6'

Ministry of

Coastru~tion& Public Utilities

GUIDELINES

FOR

INTERPRE TATION OF SITE

IWESTIGA TION DA TA

FOR ESTIMATING THE

CARRYING CAPACITY OF
SLNGLE PILES FOR
DESIGN OF mDRED AND
CAST IN-SITU REINFORCED
CONCRETE PILES

Institute for Construction Training and Dtvetopmcnt

"-m''
1s;W-

Mawatha,

Calombo 07

Pub&ubm No.ICTADDEV/l S
FirstEdition-April1997

1%

MINISTRY OF HOUSING, CONSTRUCTION AND PUBLIC UTILITIES

GUIDELINES FOR INTERPRETATION OF SITE

INVESTIGATION DATA FOR ESTIMATING THE CARRYING

CAPACITY OF STNGLE PILES FOR DESIGN OF BORED AND

CAST IN-SUU REINFORCED CONCRETE PILES

ICTAD PUBLICATION NO : ICTADDEVIl S

First Edition - April 1997

Published by

Institute for Construction Training and Development

'Savsiripaya'

123, Wijerama Mawatha

C o l o 07
~

Drafted by the fdowing mtmben of Sri h n k a Gcotetbnkd society

Soil Enghearing ancl Deepwells Ltd.

Dr.Sunil De Silva
Mr. K L S W a n d u
Mr.A A Viraj Dias
Mr,A W Wljesundara
Mr.T M Fwnando
Mr.Ananda Ilanasinghe
Mr K S K Ibmashghe

University of Moratuwa

Ilr S A S Kulathilaka

University of Moratuw

ProE B L Tennekoon

d Engineering Consultancy Bureau

National Building I h e k c h Organisation

Me;SLGS

M e -SLGS
Mwnbw- SLGS
MeTnber- SLGS

Univmq of Peradeniya

Prof. H N S&atne

hwtimion of Engineers Sri Lanka

Prof. N A D R de Alwis

Prof. Priyan Dias

Mr.V kingatharan .
Mr. A D Wichmsinghe
M S C Piyadasa
Mr. W

Mr. S S T Sumanasekara

Central Edeeriug Consultancy Bureau

m t i o n of Conslrltiog Engineers
Institsite for Construction Training and

Devefoprnmt

<

FOREWORD

Under the corporate activity of developing Construction Industry related documents,

ICTAD has identified tht nebd for

having

Guidelines for lntwpretation of Site

Investigation data for Estimathg the Carryiag Capachy of S@le Piles for Design of

Bored and Cast h-situReinforced Concrete Pile8 and h a = initial& the fbmhtion of
this @dines.

I hope that t b document wiEl help the pmcticing Geotechnical E n g k a s in designing pile

foundations.
This Guiddine was published by the Technology DtvtIopment Division of ICTAD and
was draaed by a p d of experts &m

@-

Of W d

Sri hnka Gsotdmical Suckty. under the

Of~of;essi~d
h$

Cbn~tnrdOn
ZnduSty.

I acknowled8e with ptcful t l w i h t

k d c e of the nrembas of the drafting panel of

Sri L a d m * G t ~ ~ ~ MSociety
c a l and the Review Committee Members in the publidon of
the Guideb.

Prof. Dayatltba S Wueyestkera

Chairman

Institute far Conaw4ion Training and Developmeat

Caution: This document ohouki o d y be used by pmons trained in Gbottchniul

Engineering, as at swml places cngincdng judgement is both crucial and c r i t i d

DISCLAIMER
Whilst all care and efforts have been made to ensure the proper productibn of this
doument and its contents, neither does the Dtaftiag Capmittcc nor the ICTAD aaxpt any
liability for problems, lX&ultie8 or Conmmny arising from the usage of these

guidelines.

Estimation of ultimate value of end resistance per unit area of b w (Q

Estimation of ultimate &in friction cotfficicnt per unit s u m a
m of shaft (Q,

5.

Negative skin friction

6.

Factors of safety and Allowable carrying capcity of a single pile

Gm-ES
FOR W E R m A T I O N OF SITE INVESTIG&T1ON DATA FOR
BTIMA'IING THE CARRYING CAPACITY OF SINGLE PILES FOR D E S I H OF
BORED A N D CAST LN-Sm -RCjCD
CO~~IRETE

Despite the considerable progress that has k n m e during the Lsst few decades in
understanding the interaction of a pile and the surrounding soil, the design of pile
foundations is still very much an art with empirical methods based on experience stiU
being used in estitnating the M n g capacity of piles. Therefore, the methods given in
this dwument for. the interpretation of site investigation data should merely serve as
guidelines, and the actd carrying capacity ofpilw should still be confirmed ushg pile
loadtestS.
*

Similar to any other foundation, pile foundations should be such that

(i)
(ii)

they have sufficient safety against M n g capacity failure;

they do not undergo excessive settlements.

