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4. Deep foundations

Foundations

4.1 Pile types

If sufficiently competent ground does not exist at shallow depths

then a deep foundation can be used to transfer the structural loads
to deeper, stronger ground. Piles are the main type of deep
foundation.

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Foundations

Bored piles
In bored cast-in-place piles, a borehole is excavated and
then filled with concrete, which hardens to form the pile.
These piles cause little disturbance to the surrounding
ground, so there is no risk of ground heave. Bearing
resistances up to 10,000kN, diameters up to 1m, and
lengths up to 50m are not unusual.
Driven piles
Prefabricated piles in steel, concrete or timber are driven
into the ground. Alternatively, a hollow metal shell can
be driven into the soil and then filled with concrete. Pile
driving causes significant disturbance of the soil around
the pile, so these displacement piles usually cause heave
of the neighboring ground surface, which can affect
nearby structures. Bearing resistances up to 4,000kN,
diameters up to 05m, and lengths up to 30m are not
unusual, depending on the type of pile used.

4.2 Ultimate bearing resistance of piles

Fig. 24: Bored and driven pile installation
There are two general types of pile, according to how they are
installed: bored piles and driven piles.

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When a pile is loaded, it tries to move down vertically further into

the ground. Resistance develops along the piles sides as a shear
stress qs , which may vary with depth, and as a bearing pressure qb
on the piles base.

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Foundations

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Rb,d
qb,d 0 N q*
Ab

Foundations

where 0 = effective overburden pressure at base of pile. N q* is

given by an empirical relationship.

d ()

N q*

28
12
30
17
32
25
34
40
36
58
38
89
40
137
Table 3: Bearing capacity factor N q* for drained failure of a pile
(after Craig, 1997)

Fig. 25: General pattern of stresses on a pile

The base resistance is conventionally calculated using the bearing
resistance formulae developed for shallow foundations with
modified values for the bearing capacity factors. This therefore
treats the base as a footing. For undrained failure:

The value of 0 does not increase indefinitely but has a limiting

value at a critical depth 20 pile diameter/width. An example of
the change of 0 for a single layer soil with deep water table is as
below:

Rb,d
qb,d cu,d Nc* 9cu,d
Ab
where Ab is the base area, while for drained failure:

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Foundations

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Foundations

analysis, suitable for long term loading, the shaft resistance is

usually estimated assuming an earth pressure coefficient and
frictional shear failure, with:
qs,d K sv tan d

Fig. 26: Example of maximum value of v used for calculation

of qb in pile (single layered soil with deep water table)
The shaft resistance is calculated assuming shear failure:
Rs,d qs,d As

where As is incremental surface area of the shaft and the shear

stress is summed over the length of the pile. In an undrained
analysis or total stress analysis, appropriate to rapid loading, the
shaft resistance can be calculated using the soils design shear
strength reduced by an adhesion factor, , to take account of
remoulding of the soil around the pile during construction:
qs,d cu ,d

where 1 for soft clay, and is between 0.3 and 0.6 for
overconsolidated clay. For a drained analysis or effective stress
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where Ks is the horizontal earth pressure coefficient, v the

average vertical effective stress along the embedded pile length,
and d is the design angle of friction between the shaft surface and
the soil. The typical values for and Ks (Broms, 1966) are given
below:
Ks
Relative density of soil
Pile material

Loose
Dense
Steel
20
0.5
1.0
Concrete
0.75
1.0
2.0
Timber
0.67
1.5
4.0
Table 4: Typical values for and Ks suggested by Broms (1966)

The individual contributions of the shaft resistance and the base

resistance are added to find the bearing resistance of the pile, Rd :
Rd Rb,d Rs,d

A pile where Rs,d Rb,d is known as a friction pile or a shaft

bearing pile, while if Rb,d Rs,d this pile is known as an endbearing pile. The design force on the soil is the design structural
force on the foundation, Pd , plus the design weight of the pile, Wd .
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Foundations

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4.4 Worked example of pile resistance

However, in practice Wd is small in comparison with Rd for

typical piles, so that the design requirement is:

Rd
Rd
R

d 1
Fd Pd Wd Pd

Foundations

Consider a square, end bearing pile, 600mm by 600mm in section,

driven through a 5m thick medium clay and penetrating 6m into a
medium sand layer. The water table is 1m below the surface, as
shown in the figure below. Rapid loading only will be considered,
i.e. undrained failure in the clay, drained failure in the sand.

skin friction
4.3 Negative

A pile derives its resistance to load because of the relative

movement between the pile and the surrounding soil. In soils with
soft layers, as the soft soil compresses or dries out after pile
installation the soil may move down around a pile and therefore
tend to impose an additional load on the pile instead of providing
support to the pile. This is most commonly encountered in soft
clays. It is known as negative skin friction.

Fig 4.17 Worked example pile

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For the clay, the saturated unit weight is sat 18kN m3 , the
undrained shear strength is cu 50 kPa and the friction angle is
26. For the sand the saturated unit weight is sat 20 kN m3 ,
and the friction angle is 38. In
the clay, take 0 8. In the
sand, take d 0 75d 24 and K s 1 5 .

Using Eurocode
7
partial
factors
EQU,
the design values of the

parameters
are:

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Clay:

Sand:

cu,d =

50
35 kPa
1 4

Foundations

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Foundations

At the base of the pile, the overburden effective stress is:

0 5 18 6 20 10 10 110kPa

tan 38
d = tan1
32
1 25

so the base resistance of the pile is:

Firstly, the medium clay is sufficiently strong to provide some

support to the pile, the contribution to shaft resistance due to the
clay is:

Rs,d ,clay = cu,d As

Rb,d = 0 N q* Ab

= 110 25 0 6 0 6
990kN

= 0 8 35 0 6 4 5 336 kN
At the centre of the layer of sand around the pile, the vertical
effective stress is:

v 5 18 3 20 7 10 80kPa

Hence the total design resistance is:

Rd = 336 769 990 2095kN

the maximum design structural load is:

Pd = Rd 2095 kN

so the contribution to shaft resistance due to the sand is:

and the maximum allowable structural load is:

Rs,d ,sand = K sv As tan d

P = Rd

= 1 5 80 0 6 4 6 tan 24

2095
1905 1900 kN
11

769kN
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Foundations

4.5 Worked example of pile resistance with negative skin

friction

If, however, on one part of the site the clay is subsequently found
to be a soft clay with an undrained shear strength is cu 15 kPa
and a friction angle is 22, the negative skin friction must be
accounted for as a load on the pile. The soft clay will compress
and move down past the pile, so that the skin friction
from the clay

becomes a part
of the design load instead of a part of the design
resistance. Because of this, the undrained shear strength is not
factored down, and the design undrained shear strength in the clay
is:
cu,d = cu 15 kPa

Hence the total design resistance is:

Foundations

Rd = 769 990 1759kN

the maximum design structural load is:

Pd Rd Rdowndrag 1759 180 1579kN

and the maximum allowable structural load is:

P = Rd

1579
1435 1400kN
11

In this example, assuming negative skin friction in the clay has

reduced the design structural load by approximately 25%
compared with the case where the clay is believed sufficiently stiff
to provide support.

In this case the down drag on the pile is:

Rdowndrag = cu,d As

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= 1 0 15 0 6 4 5 180kN

where it is assumed that 1 in order to obtain a conservative

estimate of the
load due to negative skin friction. The shaft and
base resistance in the sand are unchanged:

Rs,d ,sand = 769kN

Rb,d = 990kN

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