Skin Friction for Steel Piles in Sand

A relationship is presented between skin friction and soil shear strength as a function of pile movement for steel piles in sand. Consideration is given to the effect of void ratio, saturation, depth or lateral pressure, and movement. The results of a study of a field test on instrumented piles and laboratory tests on a small pile in saturated sand are used to obtain the desired relationship. The relationship is presented in the form of a curve which is obtained when the ratio of skin friction to soil shear strength is plotted versus pile movement. The developed curve is used to compute a theoretical load-settlement curve which, in turn, is compared with an actual field load-settlement curve.