General report/Discussion session 13: Large diameter piles
Rapport de spécialistes/Séance de discussion 13: Pieux de grand diamètre
B. K. MAZURKIEWICZ, Technical University of Gdansk, Poland
1 INTRODUCTION
First of all it has to be stressed that in the
last months two seminars and conferences have
been o r g a n i z e d ,which have had much larger amount
of papers on large diameter piles than the pres­
ent C o n f e r e n c e ,and have also collected many spe­
cialists in piling.It concerns the 1st Interna­
tional Geotechnical Seminar on Deep Foundations
on Bored and Auger Piles organized in Ghent in
June 1988,and International Conference on Piling
and Deep Foundation held in London in May this
year.
Considering that for the Discussion Session on
Large Diameter Piles only eight papers have been
delivered one could state that either piling
problems should not be included in the programme
of the Conference or that the coordination b e ­
tween the organisers should be more extensive to
avoid the organisation in a very short time in­
terval of three events on the same subject.lt
seems here necessary to propose for the future
a real coordination of the subjects which have
to be presented during certain conferences and
s e m inars.
Coming to the subject of the Session the main
question will be raised at the beginning,namely,
the question concerning the lower boundary of
the pile diameter.For instance in some recommen­
dations it is said that all piles which are in­
stalled in bored holes of diameter larger than
0.6 m and installed in soil to a depth larger
than 6.0 m under the soil surface are large
diameter p i l e s .Whitaker and Cooke (1966) con­
sider as large bored piles also the piles having
diameter of 2 ft (0.61) and the length of 30 ft
(0.91 m),as well as of 2 ft 6 in (0.76 m) dia
and 50 ft (15.2 m) long.Franke (1973) and Broms
et a l . (1988) stated that large bored piles are
piles of more than 1 m diameter.
All s t atements,h o w e v e r ,refer to bored piles
while generally no distinction is made for driv­
en piles.Thus it seems necessary first of all to
separ a t e ,when discussing large diameter piles,
driven and bored or cast-in-situ piles.It is
particularly important when assuming that large
diameter bored or cast-in-situ piles due to the
arge pile base area behave as deep massive foun­
dations ,which means that they reach their ulti­
mate bearing capacity at settlements larger than
8 to 15 % of their base diam e t e r .Such a situa­
tion is not possible for driven piles which m o ­
bilize the pile base resistance already during
driving.
Thus it is proposed first of all,when ana­
lysing large diameter piles,to divide them at
least into two totally separate groups,while
the lower diameter value seems to be a conven­
tional question only.This means that the most
important factor is the pile installation method
and its influence on the possible mobilisation
of pile frictional and base resistance.
The above proposal has a support in the gener­
al reports on piles prepared for the two last
ISSMFE Conferences in Stockholm (Broms,1981) and
San Francisco (Focht and 0 'Neill, 1985).All state­
ments and conclusions concern separately driven
and bored piles,while it is indicated that for
the bored piles the soils surrounding the pile
are intensively affected during installation.
Using the above proposal»which might be the
subject of further d i s c u s s i o n ,it is possible to
review the papers delivered to the Session,as
they concern many fields and are generally no
com p a r a b l e .
The second question concerns the methods used
to evaluate the bearing capacity of large diame­
ter piles.It is at the time being necessary to
investigate and decide if the so far developed
methods,e.g. stress wave measurements and pile
driving f o r m u l a e ,static methods based on an e s ­
timated or measured shear strength of the soil,
as well as all penetration tests as cone pene­
tration tests and standard penetration tests,and
also the pressuremeter tests,might be directly
used for different types of large diameter piles
considering that these can reach diameters above
3.0 m and lengths above 150 m.It will be quite
valuable to prepare some statements in that
field»particularly,that for some types of large
diameter piles the preparation of the soil under
the pile b a s e ,characterized by penetration test
r e s u l t s ,changes considerably the pile bearing
capacity.
2 CONFERENCE PAPERS REVIEW
Among the eight delivered papers one concerns
driven piles,four bored piles and one caissons.
