10-2 AASHTO LRFD BRIDGE DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS

Drilled Shaft—A deep foundation unit, wholly or partly embedded in the ground, constructed by placing fresh
concrete in a drilled hole with or without steel reinforcement. Drilled shafts derive their capacity from the surrounding
soil and/or from the soil or rock strata below its tip. Drilled shafts are also commonly referred to as caissons, drilled
caissons, bored piles, or drilled piers.

Effective Stress—The net stress across points of contact of soil particles, generally considered as equivalent to the
total stress minus the pore water pressure.

ER—Hammer efficiency expressed as percent of theoretical free fall energy delivered by the hammer system actually
used in a Standard Penetration Test.

Free (Unbonded) Length—The designed length of a micropile that is not bonded to the surrounding ground or grout.

Friction Pile—A pile whose support capacity is derived principally from soil resistance mobilized along the side of
the embedded pile.

Geomechanics Rock Mass Rating System—Rating system developed to characterize the engineering behavior of rock
masses (Bieniawski, 1984).

Geotechnical Bond Strength—The nominal grout-to-ground bond strength.

IGM—Intermediate Geomaterial, a material that is transitional between soil and rock in terms of strength and
compressibility, such as residual soils, glacial tills, or very weak rock.

Isolated Footing—Individual support for the various parts of a substructure unit; the foundation is called a footing
foundation.

Length of Foundation—Maximum plan dimension of a foundation element.

Load Test—Incremental loading of a foundation element, recording the total movement at each increment.

Micropile—A small-diameter drilled and grouted non-displacement pile (normally less than 12 in.) that is typically
reinforced.

OCR—Over Consolidation Ratio, the ratio of the preconsolidation pressure to the current vertical effective stress.

Pile—A slender deep foundation unit, wholly or partly embedded in the ground, that is installed by driving, drilling,
auguring, jetting, or otherwise and that derives its capacity from the surrounding soil and/or from the soil or rock
strata below its tip.

Pile Bent—A type of bent using pile units, driven or placed, as the column members supporting a cap.

Pile Cap—A flexural substructure element located above or below the finished ground line that receives loads from

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substructure columns and is supported by shafts or piles.

Pile Shoe—A metal piece fixed to the penetration end of a pile to protect it from damage during driving and to
facilitate penetration through very dense material.

Piping—Progressive erosion of soil by seeping water that produces an open pipe through the soil through which water
flows in an uncontrolled and dangerous manner.

Plunge Length—The length of casing inserted into the bond zone to effect a transition between the upper cased
portion to the lower uncased portion of a micropile.

Plunging—A mode of behavior observed in some pile load tests, wherein the settlement of the pile continues to
increase with no increase in load.

PMT—Pressuremeter Test.

Point-Bearing Pile—A pile whose support capacity is derived principally from the resistance of the foundation
material on which the pile tip bears.

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