Revisiting Methods for the Design of Rock Socketed Piles
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 146, Issue 12
Abstract
The three principal methods specifically developed for the design of rock socketed piles were originally presented in the 1980s. One of the methods is an empirical technique based on the normalized performance of many full-scale pile tests while the other two are based on numerical and analytical techniques. However, there appears to be no detailed assessment of how well each method can predict the performance of piles socketed into rock. This paper discusses the three methods and then compares their predictions for load-settlement with the results of several foundation load tests particularly referencing settlements that might be acceptable for serviceability. It is demonstrated that while all three methods can produce reasonable predictions of performance, one of them tends to overpredict performance while the other two appear to underpredict performance. Only one of the methods produces load-settlement curves that bear a reasonable similarity to the expected shape of actual load-settlement curves.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request (load-settlement data, spreadsheets).
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 146 • Issue 12 • December 2020
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 6, 2019
Accepted: Jul 27, 2020
Published online: Oct 14, 2020
Published in print: Dec 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Mar 14, 2021
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