A Method to Estimate Shaft and Base Responses of a Pile from Pile Load Test Results

Abstract

A practical method for estimating initial shaft and base stiffnesses and ultimate shaft and base resistances of a pile from pile load test results has been proposed. The method employs hyperbolic relationships for the non-linear responses of shaft and base resistances, which are solved using iterative procedures to arrive convergence. A large number of empirical correlations are reported in the literature but many-a-times they either under-estimate or overestimate the pile response. Similarly, numerical tools that can predict shaft and base resistances typically would depend on the expertise of the engineer and also based on various input parameters. Thus, the applicability of the tools therefore too is uncertain. The present method discussed in this paper, would help engineers to estimate shaft and base responses of the actual site using the initial Pile load test results. The analytical solutions of the method are discussed in detail and the proposed method is applied to few load – displacement data available from pile load test results to illustrate its efficacy.