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International Conference on Case Histories in (1988) - Second International Conference on Case
Geotechnical Engineering Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Jun 1st
Khalil Al-Shafei
Aramco, Dahran, Saudi Arabia
Recommended Citation
Olson, Roy E. and Al-Shafei, Khalil, "Axial Load Capacities of Steel Pipe Piles in Sand" (1988). International Conference on Case
Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 52.
http://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icchge/2icchge/2icchge-session6/52
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)roceedings: Second International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering, June 1-5,1988, St. Louis; Mo., Paper No. 6.47
SYNOPSIS
The 1986 API method was used to predict the capacities of steel pipe piles, in predominently
cohesionless soils, for thirty three axial load tests. The ratio of calculated to measured
capacities (QC/QM) was found to range from 0.15 to 3.0 with a mean QC/QM of 0.74. Reconsideration
of the soil properties in terms of standard penetration resistances, made it possible to reduce the
scatter to the range of 0.65 to ·1.23 with a mean value of 0.93. The large errors previously
existing for short piles were eliminated. Analyses were equally accurate for piles in compression
and tension. The factor of safety required to reduce the probability of overloading to only 1% was
reduced from 4.5 to 1.5.
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reasonable predictions of axial pile capacity, Table 2 - Definitions of Relative Density
the difference between assumed and real values used Here
becomes of reduced interest. Of course,
extrapolation of such empirical values to Corrected
cases not previously covered with load tests, relative density N (blows/foot)
must be performed with caution. very loose . . . . . . . . . . . . 0- 4
loose................. 4 - 10
Use of Standard Penetration Test medium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 - 30
The API standard does not specify how dense . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . 30- 50
terms like "very loose" are to be defined. very dense . . . . . . . . . . . . 50+
Among the pile load tests used in this study,
the only measure of soil properties that was
available for all cases was a dynamic pene-
tration test, usually the "standard pene- Tip Capacity
tration test", N. Consequently, in spite of For open-ended steel pipe piles, the tip
the well known difficulties in measuring N, capacity was taken as the smaller of the tip
we chose to use N values in defining relative bearing capacity of a closed-ended pile and
density. the side shear capacity of a full plug.
Standard penetration resistances increase The tip capacity is considered to be a net
with depth because of the increasing over- capacity. Consequently, the weight of pile
burden pressure. When pile capacities are submerged in soil was included in the calcu-
correlated directly with N values, the N lations (Eq. 1). It had a minor influence on
values should not be corrected for this stress the results.
increase. However, in the API method, the Tip capacities vary near an interface if
increase in soil strength due to overburden the adjacent soil layers have properties that
pressure is accounted for directly in the differ significantly (Meyerhof, 1976).
equations so it should not be included again However, for the cases studied here, the
in the reported N values. In the absense of a properties of the cohesionless soils tended to
well documented method, we corrected the vary either smoothly, or erratically, with
measured N values using the recommendation of depth. For smooth variations, the interface
Peck, Hanson, and Thornburn (1974, Eq. 5.3, p. corrections seemed inappropriate. In the case
114) . The corrected N value is obtained by of erratic variations, the uncertainties in
multiplying the measured N value by CN where: the local N value directly below a pile tip
are large enough that an interface correction
CN = o. 77 loglo (20/a ' ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . (4) lacks significance. As a result, interface
corrections were not used.
and a' is the effective overburden pressure Closed-ended pipe piles were assumed to be
in units of tons per square foot. empty unless specified to be concrete-filled.
For soils ranging from gravel through Plug heights of 90% of the pile penetration
silt, we used definitions of relative density were assumed for open-ended pipe piles when
proposed by (Peck et al., 1974) for sands and plug heights were undefined. These assump-
(Table 2). tions are required when WP is evaluated, and
The relevant soil properties for an have a relatively minor effect on the calcu-
analysis can then be obtained by combining lated pile capacity.
data in Tables 1 and 2.
Definition·of Failure
The measured axial load capacities of the
piles (QM) were defined as the peak applied
Table 1 - Conditions Used in the API Method load. The ratio of the peak applied load to
the "defined" failure load (Davisson, 1973)
Pile Limit- Limit- ranged from 1.0 to 2.0 so the ratios QC/QM
Soil ing ing from load tests will depend significantly on
Friction Side Tip the choice of methods for defining QM, as well
Relative Stress Stress as on methods used to determine QC.