O h , the mlumn load of a stdure is carried by

a group

af piles. .

When such piles are founded on sands or clays, the behaviour o f the group is different
from that of a single pile. Therefore, in such W, group effect should be considered.

Therefore, from a static analysis, the ultimate wrying capacity of a single pile can be
obtained as

where

P, = applied load at uI t i g t e cmying capacity of pile;

q, = ultimate value of end resistance per unit area of base;
f,, = ultimate value of skin friction coefficient per unit surface area of
shaft;

Ab, A, = area of base, and surface area.of shaft respectively.

where c, = undraind shear strength of the clay

ESTIMATION OF ULTIMATE SKlN FRICTION COEFFICIENT PER UNIT

SWRFACE AREA OF S H m (f,)

General
The skin fktion that is devclopbd on a pile shaft is influenced considerably by the method of
constnrction. Therefore, the wtimtes given in this &on should only serve as guidehus for
hign.

fUf,&xp(d)tan 6
w

K, = d c i e n t of Mend earth p

m m shaft;

p(d) = vcrtieal efcctivc stress at my dcpoh;

angle of friction between

Fof botad and cast in-situ piles,

(KJKJ = 0.70 to l

ancl sand.

K, is related to the 1K, value as follows:

Typical values h K, arq @VUI below

p(d) is estimated as indicated previously in Sec. 2.1 :l

(C)

m
t
e for Jsss mr Ref.

Values of d are related to the friction angle #.

Ref. ( 5 ) gives the mmmendations of 2 rewarchers:

Ref. (l) gives a limiting value of f, * I 0 DJ/m2.

The pilelength s h o u l d b e d i v i d d h t o s e v e r d ~ and

, WUCS
of #,Nshould.
mmqmd to host in aach of the elements.

The friction that can be m o b M h highly dependent on the metfiod.uf pjle

c m m c r h . Special care is n e m s q when pile groups am used to carry a
mlumn l d to ensure that pile construction methbd does not d i m the soil
djacent to the adjoining piles,

whcn c, = unddned shear seenglh of the day.

the stiess -.,of

,

the clay

Pwwff(nc)ndy~tedclaysluad~,d=l

In the absence of any m9rs ford in oc clays, this ire k s t neglected.

I

This may be estimated using SPT value N.

,Itis m m m ~ ~ d to
c duse
f,,

2x N

<

w/rnZ,

When piles are founded on sands and clays, the ~ m c n t that

s take place are those oi the pile
group and not of the individual pile.

4,2

The settlement (S,) af a single pile under working load should be first determined.
The settlement

(9of the pile group is then given by

where B = width of pile grwp in meters.

The set&lementof a pile group in clays should be determined using mnddation theory assuming
that the pile group behaves as an equivalent raft which has dimensions in plan equal to the
overall dimensions of the group and which can bt assumed to be located at a depth of (2/3) of
the length of the piles.

5,

NEGATIVE SKIN FRICTION

When the soii is setting 'downwards relative to a pile, no suppott for cumpressivc loads from
skin friction can be assumed over the length of the pile shaft.
On the conrrary, the settling soil taus a drag down

force on the pile.

caluw.on t h m g n w e o f the:negativeskin friction is s cbmptex problem in which several

Analysis W Total
facms are ulved. Calculations can be done either.using Effective S-

As a first qpmximation, it is recommended in Ref. (1) to use

whcrc
and p(d)

gf:

skin friction ktor, giwn in Fig. 2;

vertical effective stress at any depth,
and ccmputed,as hdicated previously

in Sec. 2.1.1

This is appropriate for clay A s , and the methd given in Sec. 3.3 can be used.

. &

a!<'

I-,

FACTORS OF SAFETY AND ALIDWAIILE CARRYING CAPACITY OF A

SINGLE m m

'

.&l
Using the notations given in Sec. 1.4;

W3 '1sa.L W dI!d

8 WmJ

WWWP
S! % u r npua

U!, pm1 almu!qn JI

d o w ~ t ~ ~ W i n a s h i n ~ e f J @ b ~ & t ~
of a &gle pib.

diPmcCr

uaod in group, (the n m k ,

Md spacing & p w g 0.
;rhe~arhouldmMh~~tyofthtpihsefoo

bad-alimitiag HtkmaltJ*

Tomlinm, M.J.(1987): "PileDesign and Construction

M m ; 3d Edition.

Viewpint Publication,

U , ,

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