Deep Foundations

When deep foundations are employed

• when the soil strata immediately beneath the structure are not
capable of supporting the load with tolerable settlement or
adequate safety against shear failure.

• Deep Foundations mainly 2 types,

Pile foundations
Piers or caissons
Caissons
• caisson, pier & drilled shaft - all refer to a cast-in-place pile generally
having a diameter of 750 mm or more, with or without steel r/f &
with or without an enlarged bottom.

Caissons or drilled shaft

Pile Foundation
Pile Foundations
• Piles are long, slender structural members used to transmit loads
applied at it top to the ground.
• Classification based on following criteria
1. mode of installation (driven or bored)
2. degree of soil displacement during installation
3. their size (large diameter, small diameter)
4. pile material (concrete, steel, timber and composite)
 Timber pile Pre-cast concrete pile

Cast in-situ concrete pile

Steel pile
 Length Load Advantages &
Pile Type Characteristics
(m) (kN) Disadvantages
Straight, sound, no •cannot withstand
Timber damages in 10-20 300-500 excessive driving stresses
saturated soil •low ultimate load
•can withstand high
driving stresses
Pipe pile or H-pile, •high load carrying
Steel 15-60 300-1100 capacity
can be spliced
•Expensive, high level of
noise and corrosive
• can experience hard
Cast & cured before
Precast driving
transporting to site, 10-15 300-3000
concrete • corrosion resistant
can be pre-stressed
• difficult to transport
•cheap, easy to extend
Concrete is cast in •difficult to splice after
Cast in-
the hole, can be 5-20 200-500 concreting
situ pile
cased or uncased •casing may damage
during driving
Cast In-Situ Piles
1. Bored and cast in-situ piles
• Bored & cast in-situ piles are formed within a drilled
borehole.
• During the drilling process, a temporary sections of steel cylindrical
casing are advanced along with drilling process to provide required
support.
• Once the full depth of the borehole is reached, casing is gradually
withdrawn, reinforcement cage is placed & concrete is pumped.

• For very deep boreholes - installation of many sections of temporary

casing can be an expensive and slow process.

• Hence, bentonite slurry is used to support the walls.

• If soil is free standing over the depth drilled, hole is drilled dry.

• If not, bentonite slurry is placed to prevent caving of the hole

• Level of slurry in the drilling hole must always be higher than GWT
level - to ensure a positive flow from drill hole to soil through
borehole wall.

• When slurry stands in open hole, slurry starts flowing horizontally into
soil, during this process, bentonite particles accumulate on the wall
and form a thin cake that seals the hole from incoming or outgoing
water.
Driven Cast in-Situ Piles
• These are also kind of driven piles.
• Steel casing is driven into ground with a shoe at the bottom.
• These piles are formed in a relatively similar manner to
the bored piles, except that casing is driven to full depth
by a pile driver, rather than advanced in short sections as
hole is formed.
• Once the casing is driven to depth, the reinforcement cage is
• placed and the concrete poured to form the pile.
• Casing is gradually lifted as the concrete is poured.
Precast Concrete Piles
Pre tensioned concrete pile
Post Tensioned Concrete Piles
• Most important classification is based on the behaviour of pile once
installed
1. End Bearing
2. Friction
3. End bearing + Friction
End Bearing Piles

• When the upper soil layer is weak & is highly compressible to

transmit the load from superstructure, piles are used to transmit
the load to underlying bedrock by point bearing.
Friction Piles

• When bedrock is not found at a reasonable depth, piles resist the

load applied from structure by frictional resistance developed at
pile-soil interface (Friction piles).
Friction piles Bearing piles
Uplift Piles
• Used in foundations of tall chimneys , tall buildings, transmission
towers.
• Uplift is developed due to hydrostatic pressure or overturning
moment.
Laterally Loaded Pils
• Due to wind , seismic events.
Thank You !