FIELD EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF LOAD-DEFLECTION BEHAVIOR OF DRIVEN PILES IN SOFT BANGKOK CLAY

Abstract

This paper presents the details and preliminary results of full-scale lateral load tests on driven piles in Bangkok clay. Close-ended steel pipe piles of moderate size were installed into soft Bangkok clay. Strain gauges were attached on the surfaces of the piles at various locations along their length. The strain gauge outputs were employed to determine pile bending moments, deflections and external soil reactions. Lateral loads up to 10 ton were applied to these test piles. Maximum head displacements between 98-115 mm were observed. The locations of maximum moments shifted to greater depths with increasing lateral load, but they never exceeded a depth of 12B below the ground surface. The computer program LPILE with Matlock’s p-y model for soft clay over-predicted the actual load-head displacement relations. The Characteristic Load Method, however, predicted overly conservative values of head displacement, particularly for large magnitudes of lateral load.