Volume :

2

Issue :

4

Abstract :

When pile foundation is designed from soil exploration data, if unit skin friction and unit tip bearing capacity are predicted accurately using cone penetration test (CPT) results, it becomes very convenient to select diameter and length of pile foundation. The unit skin friction and unit end bearing has been expressed in the form of set of equations involving cone penetration resistance and depth by the use of FEM (Finite Element Method). These equations are corrected by the analysis of 50 pile load test data with complete information of soil profile and cone penetration resistance values. This research work has six main components: (I) Compiling bored piles dataset containing pile loading test data, soil profile and continuous record of cone penetration resistance obtained from the published literature; (II) Calculation of soil parameters from soil type and cone penetration resistance; (III) Calculation of unit skin friction and unit end bearing by the use of FEM (IV) Relating unit skin friction and unit end bearing capacity to soil type, cone penetration resistance and depth; (V) Calculation of correction factors for unit skin friction and unit end bearing from pile load test data by the use of multiple regression analysis; (VI) Assessment of the performance of the presented model by comparing with conventional direct CPT methods. These equations can be used by engineers to predict ultimate pile load capacity in axial compression from cone penetration data. It has been observed that the presented model gives better accuracy than conventional methods.