Design and Construction of

Pile Foundation
ONE DAY WORKSHOP

GEOTECHNICAL INVESTIGATION
AND
FOUNDATION SYSTEMS
by
Prof. S.R. Gandhi
Department of Civil Engineering.
IIT Madras
srgandhi@iitm.ac.in
 Foundation Options

Weak Soil

Dense Soil

Shallow Footing Compacted Ground Pile Foundation

 Topics Covered
PILE FOUNDATION
Pile Design
Pile Construction
Pile Testing
Multipurpose jetty (4 berths) at Mundra
for Gujarat Adani Port Limited
 Pile Design
• IS 2911(Part I)
• Selection of appropriate soil parameters
• Restricting the overburden pressure at pile
tip to 15-20 times pile diameter
• K value for sking friction in cohesionless
soil layers
• Need for field tests
(a) For Granular Soils

n
Qu  Ap (1 / 2 DN  PD N q )   KPDi tan Aisi
i 1

(b) For Cohesive Soils

Qu = Ap Nc Cp + C  As

Where,
Ap = Cross Sectional area of pile tip
D = Pile Diameter
 = Effective unit weight of soil at pile tip
PD = Effective overburden pressure at pile tip (for long piles P D should
correspond to pile length of 15 to 20 times of the diameter)
Nq, N = Bearing capacity factor depending upon the angle of friction (ref.fig.2)
K = Coefficient of earth pressure, varies depending on method of
installation (1 to 3 for driven piles and 1 to 2 for bored piles)
PDi = Effective over burden pressure for the i th layer
 = Angle of wall friction and can be taken equal to 
Asi = Surface area of pile stem in the i th layer
Nc = Bearing capacity factor, usually taken as 9
Cp = Average cohesion at pile tip
 = Reduction factor, depending on consistency of the cohesive strata
(ref. Table 1)
C = Average cohesion throughout the cohesive layer

As = Surface area of pile in cohesive layer

3.1.2 Method Based on Meyerhof (1976)
Based on analysis of large number of actual load tests in granular strata, and their
correlations with the SPT (N values of the strata, Meyerhof has suggested following
formulae :
(a) For driven piles in sand
Ult.end bearing = 40 N (t/m2)
Ult.frictional resistance = N/5 (t/m2)
(b) For bored piles in sand
Ult.end bearing = 13 N (t/m2)
Ult.frictional resistance = N/10 (t/m2)
 Ultimate Pile Base Pressures in Rocks and Soils similar to
rock in t/m2

Weathering Rock Type

Condition and
degree of mineral Massive rocks Conglomerate Marl Stone, Silt

binding like Granite, Breccia, Sandstone, Stone,Clay

Gabro, Basalt Limestone,Dolomite Stone
Gneiss

Unweathered, very 1600 1100 800

good mineral binding

Partly weathered 900 600 400

good mineral binding

Highly weathered 400 300 To be treated as

average (somewhat soil
mineral binding)
Cole and Stroud (1977) gave an important relationship between SPT values and shear
strength. The relationship is given in fig.3.

From the N values, the shear strength parameters are obtained and allowable load on
pile is calculated using the formula:
Where,

Qallow  q D 2
a 4  CsDL
qa = allowable pressure on the base of the pile
= 3 x shear strength (F.S. = 3)

Cs = average rock shear strength for shaft

 = shaft adhesion factor taken as 0.3
D = dia of pile
L = length of embedment
 Pile Construction
BORED PILES
Rotary Drill for Rock Socket
Large Diameter up to 1.3 to 1.5m
DRIVEN PILES
Pre-cast Segmental Piles
Large Diameter Pre-stressed Pipe Pile

On-land, Near-shore and Offshore Construction

 Chain block Reaction
Test pile pile
(20 tons capacity)
Electronic tesile
load cell
Chain hooks

Temporary platform
on adjacent piles

Fig. 6 Arrangements for lateral test