Geotechnical Investigation Engineering Report 1

Additional Geotechnical Investigation for Badra Oil Field

Kut, Iraq

7.5 Deep Foundations

7.5.1 General Design Considerations

In case of excessive pressure then deep foundations can be used instead of rectangular and
raft foundations. Piles are the appropriate foundations to safely transfer the imposed loads to
the bearing strata. Drilled shafts (reinforced concrete piles) shall be studied in this section.

Axial pile capacity (under both compression and tension), lateral capacity, P-Y and T-Z curves
of the drilled reinforced concrete piles were carried out using ALLPILE v7 software, taking into
consideration the following:

Pile diameter is 600mm (provided by the Client)

Pile length is 10m and 15m (provided by the Client)
Fixed and free head connectivity (provided by the Client)
Soil design parameters are shown in Illustrations I 6
In compression, the factors of safety are 2 for skin friction, and 3 for end bearing.
In tension, the factor of safety is 3 for skin friction, while end bearing is eliminated.
Critical depth is 20 times the pile diameter.
Vertical settlement is limited to 1% of the diameter B.
Unit skin friction fs limited to 100kPa
Unit end bearing qp limited to 12,000kPa

Detailed output design generated by ALLPILE software in graphical format are included in
Appendix D and summarized in Illustration I 7 comprising the following:

Pile Properties and Soil Conditions

Allowable Pile Capacity vs Depth (Compression and tension)
Soil Stress, Side Resistance, Axial Force vs Depth (ultimate load condition)
Vertical Compression load vs Total Settlement
T-Z curves (shear resistance versus shear displacement for various layers)
Lateral load vs. Deflection
P-Y curves (lateral force versus lateral deflection for various layers)

In addition to the piles capacities presented above, the working loads should not exceed the
permissible stresses in the concrete itself. Generally, the permissible stresses in the concrete
are taken in the order of 25%Fc to 33%Fc as per BS and AASHTO respectively. Depending
on the diameter, the following maximum loads satisfy the permissible BS stresses criteria in
C30 and C3550 class concrete:

Table 7.5.1: Permissible Stresses in C30 and C35 Class Concrete (BS criteria)

Pile Area C30 C35

Pile Diameter
(m2) Max Load Max Load
(m)
(kN) (kN)
0.60 0.283 2123 2476

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Geotechnical Investigation Engineering Report 1
Additional Geotechnical Investigation for Badra Oil Field
Kut, Iraq

Prior to piles construction, it is highly recommended to carry out static pile load tests on
preliminary test piles. The piles should be fully instrumented with strain gauges.
Instrumentation is needed to establish load distribution along pile length and accordingly
check the calculated skin friction and end bearing pressure values. Final pile design should
be prepared by a specialist/piling contractor prior to construction.

7.5.2 Negative Skin Friction

Negative skin friction on pile structural capacity and settlement shall be to be assessed for
piles installed on soft clays. However, the mechanism of negative skin friction on pile is still
not well understood and often various pile design codes/guides provide very different
recommendations on negative skin friction considerations. Some common scenarios of pile
failure due to negative skin friction are:

1. Lightly loaded short piles supporting drains or other light structures in soft clay. In
such cases, the pile may have little resistance left after deduction of negative skin
friction from the pile bearing capacity.
2. Piles supporting bridge abutments in soft soils. As the soft soil beneath the abutment
would settle considerably due to new abutment fill, the settling soils would drag the
abutment piles down resulting in negative skin friction on the piles.
3. Drawdown of water table due to adjacent soil excavation, under-consolidating soils,
and settlement of soils under newly placed fills at a site.

Therefore the encountered soil conditions of the under study area (stiff to hard clays),
negative skin friction scenario is not anticipated and thus its effects were not considered in the
present design.

7.5.3 Group Effect of Piles

When drilled shafts are installed in groups, the effect of excavating and concreting boreholes,
adjacent to the drilled shafts already in place, may reduce unit resistance in the soil along the
completed drilled shafts. Therefore, capacities of individual drilled shafts within a group tend
to be lower than the corresponding capacity of an isolated shaft. To account for this, a
reduction coefficient should be applied to the capacity of single piles provided on the
Illustration I 7.

In practice, piles groups having center-to-center spacing (d) above 2.5*D (D is the pile
diameter) are considered to have the same capacity as individual piles. Therefore, the
reduction coefficient is usually applied in cases where d/D is less than or equal to 2.5.

The reduction coefficient is suggested according to Converse-Labarre formula for piles

installed in homogenous strata (Fascicule62 Titre5 - 1992 after Bolin 1941). This factor
depends on the group shape and piles spacing to diameter ratio (d/D). Table 7.6.2 below
summarizes the reduction coefficients recommended for different group shapes and d/D ratio.

13-0007-IQ ER/01/01 Page 35 of 48

Geotechnical Investigation Engineering Report 1
Additional Geotechnical Investigation for Badra Oil Field
Kut, Iraq

Table 7.5.3: Reduction Coefficient for Pile Capacity due to grouping effect

Group Type Pile Group Shape
d/D = 2.0 d/D = 2.5

Type I 0.85 0.90

Type II 0.80 0.85

Type III 0.70 0.75

Type IV 0.65 0.70

7.5.4 Allowable pile Capacity

The allowable pile capacities for Train A/B area are summarised in the table 7.5.4 below:

Table 7.5.4 Pile Capacities for drilled and grouted Pile for Train A/B Area

LATERAL-FREE LATERAL-FIXED
AXIAL HEAD HEAD

Allowable Allowable Allowable Allowable Allowable Allowable Allowable

Pile Vertical
Length Capacity Vertical Capacity Lateral Lateral Lateral Lateral
Dia. Settlement
(m) Compression Settlement Tension Capacity Deflection Capacity Deflection
(mm) (mm)
(kN) (mm) (kN) (kN) (mm) (kN) (mm)

340 12 670 12
10 650 2 6 370
250 6 490 6
600
340 12 670 12
15 1350 5 6 520
250 6 490 6

Note: Group effect of the pile is not considered

Cut-off level of the pile is 0.0 m below ground level

13-0007-IQ ER/01/01 Page 36 of 48

Geotechnical Investigation Engineering Report 1
Additional Geotechnical Investigation for Badra Oil Field
Kut, Iraq

8.0 Coefficient of Lateral Earth Pressures

Earth pressure coefficients are presented in the following table without considering any friction
between soil and retaining structures. Jackys formula was used to derive K0. The
recommended coefficients of lateral earth pressures corresponding to each friction angle are
summarized in the following table.

Table 8.0: Coefficients of Lateral Earth Pressure.

Layer K0 Ka Kp
Deg. (Value) (Value) (Value)

Mixtures of stiff to
very stiff CLAY and
medium dense to 30 0.50 0.33 3.00

very dense SAND

Medium dense
37 0.40 0.25 4.02
GRAVEL

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