Pile Foundation - Design, Construction and Factors Affecting Piles

Pile Foundation - Design, Construction and Factors Affecting Piles

Pile Foundation

A pile is basically a long cylinder of a strong material such as concrete that is pushed into the ground to act as a steady support for structures built on top of it. Pile foundation has many applications as will be explained below.

In foundation practices, the main point of concern is bearing capacity of soil. Bearing capacity can be defined as the maximum load that can be carried by the soil strata. When the soil is strong enough that it can carry the whole load coming on it, then we use shallow foundation. Shallow foundations are usually used where hard soil strata is available at such a depth that construction of foundation is not too costly.

If hard soil is available at deeper levels of earth, then there is a need of some source that can transfer the load of the structures on the deep hard soil strata. This source can be said to be as the deep foundation. Pile foundation is a type of foundation in which pile is usually used as the source to transfer the load to deep soil levels. Piles are long and slender members that transfer the load to hard soil ignoring the soil of low bearing capacity. Transfer of load depends on capacity of pile. There is a need that pile should be strong enough to transfer the whole load coming on it to underlying hard strata. For this purpose, pile design is usually given much consideration. Depending on the load, type of material is usually selected for the piles.

Different types of Piles are usually made from following materials:

1. Timber
2. Concrete
3. Steel
4. Composite pile

It is understood that pile is the basis for design of deep foundation. The very first step in the design of pile foundation is selection of right type of pile. Selection of type, length, & capacity of pile depends on following parameters:

1. Soil condition
2. Magnitude of load (Load capacity of Piles)

In actual construction, first pile load test is performed on the soil to verify soil strength that whether it can take the load of pile or not.

Factors Affecting Selection of Piles

Factors which affect the selection of pile are as under:

1. Length of pile in relation to load and soil condition
2. Behavior of structure
3. Availability of material in locality of construction
4. Type of loading
5. Ease of maintenance
6. Availability of funds
7. Factors causing damage
8. Cost of piles

By geotechnical design we mean two things:

1. Depth below the ground
2. Dimensions

Qu = QS + Qb

Load Carrying Capacity of Piles

Usually three methods are used for the calculating the capacity of pile:

1. Static formula (this formula is applicable to driven and insitu piles)
2. Dynamic formula (this formula is applicable to driven piles)
3. Load Test (this test is usually done two times the design load. If it is stable then pile is considered O.K. This test is quite expensive and time consuming. Load application is also very much difficult in this test)

1. Pile spacing
2. Negative skin friction