Assessment of Several Nominal Resistance Interpretation Criteria for Drilled Foundations
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 148, Issue 2
Abstract
Agreeing on the nominal resistance (aka. capacity) derived from any load-settlement curve requires the use of an interpretation criterion. Few of the currently available criteria have been originally designed for drilled foundations despite the increasing use of such piles for supporting infrastructure projects. The performance of 16 interpretation criteria used in current geotechnical practice was assessed using a database of 194 load tests conducted on drilled shafts. Their performance was evaluated in terms of: (1) applicability; (2) correlation among each other; and (3) the effect of drilled shaft diameter, length, and soil type. Eight of the 16 methods could not be reliably used. Capacities interpreted from the remaining eight were consistent but resulted in excessive settlement in a few cases. Performance was also evaluated in terms of serviceability. A new criterion is proposed, where the nominal resistance is defined as the load corresponding to the smallest of (1) a settlement equal to the elastic compression of a free-standing column plus 0.75 in. (20 mm); (2) the load at plunging or strain-softening; or (3) settlement corresponding to 5% of the pile diameter, unless modified by the structural engineer of record. The proposed method showed good correlation with several established criteria while including a built-in serviceability safeguard against excessive settlement.
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Data Availability Statement
The data employed in this study was publicly released by the Federal Highway Administration as part of the Deep Foundation Load Test Database (DFLTD v2), Publication No. FHWA-HRT-17-034.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 148 • Issue 2 • February 2022
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 11, 2020
Accepted: Oct 12, 2021
Published online: Nov 30, 2021
Published in print: Feb 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Apr 30, 2022
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