One paper has a general character whilst the
last one concerns the application of fibre-con­
crete for deep foundations.
The first paper of T O G R O L ,A Y D I N O G L U ,TUGCU and
BEKAROGLU presents a very detailed and exemplary
description of the d e s i g n ,installation and load­
ing tests of tubular steel piles of the diameter
2.0 m fabricated by spirally welding of 20 mm
steel plates from coils,and employed in the
construction of the foundation of the new Galata
Bridge which will span the deep water harbour of
the Golden Horn in Instanbul»Turkey.The piles
were designed to carry working loads up to
12 000 kN in end bearing and to fulfil a crite­
rion for the maximum allowable settlement pres­
ented as residual settlement of 10 mm after the
second application of the test load of 1.5 times
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the working load.
After the execution of very detailed soil in­
vestigations ,described particularly in the paper,
a decision was made to use steel piles closed
ended with steel conical shoes which are strengt­
hened with concrete and driven to end-bearing
cobbly gravel or to weathered crust of bedrock.
The selection of the h a m m e r ,namely,Delmag D100
Diesel Hammer was made after a driveability
analysis had been per formed.Pile load tests have
shown that the settlement of the pile head was
much below the maximum allowable value.
A very valuable part of the paper concerns
the course of the pile driving and particularly
the description of the relaxation effect obser­
ved during driving.lt seems necessary to pay
more attention to this problem in the future
particularly that it is connected with the soil
type,pile diameter and pile hammer maximum
energy output.It is also expected that a consid­
erable influence on the relaxation effect has
the dilatancy particularly in dense sands and
silts,as well as the negative pore pressures
developed during driving.
The papers on bored piles deal with different
aspects of the pile installation,pile bearing
capacity and pile load tests with some details
concerning the soil investigations related to
the estimation of pile type and Its bearing
capacity.
First paper of this group written by SORIC,
G R U B I C ,HORVAT and SKACAN informs about 1040
large-diameter bored piles for which there have
been made soil investigations covering penetra­
tion tests»borings and pile load tests made on
test piles of 800 mm diameter and 20 tO 25 m
d e p t h .Unfortunately no information is given on
the final pile diameter and the adapted instal­
lation method.
The pile bearing capacity prediction is based
on results of soil investigation mainly on cone
penetration tests tip resistance q .In the paper
an information is given about the adapted
correlation parameter o'. and the estimated ulti­
mate bearing capacity s Qu ^t .Pile load test
results indicate,h o w e v e r , a difference be­
tween ultimate bearing capacities estimated
using cone penetration tests and those obtained
from load tests.It is concluded that these dif­
ferences reaching 40 % have been caused mainly
by artesian ground water pressures and the a-
dapted pile installation method.Unfortunately
the paper does not contain information on the
pile placing technology and on the ground water
and excavation levels,as well as the phenomena
of heaving of excavation bottom mentioned in the
paper.It would be valuable to discuss the mutual
dependencies,however,after presentation of more
details.
The second paper on bored piles written by
TOH,001,CHIU,CHEE and TING presents a very pre­
cise and valuable description of investigations
and analyses of weathered sedimentary formation,
namely,the Kenny Hill Formation appearing in
Malaysia.These investigations,made to obtain
design parameters for bored piles of diameters
from 0.75 to 1.22 m,concerned the estimation of
correlation of N SpT values (N in Standard Pene­
tration Tests) with depth,the correlation
of NgpT values with pressuremeter modulus values
E , the grain size distribution and load-
settlement curves in plate load tests using
1 m diameter p l a t e s .Load-deformation behaviour
of piles was obtained from pile load tests car­
ried out on 1 instrumented micropile and 8 in­
strumented bored cast-in-place piles.The ana­
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lyses described in the paper were performed to
determine the relation between the ultimate
shaft resistance and ultimate base resistance
as functions of the average NgpTvalue along the
pile shaft and N gpT value at the pile base
r e spectively.In addition from backanalysis
of the piles using the linear elastic finite
element method the relation between elastic
modulus Es and NgpT was estimated,as well as the
relative proportions of base and
shaft resistance within the linear part of the
load-deformation curve.
