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Abstract: This paper presents a case history describing measurements made during the installation and load testing of groups of five,
closely spaced, precast concrete piles in a soft clay-silt. The test results extend the presently limited set of reported high-quality data for
pile groups at field scale and allow assessment of the reliability of existing numerical and analytical predictive approaches. Full scale
maintained compression and tension load tests on groups as well as tests on single 共reference兲 piles and an individual test on a pile within
a pile group enable the effects of multiple pile installations and interaction between piles under load to be assessed. The results are
compared with existing simple methods of pile group analysis and with other case histories reporting results on small pile groups. A
simple expression to evaluate pile group stiffness efficiency is proposed.
DOI: 10.1061/共ASCE兲1090-0241共2006兲132:3共401兲
CE Database subject headings: Pile groups; Static loads; Load tests; Stiffness; Driven piles; Axial loads.
Introduction lateral total stress changes on a group pile during and after instal-
lation. The load test data reported allow investigation of the
The process of installation of displacement piles is well known to influence of the loading magnitude and direction 共tension or com-
cause substantial changes to the in situ effective stress regime, pression兲 on the pile group response and on the effects of soil
which subsequently undergoes further significant changes as pore disturbance on interaction between piles. The field results are
pressures dissipate and total stresses equalize, e.g., Whittle and compared with other reported full scale tests on pile groups and
Baligh 共1988兲; Lehane and Jardine 共1994兲. The stress regime after with the pile group stiffnesses calculated using conventional
methods of pile group analysis.
equalization, which controls the long term pile performance, is
difficult to estimate with any degree of certainty because of its
dependence on a large variety of clay properties as well as on the
pile type and pile installation procedure 共Jardine et al. 1998兲. The Soil Conditions at Test Site
stress state surrounding a displacement pile group is even more
The program of pile tests was performed at a site on the shores
difficult to quantify due to additional changes that take place dur-
of Belfast Lough 共10 km north-east of Belfast city center兲 in
ing installation of closely spaced piles. Furthermore, the response
Northern Ireland. The general ground properties at the site are
of a pile group during loading is also influenced significantly by
described in more detail by Lehane 共2003兲 and are summarized in
the degree of interaction between piles of shear stresses acting on
Fig. 1; this figure includes profiles of water contents and Atter-
their shafts and normal stresses at their bases. berg limits 共w, w p, and wL兲, cone penetration test end resistance
There is, however, a dearth of available field data for displace- 共qc兲, in situ peak vane strength 共su vane兲, seismic cone shear wave
ment pile groups in clay to assist understanding of the relative velocities 共Vs兲, and cone pressuremeter limit pressures 共plim兲. The
importance of the range of factors that affect their performance. 6-m-long test piles employed were embedded primarily in a layer
This data shortage, coupled with the insights provided to single of soft, estuarine, lightly overconsolidated, organic clay-silt that
pile behavior by well controlled instrumented pile tests 共e.g., see extended from a depth of 1.7 to about 9 m. The stratigraphy close
Randolph 2003兲, prompted the program of full scale pile group to ground level comprised 1 m of top soil interbedded with gravel
load tests described in this paper. Results obtained during and fill overlying 0.7 m of medium dense fine organic silty sand. The
subsequent to the installation of three pile groups and correspond- groundwater level varied with both season and tides within the
ing single 共reference兲 piles are presented. These include measure- range 1.0 to 1.5 m below ground level. Average properties for the
ments of pore pressures in the soil in the vicinity of a group and estuarine clay-silt are summarized in Table 1.
Consolidated undrained triaxial tests on 54-mm-diameter thin-
1 walled piston samples of the in situ material incorporated a pre-
Lecturer, Dept. of Civil Engineering, National Univ. of Ireland,
Galway, Ireland; formerly, PhD Student, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. scribed anisotropic consolidation and swelling path. Observed
2
Associate Professor, School of Civil and Resource Engineering, undrained stress paths were typical of a lightly overconsolidated
Univ. of Western Australia; formerly, Senior Lecturer, Trinity College, clay and indicated peak undrained strength ratios 共sutc / ⬘v兲 of
Dublin, Ireland. ⬇0.4 at a low axial strain level 共⬇0.5% 兲. The shear stiffness
Note. Discussion open until August 1, 2006. Separate discussions measured in these tests showed a characteristic strong reduction
must be submitted for individual papers. To extend the closing date by
with increase in strain level above 0.001%. Further characteristics
one month, a written request must be filed with the ASCE Managing
Editor. The manuscript for this paper was submitted for review and pos- of the clay-silt relevant to the interpretation of the pile tests are
sible publication on July 1, 2004; approved on April 22, 2005. This paper summarized as follows:
is part of the Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineer- 1. Laboratory oedometer tests and piezocone dissipation tests
ing, Vol. 132, No. 3, March 1, 2006. ©ASCE, ISSN 1090-0241/2006/3- indicated that, despite the high silt content of the material, its
401–410/$25.00. clay fraction is sufficiently influential to lead to permeabili-
ties and coefficients of consolidation that are more typical of Table 1. Average Soil Properties between 1.7 and 6.5 m
a clay than a silt. Property Value
2. The high organic content is responsible for the high plasticity Clay fraction 共primarily illite and chlorite兲 20± 10%
index of 35± 5% 共for a material with constant volume fric-
Fines content 90± 5%
tion angle ⬘cv = 33°兲, and reduces to ⬇20% upon removal of
Organic content 11± 1%
the organics. This reduced plasticity, according to Hight et al.
