Effect of Friction Fatigue on Pile Capacity in Dense Sand

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a series of field tests performed to study the causes of friction fatigue experienced by displacement piles. Four instrumented model piles were installed at a dense sand test-bed site. The test series was designed to impose different levels of cyclic loading during pile installation. Static and cyclic load tests were subsequently performed to study the differences in the axial capacities developed for ostensibly monotonic and cyclic installations. The test results indicated that the mobilized horizontal effective stress regime that controls pile side friction primarily depends on the in situ sand state, as reflected by the cone penetration test (CPT)