Empirical Shaft Resistance of Driven Piles Penetrating Weak Rock

Barrett, John W.; Prendergast, Luke J.

Abstract

In this paper, an empirical relationship between the Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) of intact rock and the unit shaft resistance of piles penetrating rock is investigated. A growing number of civil engineering projects are utilizing steel piles driven into rock where a significant portion of the pile capacity is derived from the shaft resistance. Despite the growing number of projects utilizing the technology, little to no guidance is offered in the literature as to how the shaft resistance is to be calculated for such piles. A database has been created for driven piles that penetrate bedrock. The database consists of 42 pile load tests of which a majority are steel H-piles. The friction fatigue model is applied to seven of the pile load tests for which sufficient UCS data exists in order to develop an empirical relation. The focus of this paper is on case histories that include driven pipe piles with at least 2m penetration into rock.

Citation

Barrett, J. W., & Prendergast, L. J. (2020). Empirical Shaft Resistance of Driven Piles Penetrating Weak Rock. Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering, 53(12), 5531-5543. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-020-02228-7

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 11, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Aug 20, 2020
• Publication Date: 2020-12
• Deposit Date: Aug 13, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 21, 2021
• Journal: Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering
• Print ISSN: 0723-2632
• Electronic ISSN: 1434-453X
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 53
• Issue: 12
• Pages: 5531-5543
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-020-02228-7
• Keywords: Piles; Rock; Driven; Shaft resistance
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4829961
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00603-020-02228-7
• Additional Information: Received: 23 December 2019; Accepted: 11 August 2020; First Online: 20 August 2020; : ; : The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.