Plasticity index 35± 5%
共1992兲, provides a better indication of the mechanical char-
Water content 60± 10%
acteristics of the material.
Liquidity index 0.8± 0.1
3. ⬘ 兲 varies from ⬇30°
The material’s residual friction angle 共res
Vertical yield stress 55± 5 kPa
at shallow depths to between 19 and 25° below 3 m. These
Yield stress ratio 共YSR ⬅ OCR兲 1.1 to 2
⬘ values are likely to be closely comparable to the inter-
res
Peak vane strength 22± 2 kPa
face friction angles between the material and the 共rough兲
Friction angle in triaxial compression 33.5± 2°
concrete piles 共Ramsey et al. 1998兲.
Fig. 6 that only slightly higher excess pore pressure ratios Equalization Data
surround the pile group and that these extend to a larger radial
distance. This trend is in keeping with that inferred by Bozozuk et Excess pore pressures recorded by piezometers in the vicinity of
al. 共1978兲 who presented data for a group containing 116 piles the tension pile group 共G2 / T兲 indicated that 50% dissipation took
共with s / Req = 10兲 and report a relatively constant and significant about 1 week and that a period of 3 months was required to
excess pore pressure ratio extending from the group edge to a ensure that at least 90% of the excess pressures had dissipated.
distance of 30Reqbeyond this edge. It therefore appears that ex- Therefore, as may be seen from the times allowed for equalization
cess pore pressures generated in the vicinity of a given pile in a listed in Table 2, all static load tests on group piles were con-
group due to a neighboring installation are restricted by the fact ducted at or very close to full equalization. The estimated re-
that the soil is at the critical state condition 共constant mean effec- quired time for 90% dissipation of 25 days for the single piles
tive stress兲 and that the installation of an additional group results 共which was inferred from reported case history data in similar
only in an accumulation of excess pore pressures beyond the soils, e.g., Lehane and Jardine 1994兲 is significantly less than the
“plastic zone.” minimum allowed equalization time of 82 days.
Fig. 6. Radial variation of maximum excess pore pressures Fig. 7. Comparison of performance of corner piles in test G2 / T
Fig. 8. Measured load-displacement responses for single and group piles: 共a兲 initial 5 mm displacement; and 共b兲 up to 25 mm displacement
␣ = w/wc 共3兲
Fig. 11. Load test on corner pile of G3 Fig. 12. Interaction factors: Measurements and predictions
Koizumi and Ito 共1967兲 Organic silty clay 9 5.55 300 3 2.4 0.42
Briaud et al. 共1989兲 Medium dense sand 5 9.15 273 3 1.5 0.6
This paper Soft organic clayey silt 5 6 282 2.6 1.4 0.48
The best-fit correlation to the database was found to be a 0.45 was observed in both tension and compression loading
modified form of Eq. 共2兲, which incorporates the number of piles for applied loads up to 80% of the ultimate capacity.
共n兲 2. This g value is, however, almost double the value deter-
mined from a linear elastic calculation approach, due to the
g = 共Dg/D兲0.66/n 共4兲 overprediction by elastic approaches of interaction factors.
Eq. 共4兲 is seen in Fig. 13 to provide an excellent representation of 3. A load test on a single pile in a group revealed no evidence
the database, which incorporates a relatively wide range of pile of a significant change in the stiffness of the in situ soil,
group types 共and also one driven pile group in sand兲. The relative suggesting that, for the typical pile group spacing installed,
success of this expression, over other empirical expressions such the response of driven and bored pile groups are comparable.
as Eq. 共2兲, is believed to be because its form captures the reduced 4. The sharp decrease in interaction factors with distance from a
operational stiffness of the soil for pile groups compared to single pile cannot be predicted using linear elasticity and therefore
piles. Clearly further data on group performance are required to any realistic prediction of pile group response needs to
validate the form of Eq. 共4兲. incorporate the influence of soil stiffness linearity.
5. The paper presents an alternative expression to evaluate g
based on available case history data. This expression is seen
to be a substantial improvement on existing empirical ex-
Conclusion
pressions and on efficiencies derived from linear elastic
analyses.
A new case history reporting the performance of small displace-
ment pile groups in lightly overconsolidated clay-silt has been
presented, showing the following.
1. Although the capacity efficiency for a group of five piles Acknowledgments
with s / B = 2.8 was a little less than unity, the measured stiff-
ness efficiency 共g兲 is significantly less. A mean g value of The writers would like to acknowledge the support provided by
Lowry Piling 共Lagan Group兲 and the ICE R&D Enabling Fund.
The immense contribution of all technical staff at Trinity College
Dublin is also gratefully acknowledged.
References