Load Tests on Tubular Piles in Coralline Strata

Abstract

At a coral reef site on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia, load tests were performed on 1,422 mm diam tubular steel piles to verify pile design compression and tension capacities predicted by calculations. Although two tests were planned at separate site locations, five were performed (two on test pile A, and three on test pile B) due to the test results disproving some of the calculation assumptions. Test pile A was installed open‐ended and the test results concluded: For a coring pile, the measured compression capacities had reasonable agreement with those calculated (