Density Soil deg. FLIM NQ QLIM
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) CASE HISTORIES
v l sa 15 1.0 8 40
1 sa-si Thirty three tests were selected for
m si analysis. Brief summary data are included
l sa 20 1.4 12 60 here to provide an indication of the types of
m sa-si data currently available. Selected data are
d si summarized in Table 3. All of the test piles
m sa 25 1.7 20 100 were steel pipe.
d sa-si
d sa 30 2.0 40 200 Arkansas River (Mansur and Hunter, 1970)
v d sa-si Piles were provided with exterior strain
d gv 35 2.4 50 250 gages encased in welded channels. Diameters
v d sa in Table 3 are equivalent diameters taking
into account the channels. The site was
Note: v l = very loose, l = loose, m = medium excavated to a depth of 20 feet prior to pile
d = dense, v d = very dense, sa = sand driving. The subsoils consisted mainly of
si = silt, gv = gravel poorly graded sand but there were strata of
silty sand, sandy silt, and silt. Data used
in this study came from borings made after
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Old River (Mansur and Kaufman, 1958) RESULTS OF ANALYSES
· The site was excavated to a depth of fifty
fe7t, over.an area of 100 feet by 150 feet, The results of analyses using the API (1986)
pr~or to p~le driving, and the water table
standard, but using values of N, corrected
was drawn down to about excavation depth. for overburden pressure, to classify the soil
S~bsoils were mostly silty sand and sandy
(Tables 1 and 2) are summarized in Table 4
s~lt over clean fine to medium sand, but with
and presented in Fig. 1.
shallow layers of silt and clay. Standard
penetration resistances increasing from 4 bpf Table 4 - Summary of Results of Analyses
near the surface (after excavation) to 80 bpf using the API Standard
near the pile tips. Four of the piles were
left empty, one (LTN 117) was filled with Tens. QC QM
concrete. Site LTN Camp. kips kips QC/QM
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~lorida (Olson and Dennis, 1982), the mean value of
The capacities of the Florida pile was QC/QM was still only 0.48. The data are
::>ver-predicted by 46%. The tip capacity of similar to those at Ogeechee River in that
this pile was· measured to be 28 kips whereas QC/QM was quite low for the shortest pile.
the calculated value was 563 kips. It seems
likely that the cleaning out of the pile TRIAL ANALYSES
~nloaded the soil at the tip. Thus, when the
pile was tested, the side shear developed at For each site, a set of trial analyses were
a deformation much less than required for the performed in which values of K, o , and NQ,
tip and the fraction of the ultimate tip were varied successively, and repeatedly,
bearing capacity that was developed was until the average value of the ratio of
probably small. The tip settlement at peak calculated to measured pile capacities
applied pile load was 0.62 inch. Estimated (QC/QM) was essentially 1.0.
settlements at failure for a pile (prestressed
tip) and pier are 0.4 inch and 3.5 inches, For sites involving only a single load test,
respectively. and in other sites when there were multiple
If the theoretical tip capacity is set soil layers, there are numerous combinations
equal to 28 kips, then QC/QM=0.67. of assumptions that all yield values of QC/QM
near one. The "best" combination was selected
Kansas City as the one that led to reasonable variations
For the Kansas City sites, capacities were in o and NQ as functions of sand density, with
rather uniformly overpredicted with QC/QM an effort made to find consistency between
averaging 1.41. sites as well as at single sites.
Oqeechee River
For the Ogeechee River tests, capacities Note
were underpredicted by a substantial amount
with an average QC/QM of 0.25 for compression ~ G open ended piles
tests, but the degree of underprediction
clearly varies with pile penetration as shown "c:l ~ closed ended piles
below: ~
4-1
2.0
QJ
0
Load Pile u
Test Penetration QJ A
Number feet QC/QM ~(/)
(/)
QJ
143 10 0.15 J:: 1.0
144 20 0.20
145 29 0.25 -5
146 39 0.27 ~
[il
147 49 0.39
0.0~_______.___________________________
Ras Tanajib
For Ras Tanajib, the sand was apparently 0 50 100 150 200
too dense to have its properties measured Standard Penetration Resistance, blows/foot
reliably using either the standard penetration
test or the quasi-static cone test. Further,
the required soil properties would be "off
scale" in the API design chart.
Fig. 2 Backcalculated Earth Pressure
Tokyo Coefficients in Terms of the Weighted
Part of the reason for the low values of Mean Standard Penetration Resistance.
