, Bandar Tasik Selatan,
Kuala Lumpur, 57000, Malaysia

VOON BOO CHUAN

G&P Geotechnics Sdn Bhd, Wisma G&P, Jalan Tasik Selatan 3, Bandar Tasik Selatan,
Kuala Lumpur, 57000, Malaysia

ABSTRACT: Jack-in piling method has gained popularity in deep foundation construction in
many city areas of Peninsular Malaysia in recent years due to its advantages of relatively quiet and
vibration free pile installation, and more importantly proof loading to all installed piles as well as
competitive pricing in pile installation with environmental constraints. However, penetrability of
the jack-in pile installation to the required length always become the main concern due to the
presence of intermittent hard strata above the designated competent founding hard stratum. As so,
jack-in pile with pre-boring technique for achieving minimum pile penetration depth were
incorporated to overcome premature pile termination on the intermittent hard strata. This paper
presents a case study of investigating a jack-in pile project with empty pre-bored hole in meta-
sedimentary formation at central part of Peninsular Malaysia which suffered pile capacity
reduction problem with time. It is interesting to note that the inherent softening behavior of the
meta-sedimentary formation with localized stress relaxation condition in empty pre-boring hole
can significantly reduce soil strength, thus directly affecting the carrying capacity of mostly end
bearing jack-in pile. Some lessons learnt from this investigative study are presented for future
improvements of jack-in piling, particularly with pre-boring requirement.

INTRODUCTION
Jack-in installation method has gained noticeable popularity lately, particularly for construction in
city areas with the obvious advantages that the piles are statically jacked or pressed into the ground
without the common environmental impacts in conventional dynamic pile driving method. A
common major installation obstruction to jack-in displacement pile is the existence of intermittent
hard strata within the subsoil possibly resulted from differential weathering, localized cementation
or floating boulders that hinder the jack-in piles from reaching the lower competent founding
stratum as designed. In such situation, pre-boring technique is usually adopted to overcome the
installation obstruction leading to premature pile termination and to achieve sufficient pile
penetration for better pile fixity in resisting lateral loads.

This paper presents lessons learnt from a case investigation consisting of 400mm reinforced
concrete (RC) square pile installed in meta-sedimentary formation in Kuala Lumpur with empty
pre-bored hole. The installed piles failed to achieve the required pile performance in the
maintained load tests. During the investigation, subsurface investigation factual reports, pile
foundation design concept, pile construction records, construction method and pile test reports
were carefully studied in order to narrow down the probable causes of unfavourable performance
of test pile results. Additional maintained load tests were proposed and conducted to verify the
probable causes identified in the investigation. Results of both contractually scheduled and
investigative maintained load tests are presented and discussed. Some lessons learnt will also be
discussed for improvement of the future jack-in pile installation with pre-boring method.

SUBSURFACE CONDITION
Based on geological map, the construction site is underlain by Hawthorndern Formation mainly
consisting of metamorphosed sedimentary rocks like phyllite and schist. As observing the rapid
rate of disintegration of the exposed weathered bedrock formation and instability of many cut
slopes formed in the same formation, it is evidenced that swelling and flaking behaviors of these
formations can be prominent when subjecting to stress relaxation. Interpreting from the
exploratory boreholes, the overburden weathered materials mostly consist of sandy CLAY and at
fairly consistent depth of encountering competent hard stratum (SPT-N ≥50) as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Borehole logs of subsoil profiles

CONSTRUCTION INSTALLATION OF JACK-IN PILES

For this case, jack-in installation method was adopted to install 400mm RC square piles to achieve
the specified pile termination criteria (2.2 times of specified pile working load with minimum 30
seconds maintaining period and pile settlement during the maintaining period should not exceed
5mm/cycle for two cycles). The piles were designed to take working load of 1300kN and were
statically jacked until 2860kN before termination. All piles were installed in a empty pre-bored
hole of 9m below piling platform at RL98m with the aim to facilitate deeper pile penetration.
Three (3) different diameters of empty pre-bored hole had been used during the early stage of pile
installation. Initially, several piles were installed using 600mm diameter pre-bored hole but it was
later changed to 500mm diameter to avoid free standing condition of the pile in the oversized pre-
bored hole without adequate lateral support. Finally, majority of the working piles were installed
with a compromised 550mm diameter pre-bored hole as 500mm diameter pre-bored hole was
found undersized resulting in premature termination for 400mm RC square pile.

