Abstract:
Pile foundations, either precast or cast-in-situ, are popular for usage worldwide in many important and costly projects such as bridges in transportation networks, or jetties in harbor areas, etc. In addition, the stability and safety of such strategic structures count to a great extent on the serviceability of the carrying foundations system. Thus, the integrity of the soil-pile foundation systems governs sharply the service life of the supported structures.
Based on such complexity of modeling the problem, it may be beneficial to use field tests results such as PDA tests and CAPWAP analysis to give a close estimate of the actual piles lateral capacity. Such results can act as proof testing, providing confirmation that the expected capacities assumed in design are, in fact, available in the field.
Thus, based on accumulative results of PDA-CAPWAP tests in different types of soil for different types of piles and by modeling the soil pile-system and asymptotically loading laterally till critical displacements are achieved, a stochastic equation is derived to correlate the piles' lateral capacities to available geotechnical information and PDA-CAPWAP tests. This is based on the assumption that the resistance to penetration can be divided into lateral and vertical components.Â
1 Senior Geotechnical Engineer, P.E., KS Engineers, P.C., Mount Laurel, NJ, USA mmikaeel@kseng.com
2 lecturer  Assistant, Construction & Building Eng. Dept., Arab Academy for Science & Technology & Maritime Transport AASTMT., andrew.gouda@aast.edu