London District Surveyors Association

Foundations

No 1
Guidance Notes for the Design of
Straight Shafted Bored Piles in London
Clay.

The LDSA is a region of the District Surveyors Association of England and Wales

FOUNDATIONS

THE
LONDON DISTRICT
SURVEYORS ASSOCIATION

GUIDANCE NOTES FOR THE DESIGN OF BORED

STRAIGHT SHAFTED PILES IN LONDON CLAY

LONDON DISTRICT SURVEYORS ASSOCIATION PUBLICATIONS

2000

FOREWORD
The design of bored straight-shafted piles in London Clay using undrained shear
strength data, Cu from 38mm diameter soil samples is well established. However,
many designers now prefer to determine Cu from 1OOmm diameter samples and the
design philosophy using such data is not well documented. These guidance notes
have been produced for designers using this latter approach and have been
prepared for use by Local Authority Building Control in London.
These guidance notes seek to establish a common approach to the design of piles in
London Clay where Cu has been measured from 1OOmm diameter undisturbed
samples. They set out the parameters and design criteria that should, in normal
circumstances, be acceptable to the checking authority when considering
calculations and details submitted under the Building Regulations. These notes do
no preclude the use of other parameters and design criteria, but such an approach
may require more detailed justification by the designer and greater consideration by
the checking authority.
These guidance notes are now published for the convenience of Engineers involved
in the design of piled foundations in order that they may be aware of these criteria.
These notes are not a design manual and designers must use their own
professional judgement as to the suitability of the standards set out in these notes
and should use more stringent criteria if they consider it appropriate.

President, London District Surveyors Association

October 2000

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The London District Surveyors Association is indebted to OVE ARUP & PARTNERS
for their considerable input and expertise in the preparation of these notes, in
conjunction with the Foundation Committee.

Technical and Foundation Committee

R Freeman

London Borough of Bromley - Chairman (1995-96)

N Howes

London Borough of Barnet - Chairman (1996-)

R Apsey

London Borough of Greenwich

J Drake

City of Westminster

T Fenton

City of Westminster

B Ayres

London Borough of Bromley

D Banks

City of London

M Patel

City of London

K Sandland

London Borough of Tower Hamlets

R Wilson

London Borough of Wandsworth

T Moolan

London Borough of Lambeth

A Parsons

London Borough of Harrow

J Jackson

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

V K Nathan

London Borough of Southwark

PURPOSE
1.0 The purpose of this guidance note has been to seek to achieve a uniform
approach in the design of straight shafted bored piles in London Clay having
regard to the greater knowledge and experience that is now available. In
particular, consideration has been given to the use of a revised a factor of
between 0.5 and 0.6 in the design of such piles, based on 100 m m diameter soil
samples.

BACKGROUND
2.0

For many years an a factor of 0.45 has been commonly accepted based on
Skemptons earlier investigations and paper of 1959 using undrained clay shear
strengths from 38mm (1) diameter samples. When undrained shear
strengths are obtained from 100 mm (4) diameter samples, which is now the
commonly used procedure, the undrained strengths are generally lower thus
producing a longer pile using a = 0.45. The reasons for the lower values have
been well documented and, therefore, to compensate for the lower values and
design of a pile of the same length as when 38mm samples are used, and to
take account of modern methods and plant (i.e. speedier pile construction), an
enhanced a factor of 0.5 has sometimes been acceptable.

INTRODUCTION
3.0 This Practice Note describes the general philosophy recommended for the
design of straight-shafted bored piles in London Clay, which if followed should
satisfy the requirements of A 1 of Schedule 1 of the Building Regulations.
Approval for pile designs not complying with this design philosophy will have to
obtain the approval of the Local authority on a job specific basis, rather than
being deemed to satisfy.
3.1 The ultimate vertical load capacity Q of a bored pile in London Clay is given by
the following expressions:
(i) Q = Q s + Q b
where Qs = ultimate shaft capacity
where Qb = ultimate base capacity
(ii) Q s = pDL. a . cu
where D = pile diameter (m)
where L = pile penetration in London Clay (m)
a = average adhesion factor over shaft length

Cu = average undrained shear strength over length L determined from

unconsolidated undrained (UU) triaxial tests on 1 00 m m diameter

undisturbed samples (kN/m2)
2
aC
. u should not exceed *140 kN/m except where a higher limiting

value is proven by a pile load test.

*This approximates to a maximum Cu value of 235kN/m2 based on
an upper a value of 0.6.
(iii) Qb = D.Nc . Cub
4

where D = pile diameter

Nc = bearing capacity factor = 9 for circular bearing piles
C ub = undrained shear strength at the pile base measured in UU triaxial
tests on 10 0 m m diameter undisturbed samples.

