Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Drained-Undrained Shaft Resistance of Piles in Soft Clays

  • Research paper
  • Published:
International Journal of Civil Engineering Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The determination of the stress distribution around driven piles in soft clays constitutes a complex problem. The stress distribution is affected by a range of factors such as soil permeability, soil strength, sensitivity, remoulding, distance from adjacent piles and number of piles. The mechanisms of pile installation and subsequent consolidation are investigated by considering that pile installation may be represented by the expansion of a long vertical cylindrical cavity. The stress paths followed by typical soil elements at the soil–pile interface are analyzed by means of the theoretical relationships obtained during the undrained expansion of a cylindrical cavity in soft cohesive soils and modified to take into account the severe remoulding caused by pile installation. It is shown that the shaft resistance of driven piles may be calculated by considering either a drained stress path or an effective stress path during undrained loading. It is also shown that soft clay remoulding caused by pile driving is a major factor that must be taken into account for a reasonable estimation of the limiting skin friction.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Tomilson JJ (1980) Foundation design and construction. Pitman Publishing Limited, London

    Google Scholar 

  2. Randolph MF (2003) Science and Empiricism in Pile Foundation Design. Geotechnique 53(1):847–875

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. American Petroleum Institute (2000) Recommended practice for planning, designing and constructing fixed offshore platforms. API RP 2A-WSD, Dallas, 21st Edition

  4. Chandler RJ (1968) The shaft friction of piles in cohesive soil in terms of effective stress. Civ Eng Public Works Rev 63:46–51

    Google Scholar 

  5. Burland J (1973) Shaft friction of pile in clay: a simple fundamental approach. Ground Eng 6(3):30–42

    Google Scholar 

  6. Focht JA Jr., Vijayvergiya VN (1972) A new way to predict capacity of piles in clay. In: Proceedings of the 4th offshore technology conference, Houston, vol 2, pp 856–874

  7. Kraft LM Jr., Focht JA Jr., Amerasinghe SF (1981) Friction capacity of piles driven into clay. J Geotech Eng Div ASCE 107(GTII):1521–1541

  8. Carter JP, Randolph MF, Wroth CD (1979) Stress and pore pressure changes in clay during and after the expansion of a cylindrical cavity. Int J Numer Anal Method Geomech 3(4):305–322

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Randolph MF (1982) Recent developments in understanding the axial capacity of piles in clay. Ground Eng 15(7):17-25-32

  10. Randolph MF, Wroth CP (1981) Application of the failure state in undrained simple shear to the shaft capacity of driven piles. Geotechnique 31(1):143–157

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Wroth CP, Carter JP, Randolph MF (1979) Stress changes around a pile driven into cohesive soil. In: Proceedings of the conference on recent developments in the design and construction of piles, ICE, London, pp 345–354

  12. Randolph MF, Carter JP, Wroth CP (1979) Driven piles in clay-the effects of installation and subsequent consolidation. Geotechnique 29(4):361–393

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Schofield AN, Wroth CP (1968) Critical state soil mechanics. McGraw-Hill, London

    Google Scholar 

  14. Wood DM (1999) Soil behaviour and critical state soil mechanics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  15. Roscoe KH, Burland JB (1968) On the generalized behaviour of wet clay. In: Heyman J, Leslie FA (eds) Engineering plasticity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 535–609

    Google Scholar 

  16. Lade PV, Musante HM (1978) Three-dimensional behavior of remolded clay. J Geotech Eng Div 101(10):193–203

    Google Scholar 

  17. Anantanasakul P, Yamamuro JA, Lade PV (2012) Three-dimensional drained behavior of normally consolidated anisotropic kaolin clay. Soils Found 52(1):146–159

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Prashant A, Penumadu D (2005) A laboratory study of normally consolidated kaolin clay. Can Geotech J 42(1):27–37

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Sun H, Wang H, Wu G, Ge X (2019) The mechanical properties of naturally deposited soft soil under true three-dimensional stress states. ASTM Geotech Test J 42(5):1370–1383

    Google Scholar 

  20. Ladd CC, Edgers L (1972) Consolidated undrained direct simple shear on boston blue clay. MIT Research Report T72-82

  21. Yu HS (2000) Cavity expansion methods in geomechanics. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht

    Book  Google Scholar 

  22. Gibson RE, Anderson WF (1961) In-situ measurement of soil properties with the pressuremeter. Civ Eng Public Works Rev 56(658):615–618

    Google Scholar 

  23. Palmer AC (1972) Undrained plane-strain expansion of a cylindrical cavity in clay: a simple interpretation of the pressure meter test. Géotechnique 22(3):451–457

