Interpretation of Pile Acceptance Criteria from Deficient Data

Abstract

The Indian Standard, IS:2911 (Part 4) and the Australian Standard, AS 2159-1995, specify the acceptance criteria for piles tested in compression. These criteria can be applied only if the settlement of the pile is large (10% of the pile diameter in the case of the Indian Standard and 50 mm in the case of the Australian Standard). When the load-settlement data are deficient, it is desirable to make a reasonably good estimate of the loads corresponding to each criterion by a proper interpretation of the available data. The objective of the present study is to develop procedures that can be used for this purpose. The study shows that, for piles transmitting >65% of their load through skin friction, the loads corresponding to each criterion of the Australian and Indian Standards and the load-settlement curve can be predicted reasonably well by using the hyperbolic method and the modified hyperbolic method, if the load-settlement data are available up to a minimum settlement of 5% of the pile diameter.