Revisiting Methods for the Design of Rock Socketed Piles

Abstract

The three principal methods specifically developed for the design of rock socketed piles were originally presented in the 1980s. One of the methods is an empirical technique based on the normalized performance of many full-scale pile tests while the other two are based on numerical and analytical techniques. However, there appears to be no detailed assessment of how well each method can predict the performance of piles socketed into rock. This paper discusses the three methods and then compares their predictions for load-settlement with the results of several foundation load tests particularly referencing settlements that might be acceptable for serviceability. It is demonstrated that while all three methods can produce reasonable predictions of performance, one of them tends to overpredict performance while the other two appear to underpredict performance. Only one of the methods produces load-settlement curves that bear a reasonable similarity to the expected shape of actual load-settlement curves.