The axial capacity of open-ended pipe piles is influenced by the degree of soil plugging that occurs during pile driving. Research on this topic has been performed over an extended period to quantify the relationship between soil plugging and pile axial capacity. However, the majority of the proposed approaches have used model pile tests in the laboratory that may have scale effects and may not reflect real field conditions. In this paper, new relations are presented to estimate the influence of soil plug ratio on the shaft friction factor â and end bearing factor Nq for driven piles in medium dense silty sands. The work is based on axial capacity measurements of 110 piles by performing PDA tests, CAPWAP analyses, and measurement of the soil plug length of 1,303 open-ended steel pipe piles.
Osama Safaqah, Subba R. Gudavalli and Spencer S. Jeon
Keywords: driven piles, soil plug, axial capacity
Publisher: DFI