QC/QM for the Tokyo tests was the use of a The weighting was performed in terms
different definition for the standard of the total calculated load transfer
penetration test. However, even after in each layer.
multiplying the Japanese N values by four
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The best-fit site values were then tabulated SASI 4 ( 5) (0.5) 4) ( 20)
and used as a starting point for general 10 10 (1. 0) 8) ( 40)
analyses. The general analyses involved 30 (15) (1. 4) 12) ( 60)
repeated trials where values of o, FLIM, NQ, 50 ( 25) (1. 7) 20) (100)
and QLIM were varied for each of six grain 100 ( 35) (2. 0) 40) (200)
size classifications (gravel through silt) 1000 ( 38) (2. 4) 60) (250)
and six ranges in N values. However, it
became clear that some of the soil categories SILT 4 ( 5) (0.3) 2) ( 10)
were not encountered, and that pile capaci- 10 10 (0.5) 4) ( 20)
ties were mainly governed by deep soil layers 30 15 (1. 0) 8) ( 40)
where the effective stresses were high, and 50 20 (1. 4) 12) ( 60)
these layers were predominently classified as 100 (25) (1. 7) 20) (100)
sand. Pile tips were not left in· silty soils 1000 (30) (2.0) 40) (200)
in any case so no empirical data could be
generated for values of NQ and QLIM in such
materials.
Table 6 - Summary of Results of Analyses
After the overall best-fit properties were using the Revised Method
determined, these values were tabulated and
it was found that there were inconsistencies Tens. QC QM
resulting from normal scatter and the small Site LTN Comp. kips kips QC/QM
size of the data base. The inconsistencies
were slightly smoothed out and a final table Arkansas 89 c 366 360 1. 02
of soil properties prepared (Table 5). River 95 c 686 560 1. 23
Numbers shown in parentheses are based on 100 c 463 450 1. 03
interpolation and extraplation, not on direct 102 c 460 500 0.92
data. Values of K were found to be the same 90 T 191 180 1. 06
in compression and tension and were given by 96 T 257 230 1.12
the following equations: 101 T 184 230 0.80
103 T 192 240 0.80
open ended K 0.16 + 0.012 N (6a) Old 112 c 861 750 1.15
River 114 c 639 750 0.85
closed ended K 0.70 + 0.012 N (6b) 116 c 734 700 1. OS
117 c 688 680 1. 01
The properties shown in Table 5, and values 120 T 319 400 0.80
of K in Eq. 6, were then used with the data 122 T 340 370 0.92
base to produce the results shown in Table 6 118 T 375 390 0.96
and Fig. 3. The mean value of QC/QM (antilog Ogeechee 143 c 198 200 0.99
of the mean of the logs of QC/QM) is now 0.93 River 144 c 386 480 0.80
and the scatter in QC/QM is reduced to the 145 c 440 630 0.70
range of 0.65 to 1.23. After correcting for 146 c 524 800 0.65
bias, a factor of safety of 1.5 would reduce 147 c 624 860 0.73
the probability of overloading to one per- 148 T 276 346 0.80
cent. Tokyo 242 c 356 370 0.96
244 c 59 68 0.87
245 c 334 310 1. 08
Table 5 Soil Properties Extracted from the Kansas City 341 c 210 188 1.12
Empirical Data Base. Properties shown in 342 c 241 218 1.11
parentheses are interpolated or extrapolated. Mustang Is. 353 T 460 455 1. 01
Florida 553 c 538 690 0.78
Soil N FLIM QLIM Muskegon 796 c 245 240 1. 02
Type bpf deg. ksf NQ ksf Louisville 805 c 239 280 0.85
804 T 110 110 1. 00
SAGV 4 ( 20) (1. 4) ( 12) ( 60) Ras Tanajib 1021 T 2565 2850 0.90
10 (25) {1. 7) ( 20) (100)
30 25 (2. 0) 150 230
50 (35) (2. 4) (200) ( 250)
100 40 3.5 250 300 It would not be difficult to change a few
1000 45 5.0 (250) (300) properties slightly and raise QC/QM precisely
to 1.00 but the small size of the data set
SAND 4 (15) (1. 0) ( 80) ( 40) and its inherent uncertainties make such
10 30 1.1 110 110 refinement inappropriate. In any case, use
30 35 2.3 120 190 of a "defined" failure point, as opposed to
50 35 2.6 140 190 the peak applied load, would raise values of
100 35 3.6 150 190 QC/QM substantially.
1000 40 3.6 220 650
The analyses used the same properties for
SISA 4 15 (1. 0) 8) ( 40) tension and compression tests. Average
10 10 (1. 4) 12) ( 60) values of QC/QM for sites with both comp-
30 15 (1. 7) 20) (100) ression and tension tests, are shown below.
50 25 (2. 0) 40) (200)
100 ( 35) (2. 4) ( 60) (250)
1000 38 (20. 0) (300) (600)
(/)
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