From all investigations and analyses it was
concluded that for the considered soil types the
Standard Penetration Test is the reliable method
for the design of bored piles in the Kenny Hill
F ormation,however,with some remarks concerning
the values of the shaft and base resistance fac­
tors. It is also concluded that unless there is
considerable confidence in overcoming the dif­
ficulties of cleaning the pile base,bored piles
should be designed to carry loads by shaft re­
sistance only.
The last conclusion is very important and
should be the subject of further investigations,
particularly from the point of view of pile in­
stallation method.
G e n e r a l l y ,the paper indicates the need of ex­
amination of the relation between Standard Pene­
tration Tests results and the bored pile bearing
capacity in all its aspects.The way of this ex­
amination presented in the papaer can be widely
recommended and accepted,however,under one con­
dition ,namely ,that the pile-placing technology
and all detailed pile data are well known.
The third paper on bored piles concerns the
settlement of group of large-diameter piles and
is prepared by Y A M A S H I T A ,KAKURAI and MATSUMA.
Generally in the paper the method is proposed in
which a correction function is introduced into
the method based on Mindlin's first solution.
Assuming a variation in soil shear modulus
ratio around a bored pile at working load the
first radial distance is estimated at which the
vertical soil displacement becomes negligible,
and a second radial distance which indicates
the boundary of the area intensively affected
during the installation of bored piles.The first
distance represents the boundary within which
soil shows nonlinear behaviour.
The prediction of the settlement of a large-
diameter bored pile group at working load is
made by introduction to the Mindlin's solution
a correction function taking into account the
influence of pile installation and soil non-
linearity .The proposed correction function
consists of a straight line in the first distan­
ce and a parabola in the second and is based on
the observed by Cooke et al.(1980) results for
a three steel pile group (jacked piles) in Lon­
don clay.This correction function is applied to
five bored-pile group investigated by Kaino and
Aoki (1985).A simulation of the above test con­
cerning piles of 1.0 m diameter indicates that
the proposed method allows for the estimation
of the settlement behaviour of piles in the pile
group considering above all the reduction in
soil shear moduli adjacent to piles due to
boring.
Considering the statements given in the paper
and comparing them with statements presented in
the previous paper it is really required to es­
timate the distribution of working load between
shaft and base of the p i l e , h o we v e r ,under the
assumption that the soil rigidity around the
bored pile shaft in the radial direction is con­
siderably reduced due to soil softening caused
by boring.This might mean that one has to expect
not only considerable reduction of pile bearing
capacity,but also increase of settlement of the
pile at designed load.Thus it could be recom­
mended to apply the described method of settle­
ment estimation of large-diameter bored piles
to other cases and draw some generally valid
statements.
The above conclusions can be supported by the
next paper in which GEORGIADIS,PITILAKIS,TSOTSOS
and VALALAS present settlements of piles placed
under a liquid storage tank foundation.These
piles made as reinforced concrete bored piles
of 1.0 m diameter and 42.0 m length were instal­
led in soil consisting of several layers of soft
to stiff clay and clayey silt.
The measured settlements indicated an increase
of settlement to the pile group centre which
confirms the general tendency given in the meth­
od presented among others in the previous paper.
The computation of settlements of piles in the
foundation was based on a method which combines
the "t-z" analysis for single piles in axial
nonlinear springs and a pile group analysis for
elastic layered medium.The "t-z" curves give the
spring characteristics at several depths and the
load transfer-pile movement relationships.For
settlement predictions these relationships were
determined using approaches made by Coyle and
R e e s e ,1966;V i j a y vergiya,1977,and Kraft et al.,
1981.The results indicate that the predictions
made using all three approaches are quite satis­
factory although it can be stated that the most
accurate predictions were obtained from analysis
which utilized the approach given by Kraft et
a l . ,1981.
