Static and Economic Analyses of Driven Steel H-Piles in IGM Using the WyoPile Database

Abstract

Intermediate geomaterials (IGMs) have been long recognized as highly variable geomaterials that introduce challenges during the design and construction of driven piles. Because of the lack of a well-organized and high-quality-assured database of driven piles in IGMs, adequate studies are limited to establishing trustworthy design methodologies and to calibrate load and resistance factor design procedures. Static analysis (SA) methods formulated using pile data on soils are currently employed for estimating resistances of piles driven in IGMs. An electronic database (WyoPile) enriched with complete data for static and dynamic analysis of 35 steel H-piles driven in IGMs was developed. WyoPile was used to evaluate the efficiency of five SA methods for estimation of shaft resistance and end bearing of piles driven in IGMs. Current SA methods are proven to be inefficient in the estimation of both shaft resistance and end bearing due to relatively low efficiency factors. Moreover, an economic impact study reveals the overestimation of pile resistances by current SA methods using the AASHTO recommendations, which result in cost overruns associated with driving additional steel piles with an average of 0.085 kg/kN (0.84 lb/kip) of the applied load.