Certain piles were terminated either at the base of empty pre-bored hole or with noticeably short
penetration below base of the pre-bored hole. These piles were expected to experience capacity
reduction resulting from stress relaxation due to overall low confining effective stress near the pile
tip as illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Pressure bulb and plastic zone for shallow foundation and pile foundation

INITIAL MAINTAINED LOAD TESTS

Initial maintained load tests (MLT) were performed on five (5) selected working piles (MLT 1 to
MLT 5) to verify the proof load factor, workmanship quality and pile performance.

MLT results in Table 1 indicate majority of the initially tested piles settled more than the
requirement of 12.5mm at pile working load. MLT 1, 2 and 4 piles with corresponding 0.4m, 0.3m
and 0.5m penetration below the base of pre-bored hole had recorded relatively more pile top
settlement compared to MLT 3 and 5 piles, which penetrate 3.5m and 4.5m respectively below
base of the pre-bored hole. These piles recorded unfavourable performance with excessive pile
settlement and were unable to achieve the required maximum test load except for MLT 3.
Therefore, it can be reasonably expected that the potential reduction in load carrying capacity of
the test pile as indicated in the test results could be strongly related to the pile penetration below
the base of empty pre-bored hole. Subsequently, additional MLTs were conducted on specifically
selected three (3) working piles with 0.5m, 1.5m and 2.0m penetration below base of 550mm
diameter pre-bored hole respectively to verify this suspicion since MLT 1 and 2 were terminated at
different maximum jacking forces and pre-bored diameters as explained earlier.

ADDITIONAL MAINTAINED LOAD TESTS

All additional MLT piles (MLT 6 to MLT 8) had been previously installed with termination
criterion reaching 2.2 times of working capacity but MLT 6 and 7 piles failed to achieve the
required maximum test load, except for MLT 8. This clearly implies the high possibility of pile
capacity degradation resulted from stress relaxation. MLT for piles with deeper penetration below
the base of pre-bored hole have obviously shown better settlement performance at one (1) time
working load in the first cycle. The load-settlement curve of all three test piles in Figure 3(b) has
gentler gradient in the first loading cycles whereas the gradient of subsequent reloading cycles
becomes steeper. This is the clear evidence of phenomenal soil softening after the termination of
jack-in pile. However, further reloading of the pile to higher load in the subsequent load test cycles
had allowed the founding soil stratum regaining the soil compactness rendering stiffer pile base
response. The test results further enhance the findings of potential stress relaxation at pile tip due
to insufficient stress confinement within the effective stress bulb of the end bearing pile tip as a
result of insufficient pile penetration below the base of pre-bored hole. The restoration of initial
higher pile capacity in second load cycle as a result of further pile penetration into soften subsoil
near to the pile tip implies that this is solely a pile settlement problem.

Table 1. Performance summary of the contractually scheduled test piles and additional test piles.
Pre- Pile Max. Jack-in Achieved Pile Top Settlement
bored Penetration Load at Maximum At At Max.
MLT
Diameter below Piling Termination Test Load Working Test Load
(mm) Platform (m) (kN) (kN) Load (mm) (mm)
2220
MLT 1 600 9.40 2160 14.0 46.00
(1.71xWL)
2220
MLT 2 500 9.30 2600 23.50 42.00
(1.71xWL)
2600
MLT 3 550 12.50 2860 5.80 21.80
(2.00xWL)
1406
MLT 4 550 9.50 2860 16.50 24.50
(1.50xWL)
1950
MLT 5 550 13.50 2860 8.50 13.00
(1.50xWL)
1950
MLT 6 550 9.50 2860 15.08 42.38
(1.50xWL)
2400
MLT 7 550 10.50 2860 11.29 41.93
(1.85xWL)
2600
MLT 8 550 11.00 2860 10.30 50.35
(2.00xWL)
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75

2800 2800 2800 2800

Legend:
2600 MLT 1 2600 2600 Legend: 2600
MLT 2 MLT 6
2400 MLT 3 2400 2400 2400
MLT 7
MLT 4
MLT 5 MLT 8
2200 2200 2200 2200

2000 2000 2000 2000

PILE TOP LOADING (kN)

PILE TOP LOADING (kN)

1800 1800 1800 1800

1600 1600 1600 1600

1400 1400 1400 1400

1200 1200 1200 1200

1000 1000 1000 1000

800 800 800 800

600 600 600 600

400 400 400 400

200 200 200 200

0 0 0 0

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75
PILE TOP SETTLEMENT (mm)
PILE TOP SETTLEMENT (mm)

(a) (b)
Figure 3. Pile top loading (kN) versus pile top settlement for (a) contractually scheduled MLT
results and (b) additional MLT results
Note: MLT 1 was terminated at maximum jack-in force lower than other production piles due to
the earlier targeted pile working load (WL) is lower (950kN) during 1st pile installation. MLT 2
cannot achieve maximum targeted test load due to insufficient counterweight of the kentledge
blocks provided during initial stage of the pile jacking after upgrading the pile working capacity
from 950kN to 1300kN.

LESSONS LEARNT AND RECOMMENDATION

Piles installed into pre-bored hole without backfilling the annulus are exposed to the risk of pile tip
softening and consequently leads to reduction in pile load carrying capacity and softer response in
pile tip stiffness. The base softening effect in the bearing soil stratum affecting the end bearing
capacity of the pile can be logically expected when the empty annulus in the pre-bored hole is
nearer to the pile base. The empty annulus with virtually zero confining stress provides pre-
requisite condition for time dependent stress relaxation of soils to take place especially when the
free surface is exposed to water. When the pile has sufficient penetration below the pre-bored base,
the stress relaxation effect at the upper most soil (beyond influence zone of the stress relaxation
above pile tip) would not affect the effective stress bulb near the pile tip, thus the pile end bearing
capacity. Figure 4 shows a schematic diagram of the stress relaxation and the stress bulb of pile tip
end bearing.

Figure 4. Schematic diagram of stress relaxation and pile stress bulb

The depth of influence zone at pile tip is complicated and influenced by many factors such as
angle of shearing resistance of the founding soil at proximity of pile tip, pile diameter, stiffness, in-
situ effective stress at pile tip, homogeneity of the soil and etc. For piles in more compressible silty
sand with fines content over 15%, the upper plastic zone is between 0.5D and 1.5D and the lower
plastic zone ranges from 1.5D to 3D where D is pile size (J. Yang, 2006). Meanwhile, the
influence zones for sand with Ø’ =30⁰ are 1D to 3D upwards and 3D to 5D downwards (Hideki
Hirayama, 1988). As such, it is worthwhile to seal-off the annulus between oversized pre-bored
hole and pile shaft to remove the condition of free surface and to prevent ingression of water
potentially leading to softening of pile tip founding materials within the plastic zones of pile tip.

CONCLUSIONS
This paper presents a case investigation of jack-in pile installation method with empty pre-bored
hole to achieve deeper pile penetration within the competent meta-sedimentary formation to
overcome any premature pile penetration length but unfortunately suffering time dependent pile
capacity reduction problem. All the jack-in piles initially achieving the pile termination criteria
during installation were primarily due to the high pile capacity developed from temporary high
short-terms undrained strength. Subsequently the performance of MLT at selected working piles
shows incomparably unfavourable performance with the performance at pile termination. Stress
relaxation within the plastic zones of pile tip end bearing due to free annulus surface in empty
pre-bored hole and possibly exaggerated with ingress of water at the pile tip softening the founding
subsoil are suspected. This localized stress relaxation condition can significantly reduce soil
strength, thus directly affecting the carrying capacity and settlement performance of mostly end
bearing jack-in pile. The amount of pile capacity reduction is dependent on the subsoil material at
pile tip founding level and pile penetration (embedment) below the base of pre-bored hole.
However, the consequence of such pile tip softening is in fact a pile settlement problem rather
than pile capacity issue. Further pile penetration under sustained imposed pile loading will allow
regaining of the pile capacity to balance the pile working load imposed onto the pile.

The performance of three (3) additional MLT on working piles in this investigation provides clear
evidence of the varying degree of pile capacity reduction with respect to the corresponding pile
penetration below the base of oversized empty pre-bored hole without the annulus backfilled. To
overcome the shortcomings, it is worthwhile to consider sealing off the annulus between oversized
pre-bored hole and pile shaft to prevent ingression of water and remove the condition of free
annulus surface that leads to softening of pile tip material within the plastic zones. This can be easily
achieved by placing appropriate amount of cementitious grout into the pre-bored hole before
lowering the pile for jacking operation. The depth of cementitious grout sealing shall sufficiently
cover the upper plastic zone of the stress bulb after volumetric displacement of grout at pile
termination. The recommended minimum grout sealing depth shall be approximately 5 times pile
size above the base of pre-bored hole. It is always better to have the grout fully fill up the annulus
gap in the empty pre-bored hole to avoid buckling condition of pile if the free standing length in
the pre-bored hole is significant.

REFERENCES

J. Yang (2006). "Influence Zone for End Bearing of Piles in Sand", Journal of Geotechnical and
Geoenvironment Engineering, 132:1229-1237.
Hideki Hirayama (1988). "A Unified Base Bearing Capacity Formula for Piles", Japanese Society
of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Vol 28, No. 3, 91-102.