Analysing the approaches used in the paper in
comparison to the previous paper,a question
might be raised,namely,in which way the area
around the pile affected during installation is
taken into consideration or if really this area
has an influence on the bearing capacity and
settlements of piles of large diameter in a pile
group.An additional question concerns the real
characteristics of the pile from the point of
view of the relation between pile length and
pile diameter.lt can be stated that in all cases
this relation is larger than 20 which could mean
that in the reality the piles are working as
"normal" dimension piles and not large diameter
p i l e s .Particularly it concerns the last case
where the relation is equal to 42.
Taking the above into consideration it seems
to be necessary to define what is really a
large-diameter pile of course from the point of
view of the influence of its installation method
and the interaction with surrounding soil on the
bearing capacity and settlement of the single
pile and the pile group.
The above definition would be very useful when
considering the next paper written by KOUTSOFTAS
and REESE dealing with load tests on caissons of
2.3 to 2.5 m in diameter and of 20 to 28 m
length.These caissons were founded on decomposed
rock,namely,on decomposed mica schist and decom­
posed granite.The test results indicate that for
the caissons founded on decomposed mica schist,
the vertical loads (above the initial existing
loads) were essentially being transferred to the
base of the cais s o n s ,with practically no reduc­
tion due to skin friction,while the settlement
for a load o f 20 MN was of the range of 25 mm.
Another result was obtained for caissons on
weathered granite where a high frictional re­
sistance was observed,while the settlement for
an applied load of 20 MN was of the range of 5
mm.
A very valuable result of the described inves­
tigation concerns the possibilities of consider­
able high capacities for caissons founded on
weathered rock,as well as possibilities of pre­
diction of these capacities using parameters
estimated through introduction of rock parame­
ters obtained by means of adequate tests inclu­
ding load tests of earlier installed caissons.
The subsequent paper related to Session on
Large Diameter Piles is that from FENG,LIU and
HUANG and concerns the load transfer between
pile cap,rigid pile and soil.Considering the
pile cap as absolutely rigid a calculation of
additional stresses and settlements of the soil
under the cap is made.A distribution of force
between pile cap,pile tip and pile shaft is in­
troduced assuming a certain shape of the force-
displacement curves for the three parts based on
the theory of elasticity.After derivation of the
basic equation a verification of the calculation
method was made by a single pile,as well as pile
groups with c a p s ,although no information is giv­
en about the pile dimensions and pile cap.It
could be concluded that the part of load taken
over by the pile cap reached 30 % of the total
lo a d .
Analysing the proposed method it has to be
stressed that many trials existed of considering
pile caps as foundation slabs which could take
over loads from structures and transfer them to
the underlayed soil.As an example the so called
"compensated friction pile foundations" may be
mentioned (Zeevaert,1973) in which the founda­
tion structure was designed as a mat,permitting
the foundation slab to take subgrade reactions
corresponding to a fraction of the total load
of the st r u c t u r e ,and under allowable stress
conditions in the soil mass from the point of
view of permissible vertical displacement.lt
would be very valuable to compare the proposed
assumptions and solution with the conclusions
drawn in many papers published previously e.g.
Rezendiz and A u v i n e t ,1973.It seems also neces­
sary to consider the phenomena of negative skin
friction causing due to soil displacements addi­
tional loads on the pile equalizing normally the
eventual effect of load transfer to the soil
underlaying the foundation slab.
The last paper by BERTHELOT and CAPILLON con­
cerns the application of fibre concrete in deep
foundations»particularly in piles.A description
is given of the pile installation method,as well
as of the introduction of composite material
consisting of concrete and steel fibres type
60-100 Eurosteel which were corrugated fibres of
the length of 60 mm.It is generally stated that
the fibre concrete due to its high elasticity is
particularly suitable for piles which are loaded
with horizontal forces.
The paper presents the results of loading
tests of steel fibres of straight and corrugated
shape as well as fibre concrete beams of the
length of 3.6 m.The test results indicated that
the fibre concrete beams with Eurosteel fibres
present a high concrete elasticity and plasti­
city whilst the tensile strength of the concrete
reached 5 MPa.
Concerning fibre concrete piles called SOL-
FIBRES installed by using a soil auger it may
be stated that tests which have been made on
fibre pile of 0.5 m dia consisting of fibre
concrete with 30 kg fibres Eurosteel 60-100 per
cub.m have shown that the pile failed at 131 kN
while a classical pile also of 0.5 m dia rein­
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forced by 6 HA 16 (0.61 %) failed at 103 kN.
A general conclusion is drawn that the fibre-
concrete piles can deform without cracks three
times more than a classical concrete pile of the
same d i a m e t e r .This could mean that also the soil
reaction can be better mobilized giving the pos­
sibilities to apply these piles in earth-quake
zones.
It would be very interesting to prepare some
additional tests concerning the pile installation
method for arbitrary soil conditions and requi­
red in normal practice pile lengths.Also infor­
mations concerning the influence of the amount
of steel fibres on the deformation capacity of
the pile would be very useful.
Generally the paper can be treated as a very
valuable contribution to the introduction of
modern composite materials into foundation engi­
neering practice and particularly in piling.
3 TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION
It is very difficult to present on the basis of
eight papers all problems which concern the
large diameter piles.Therefore it is necessary
to mention also other questions which should be
discussed when considering generally the above
problem.
From the presented papers as well as from an
analysis of the situation in the field of large
diameter piles the topics for further discussion
can be defined as follows.
1. Definition of large diameter driven and
bored piles with special reference to diameter
dependency of shaft and base resistance.
2. Methods of prediction of shaft and base
resistance forces of large diameter piles:
a) based on inrsltu tests
b) based on laboratory tests
accounting for pile installation effects.
3. The relation of in-situ testing to bearing
capacity of large diameter bored piles consider­
ing the estimation of a critical depth.
4. Settlement and bearing capacity of large
diameter pile groups.
5. Group action affecting vertical piles under
horizontal loads.
6. Possibility of application of partial safety
factors to shaft and base resistance of large
diameter piles.
7. Improvement of the behaviour of bored piles.
8. Relaxation effect in driving of large dia­
meter piles.
9. Introduction of composite materials for
large diameter piles.
The above topics are also supported by state­
ments that the design of pile foundation is still
based,to a large extent,on empirical rules (Ja-
miolkowski and Lancellota,1988;Van Weele,1988),
particularly that the behaviour of a pile under
applied load strongly depends on the stress field
induced in the soil by placing the piles.As this
stress field canbe quite different for a driven
(displacement) pile and a pile placed after bor­
ing a hole,it is obvious that bored and driven
piles generally show a different behaviour under
applied loads (De Be e r , 1988).
Assuming that each type of pile requires a
different approach,it is suggested to correlate
directly the result of in-situ test with the
mobilized base resistance at a given relative
settlement.lt should be,however,remembered that
the relationships e.g. between critical base re­
sistance and the cone resistance from CPT's are
different for pile diameter larger than 1.25 m
(Reese Hnd O ' N e i l l ,1988).In addition it is very
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important to use of CPTs,made in the vicinity of
the pile for checking the quality of the bored
pile.Generally»methods for the prediction of the
ultimate bearing capacity of bored piles from a
SPT or CPT result are recently prepared and elab­
orated (Lopes and L a provitera,1988).
The above listed topics concern also the pile
groups.It can be stated that since the pile in­
stallation changes the deformation and compres­
sibility characteristics of the soil only within
a few pile diameters from the foun d a t i o n ,the
total settlement and other movements of a bored
pile group with customary pile spacing of two to
four pile diameters must be estimated in a dif­
ferent way,e.g. as for an equivalent pier foun­
dation (Meyerhof,1988) considering e.g.the real
distribution of loads between piles in a pile
group under horizontal loads (Franke,19 8 9 a ) .It
is here important to improve the behaviour of
bored piles while the safety of pile foundation
will be dependant of the safety against failure
of the soil round the pile (Franke,19 8 9 b ) .
Generally all the discussion topics presented
above should allow the better understanding of
the interaction between the pile and soil for
different pile installation methods and for dif­
ferent directions of loading.
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