Soil Plug Effect Prediction and Pile Driveability Analysis for Large-Diameter Steel Piles in Ocean Engineering

Long steel piles with large diameters have been more widely used in the field of ocean engineering. Owing to the pile with a large diameter, soil plug development during pile driving has great influences on pile driveability and bearing capacity. The response of soil plug developed inside the open-ended pipe pile during the dynamic condition of pile-driving is different from the response under the static condition of loading during service. This paper addresses the former aspect. A numerical procedure for soil plug effect prediction and pile driveabihty analysis is proposed and described. By taking into consideration of the pile dimension effect on side and tip resistance, this approach introduces a dimensional coefficient to the conventional static eqnihbrium equations for the plug differential unit and proposes an improved static equity method for the plug effect prediction. At the same time, this approach introduces a simplified model by use of one-dimensional stress wave equation to simulate the interaction between soil plug and pile inner wall. The proposed approach has been applied in practical engineering analyses. Results show that the calculated plug effect and pile driveabihty based on the proposed approach agree well with the observed data.

Study of LDBPs Shaft Skin Friction for Piles in Cohesiove Soils

The methodology of predicting pile shaft skin ultimate friction has been studied in a systematic way. In the light of that, the analysis of the pile shaft resistance for bored and cast in situ piles in cohesive soils was carried out thoroughly in the basis of field performance data of 10 fully instrumented large diameter bored piles (LDBPs) used as the bridge foundation. The undrained strength index μ in term of cohesive soils was brought forward in allusion to the cohesive soils in the consistence plastic state, and can effectively combine the friction angle and the cohesion of cohesive soils in undrained condition. And that the classical ' α method' was modified much in effect to predict the pile shaft skin friction of LDBPs in cohesive soils. Furthermore, the approach of standard penetration test (SPT) N value used to estimate the pile shaft skin ultimate friction was analyzed, and the calculating formulae were established for LDBPs in clay and silt clay respectively.

Vertical vibration of a large diameter pipe pile considering transverse inertia effect of pile

Considering the transverse inertia effect of pile, the vertical soil layer is studied. The wave propagations in the outer and inner soil dynamic response of a large diameter pipe pile in viscoelastic are simulated by three-dimensional elastodynamic theory and those in the pile are simulated by Rayleigh-Love rod theory. The vertical and radial displacements of the outer and inner soil are obtained by utilizing Laplace transform technique and differentiation on the governing equations of soils. Then, based on the continuous conditions between the pile and soils, the displacements of the pile are derived. The frequency domain velocity admittance and time domain velocity response of the pile top are also presented. The solution is compared to a classical rod model solution to verify the validity. The influences of the radii and Poisson ratio of pile on the transverse inertia effect of pile are analyzed. The parametric study shows that Poisson ratio and outer radius of pile have significant influence on the transverse inertia effect of large diameter pipe piles, while the inner radius has little effect.

Application of bi-directional static loading test to deep foundations

Bi-directional static loading test adopting load cells is widely used around the world at present, with increase in diameter and length of deep foundations. In this paper, a new simple conversion method to predict the equivalent pile head load-settlement curve considering elastic shortening of deep foundation was put forward according to the load transfer mechanism. The proposed conversion method was applied to root caisson foundation in a bridge and to large diameter pipe piles in a sea wind power plant. Some new load cells, test procedure, and construction technology were adopted based on the applications to different deep foundations, which could enlarge the application scopes of bi-directional loading test. A new type of bi-directional loading test for pipe pile was conducted, in which the load cell was installed and loaded after the pipe pile with special connector has been set up. Unlike the conventional bi-directional loading test, the load cell can be reused and shows an evident economic benefit.

Determination of large diameter bored pile's effective length based on Mindlin's solution

The calculation equation of large diameter bored pile＇s effective length is connected with its distribution of pile shaft resistance. Thus, there is a great difference between the calculation results under the different distributions of pile shaft resistance. Primarily, this paper summarizes the conceptualized mode of pile shaft resistance under the circum- stance that the soil surrounding the piles presents different layer distributions. Secondly, based on Mindlin＇s displacement solution and in consideration of the effect of pile diam- eter, the calculation equation is optimized with the assumption that the pile shaft resis- tance has a parabolic distribution. The influencing factors are analyzed according to the calculation result of effective pile length. Finally, combined with an engineering example, the calculation equation deduced in this paper is analyzed and verified. The result shows that both the Poisson ratio of soil and pile diameter have impacted the effective pile length. Compared with the Poisson ratio of soil, the effect of pile diameter is more significant. If the pile diameter remains the same, the effect of the Poisson ratio of soil to the effective pile length decreases as the ratio of pile elastic modulus and soil share modulus increases. If the Poisson ratio of soil remains the same, the effect of the pile diameter to the effective pile length increases as the ratio of pile elastic modulus and soil share modulus increases. Thus the optimized calculation result of pile effective length under the consideration of pile diameter effect is more close to the actual situation of engineering and reasonably practicable.