In Situ Test Research on Friction Resistance of Self-Anchored Test Pile

The traditional static load test method has been considered as the most direct and reliable method to determine the bearing capacity of single pile, but it has some disadvantages, such as inconvenient operation, laborious test, high cost, and being time-consuming. In this paper, a new type of pile testing method, self-anchored pile testing method, was proposed, and the in situ test was carried out for the first time. This method allows the upper and lower piles to provide force to each other and does not occupy other construction spaces. It had the advantages of simple operation and being economical and practical. Based on the Q-w curve, axial force distribution curve, and hyperbolic function model of load transfer, this paper studied the evolution law of friction of self-anchored test pile and the load transfer process of self-anchored test pile. The results show that the load transfer process of self-anchored pile-soil interface can be divided into three stages: elastic, elastic-plastic, and limit state. The friction of the upper and lower piles starts from the bottom of each pile and then gradually increases. The soil around the upper and lower piles gradually undergoes nonlinear deformation and shear failure, and the pile soil reaches the yield state. By analyzing the hyperbolic function model of load transfer, it shows that the hyperbolic function model can be better applied to the self-anchored test pile, which has reference value for the selection of the function model of self-anchored test pile in the future.

Pile Base and Shaft Capacity under Various Types of Loading

Pile bearing capacity is usually understood as the sum of the bearing capacities of the pile’s base and shaft. Nevertheless, the behaviour of the pile base and shaft can be different, depending on what testing method is used for the evaluation of the bearing capacity. In this paper, three different methods of pipe pile testing are introduced, which make it possible to evaluate the pile base and shaft bearing capacities. On the basis of the tests conducted on a laboratory scale and numerical simulations performed with the finite element method, different approaches to bearing capacity evaluation have been compared. As a result, some similarities and differences between the applied methods are presented.

Damping characteristics of full-scale grouped helical piles in dense sands subjected to small and large shaking events

A full-scale pile testing program was implemented using the large outdoor shake table at the University of California – San Diego. Nine steel helical piles with varying geometry were embedded in dense sand and tested individually and in 2×2 groups, comparing fixed and pinned pile head connections. The test piles were subjected to shake motions ranging from pulses and white noise to replicated earthquakes. Strain gauges attached to the exterior pile walls and accelerometers placed on the pile caps and within the soil provided data for analyzing the behavior of these piles. Foundation damping (herein soil–pile system) is a substantial parameter in seismic design of the foundation–structure. Therefore, the damping characteristics of the soil bed along with the combined soil–pile system consisting of single and grouped helical piles are discussed based on the experimental pulse, white noise, and shake excitations. Several methods, including logarithmic decrement, half-power bandwidth, and energy (equivalent) methods, were implemented to estimate the damping ratio over a range of strains. Based on the experimental data gathered from this study, the suitability and accuracy of different computational methods to determine damping ratio as well as the effect of type and location of instrumentation on the calculated damping ratio were evaluated.