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Silvestri V, Tabib C (2018) Application of cylindrical cavity expansion in MCC model to a sensitive clay under Ko consolidation. ASCE J Mater Civ Eng 30(8):04018155

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Kirby, RC, Esrig, MI, Murphy BS (1983) General effective stress method for piles in clay—part I—theory. In: Proceedings of the ASCE conference on geotechnical practice in offshore engineering, Austin, pp 457–497

  26. Reese LC, Seed HB (1955) Pressure distribution along friction piles. Proc Am Soc Test Mater 55:1156–1182

    Google Scholar 

  27. Seed HB, Reese LC (1957) The action of soft clay along friction piles. Trans ASCE 122:731–754

    Google Scholar 

  28. Bjerrum L, Johannessen (1960) Pore pressure resulting from driving piles in soft clay. In: Proceedings of the conference on pore pressure and suction in soil, London, pp 14–17

  29. Lo KY, Stermac AB (1965) Induced pore pressures during pile-driving operations. In: Proceedings of the 6th international conference on soil mechanics and foundation engineering, Montreal, vol 2, pp 295–289

  30. Koizumi Y, Ito K (1967) Field tests with regards to pile driving and bearing capacity of piles foundations. Soils Found 7(3):31–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Orrje O, Broms BB (1967) Effects of pile driving on soil properties. J Soil Mech Found Div, ASCE 93(SMS):59–73

  32. Airhart TP, Coyle HM, Hirsch TJ, Buchanan SJ (1969) Performance of deep foundations. ASTM STP444, American Society for Testing and Materials, pp 264–294

  33. Torstensson BA (1973) The behaviour of a cohesion pile group in soft clay. In: Proceedings of the 8th international conference on soil mechanics and foundation engineering, Moscow, vol 2, No. 1, pp 237–242

  34. Appemdino M, Jamiolkowski M, Lancellotta R (1979) Pore pressure of NC soft silty clay around driven displacement piles. In: Proceedings of the conference on recent developments in the design and construction of piles, ICE, London, pp 169–175

  35. Roy M, Blanchet R, Tavenas F, Larochelle P (1981) Behaviour of a sensitive clay during pile driving. Can Geotech J 18(1):67–85

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Burns Se, Mayne PW (1999) Pore pressure dissipation behavior surrounding driven piles and cone penetrometers. Transp Res Rec 1675:17–23. Paper no. 99-0423

  37. Eigenbrod KD, Issigonos T (1996) Pore water pressures in soft to firm clay during driving of piles into underlying dense sand. Can Geotech J 33(2):209–218

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Robertson PK, Woeller DJ, Gillespie D (1990) Evaluation of excess pore pressures and drainage conditions around driven piles using the cone penetration test with pore pressure measurements. Can Geotech J 27(2):249–254

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Simonsen TR, Sorensen KK (2017) Field measurements of pore-water pressure changes in stiff fissured very high plasticity palaeogene clay during excavation and pile driving. In: Proceedings of the 19th international conference on soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering, 19–21 September, Seoul, South Korea

  40. Chandler RJ (1968) The shaft friction of piles in cohesive soil in terms of effective stress. Civ Eng Public Works Rev 63:48–51

    Google Scholar 

  41. Potts DM, Martins JP (1982) The shaft resistance of axial loaded piles in clay. Geotechnique 32(4):369–386

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Esrig MI, Kirby RC, Murphy BS (1979) Advances in general effective stress method for the prediction of axial capacity of driven piles in clay. In: Proceedings of the fifth offshore technology conference, Houston, vol 1, pp 437–448

  43. Clark JI, Meyerhof GG (1972) The behaviour of piles driven in clay. I. Investigation of soil stress and pore water pressure as related to soil properties. Can Geotech J 9(4):351–373

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Eide O, Hutchinson JN, Landva A (1961) Short and long-term test loading of a friction pile in clay. In: Proceedings of the 5th international conference on soil mechanics and foundation engineering, Paris, vol 2, pp 45–53

  45. Flaate K (1972) Effects of pile driving in clay. Can Geotech J 9(1):81–88

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Moncton, 18 Antonine-Maillet Ave, Moncton, NB, E1A 3E9, Canada

    G. Abou-Samra, S. L. Desjardins & R. Labben

  2. École Polytechnique de Montréal, Station Centre-Ville, Montreal, QC, H3C 3A7, Canada

    V. Silvestri

Authors
  1. G. Abou-Samra
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. V. Silvestri
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. S. L. Desjardins
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. R. Labben
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to G. Abou-Samra.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Abou-Samra, G., Silvestri, V., Desjardins, S.L. et al. Drained-Undrained Shaft Resistance of Piles in Soft Clays. Int J Civ Eng 19, 115–125 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40999-020-00543-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40999-020-00543-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation