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CE5107 Pile Foundations

Lecture 1 – supplementary notes
Geotechnical parameters

Dr Helen Cheng
Jan 2011

Soil parameters for pile design

Total stress analysis (undrained condition)
for clay
 Apparent cohesion cu
 Friction angle fu (= 0 for saturated clay)
 Young’s modulus Eu
 Poisson’s ratio nu (= 0.5 for clay)
Effective stress analysis (long term) for sand
and clay
 c’ f’ E’ and n’
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Use of Insitu tests for soils

Standard Penetration Test (SPT)
 blow count (N-value) relates to density
Cone Penetration Test
 static cone resistance qc, correlation to f’
 Piezocone: for static cone resistance,
sleeve resistance, pore pressure
Vane shear test
 Measure torque for undrained failure

Rock properties
Weathering grade and description
 Fresh (I), slightly (II), moderately (III), heavily (IV) or
completely (V) weathered, residual soils (VI)
Rock Quality Designation RQD
 %rock recovered with sample of >100 mm in length
 Indicate fracture state (0-25% very poor, 25-50%
poor, 50-75% fair, 75-90% good, 90-100% excellent)
Standard penetration resistance N (extrapolated for
week rock)
Unconfined compression test qu (for stronger rock
showing intact properties)
Point load test (Is), Plate load test (E),
*Pressuremeter tests (for stiff soils, or rock: E, cu, qu) 4

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Geology of Singapore
Residual soil overlying
Fresh granite

Old alluvium deposit ,

Layered clay and
Residual soil , weak Cemented sands
Soft marine
sedimentary rocks deposit

Sharma J.S. , Chu J., Zhao J. (1999) Geological and Geotechnical features of Singapore: 5
an Overview. Tunnelling and Underground Technology, vol 14, no. 4, pp 419-431.

Granite (Bukit Timah formation)

Bedrock can be shallow and very difficult to drill
through
 Insufficient socket length for base resistance
 SPT N-value can be difficult to obtain
 Rock can be much stronger than concrete
Change from completely weathered soil to fresh
rock can be sudden
Inclined rock surfaces may pose problems
Note dense sand layer at soil/rock interface
 Soil may collapse into borehole (hence soft toe)
 Borehole needs casing or bentonite to stabilise
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Sedimentary rock (Jurong formation)

Highly weathered and fractured in excess of
50 m deep
 N value can be obtained
 RQD is highly variable
Unable to found pile base into fresh/ hard
rock
 qu of rock < qu of concrete
Around Keppel area Singapore, Kallang
formation (soft marine clay) above Jurong
formation (sedimentary soils and rocks)

Correlations
Difficult to obtain properties for Singapore sedimentary
rock but it was attempted:
RQD vs qu
 Difficult if sedimentary rocks at site are not of the same
type; may be possible if rock is fairly homogenous
qu and Is(50)
 Weak Sedimentary rock (Singapore)
 qu = 6 Is(50)
 Weak Granite (Singapore & Malaysia)
 qu = 10 Is(50)
Qu and N
 Weak Sedimentary rock (Singapore)
 qu = 10^[-3.29+1.45log10N] for 100 < N < 1200 8

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Old Alluvium (Singapore)

Cemented sand (casing may be necessary)
Alternating dense sand and stiff clay layers

Soft soils
(Kallang formation)
Soft marine clay (grey)
Soft peaty clay (black)
Pile installation problem & negative skin friction

Determination of geotechnical
parameters for pile design
Due to
– complicated changes of fabric and stress
path of the soils adjacent to the pile, and
– scale effect of model tests
The use insitu tests to correlate design and
geotechnical parameters for pile design
are more widely used
– compared to conventional laboratory tests
e.g. triaxial tests and oedometer tests
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ULTIMATE LOAD CAPACITY

How Good are

modern
predictions??

NOT GOOD AT
ALL!!!
Clayton (2001)

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Pile load test methods

• Maintained load test
• Constant rate of penetration test
• Dynamic testing
• Statnamic testing

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