Influence of presence of defective pile on lateral load capacity of pile and pile groups

Abstract

The load from the superstructure is to be transferred below the ground surface through a structural element known as the foundation. Most of the civil engineering structures are directly or indirectly dependent on the performance of the soil or rock on which the structures were built. Normally, when the site has poor soil conditions or higher structural loads from the superstructure, pile foundations are widely recommended. Such pile foundations were designed as single or group that meets the load-bearing capacity of soil and allowable settlement restrictions. Moreover, most of the structures like high-rise buildings, tall chimneys, onshore structures, offshore structures, etc are supported by pile foundations. Notably, the lateral load in onshore and offshore structures may range from 10 to 20% of the vertical load. Hence the lateral load governs the design of the pile in most cases. newlineAn extensive literature study on pile defects revealed that there are considerably more possibilities for shortcomings to emerge in cast-in-situ piles. In general, the defects in pile foundations are evolved as a result of faulty execution of planned construction or incorrect evaluation of soil condition. The common defects in most of the cases exist in piles are necking, bulging, soft base, and concrete segregation. The defective pile alters the pile stiffness and load-carrying capacity when it is loaded in axial, lateral, or combined action. The current research had mainly focused on studying the influence of necking defect in pile and pile groups under lateral load surrounded by sandy soil through detailed experimental and numerical investigation. newline