WORKING PILE CAPACITY

3.2(a) The working capacity Q w, of the pile is taken as the lower value from the
following two expressions:
(i)

Qw

= Qs

Qb

F
Where F = Factor of Safety
(ii) Qw = characteristic concrete cube strength of pile at 28 d a y s D
4

(b) The appropriate factor of safety F and adhesion factor a depend on the level
of site investigations information, whether there is to be any load testing of
preliminary and working piles, and the type of load test. The appropriate
values of F and a for the different combinations of site investigation and load
testing of piles are presented in Table 1 in Section 4.
(c) The undrained shear strength profile with depth to be used in the design is to
be an average line through the Cu data from the UU triaxial tests on samples
from the site. (It is important to appreciate the design undrained shear
strength profile is the average of the data, as used by Skempton (1959) and
Patel (1 992), and not a moderately conservative or lower bound design
line). This average Cu profile can be obtained from linear regression
methods, ignoring any exceptionally low or high values, or by eyeballing a
line through the data. The choice of this line can also be aided by the
Standard Penetration Test N value profile with depth, using the relationship
between N and C u proposed by Stroud (1988), which often shows less
scatter than the triaxial test results.

DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
4.0 Part A of Table 1 relates to projects where there is little or no site specific
information on the ground conditions, and where pile load testing is not feasible,
then piles should be designed conservatively using = 0.5 and a Factor of
Safety of 3, subject to:

(i)

Sufficient information being available to define with confidence the top

of the London Clay.

(ii)

A conservative undrained shear strength profile is adopted which

considers :

the position of the site in the London Clay stratum

the level of the London Clay surface relative to ground level
samples taken from the actual pile bores.

4.1 Part B of Table 1 relates only to where the following conditions apply:
(i)

The piles are not constructed in the London Clay using drilling
fluid e.g. bentonite or continuous flight auger.

(ii)

There is adequate site investigation to understand the stratigraphy and

undrained shear strength profile of the London Clay.

(iii)

Sampling of the London Clay is undertaken using 100mm (U100)

diameter metal open-tube sample samplers to BS5930.

(iv)

The piles penetrate at least 10m into the London Clay i.e. the
adhesion factor appropriate for short piles needs to be considered on
a site-specific basis.

(v)

There are no major water seepages in the London Clay during pile
construction.

(vi)

The piles are concreted within 12 hours of start of boring in the London
Clay. (if temporary lining tubes are used to maintain a pile bore at its
full dimension, the time shall start when boring below the temporary
lining begins).

(vii)

Technical supervision of the piling works is carried out for the client by
a competent person independent from the piling contractor.

(viii)

The London Clay is a substantial thickness and is a high plasticity

material e.g. not the lower sandy horizons.

(ix)

The pile design is dictated by vertical compressive loads.

TABLE 1
*Adequate
Site
Investigation
Carried Out

PART

A
PART
B

Preliminary
Pile Load Test

Factor
of

Adhesion
Factor

Safety F

Diameter of
specimen for
unconsolidated
undrained
triaxial testing
(mm)
100
see 4.1(iii)

Requirements
for load testing
of working
piles (1.5
working load)
No load test on
working piles

No

No

3.0

0.5

Yes

No

3.0

0.6

100

No load test on
working piles

Yes

No

2.5

0.6

100

Load test on 1%
of working piles

Yes

Yes - CRP

2.25

0.6

100

Load test on 1 %
of working piles

Yes

Yes - ML

2.0

0.5

100

Load test on 1 %
of working piles

*As defined in Clause 4.1(ii)

notes to table 1
(a)

types of pile load tests

CRP = Constant Rate of Penetration load test; carried out at rate of penetration
of 0.25 to 1.25mm per minute. (0.75mm average)
ML = Maintained Load Test;
Where the load is maintained at each load increment for not less than 30
minutes and until the rate of settlement is slowing down and is less than
0.25mm/hr or other agreed rate of settlement appropriate to the stage of loading
and its proximity to a failure condition.

(b)

Reference should be made to the following publications:

(i)

D PATEL

1992

Interpretation of Pile tests in London Clay. Piling

Europe Conference.

(ii)

A W SKEMPTON

1959"Cast Insitu Bored Piles in London Clay"

Geotechnique 1959 Vol 9 No
4pp153-173

(iii)

M A STROUD

1988Application and Interpretation, Penetration Testing

in the UK.
6

NOTES

Published by
LDSA PUBLICATIONS
PO Box 266
BROMLEY
KENT BR2 9ZN

Copyright 2000

ISBN 0 9531229 1 3

March 2000

Printed by Tadberry Evedale Limited, Units 2,3 & 4, 1A Philip Walk, London SE15 3NH