IGC-2005, 17-19 December 2005, Ahmedabad, INDIA

SOIL PLUGGING IN OPEN-ENDED PILES

MODEL INVESTIGATION
Mandavkar S. C.
M. Tech. Student, Civil Engineering Department, Pune Institute of Engineering and Technology (Formerly Govt.
College of Engineering), Pune-411005, Maharashtra, India
mandavkarsachin@yahoo.com

Pise P. J.
A.I.C.T.E. Emeritus Fellow (Former Professor IIT, Kharagpur)
Civil Engineering Department, Pune Institute of Engineering and Technology (Formerly Govt. College of Engineering),
Pune-411005, Maharashtra, India
pjpise@vsnl.net

ABSTRACT: Open-ended piles are more commonly used in the offshore foundations. Analytical methods generally
used for design of such piles in offshore foundations do not consider the partial plugging in open-ended driven piles.
But in practice most of the open-ended piles are driven in sand in partially plugged mode. Investigations regarding soil
plugging in open-ended piles driven in sand are scanty. Therefore, to study soil plugging behavior a model testing
program has been undertaken in laboratory. The testing program consists of model piles of 20.3mm, 26.0mm & 32.4mm
outside diameter and 2mm wall thickness with open-end condition. The angle of shearing resistance of sand Ö = 300 and
360 for loose and dense condition. Corresponding soil-pile friction angles δ were 210 and 250 respectively. The piles
were driven in sand for embedment length to diameter ratio varying from 5 to 20 inside a model testing tank of size 900
mm X 700 mm X 900 mm. Plug length is measured for each pile to study the effect of diameter. L/d ratio, density on
plug length formed

1. INTRODUCTION Attempt has been made to study the effect of diameter,

L/d ratio, and initial sand density on soil plugging by
There are many land and offshore structures, which rest
carrying out laboratory investigation on open-ended
on pile foundations. They are subjected to different
piles driven in loose and dense sand by varying L/d
types of loading. The piles are classified according to
ratio. It is believed that the study will provide guiding
their load transfer mechanism. When open-ended pile is
features to practicing engineers.
driven into ground, a soil plug may develop within the
pile during driving, which may prevent or partially
restrict additional soil from entering the pile. It is known
3. EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP
that bearing capacity of open-ended piles governed to
the large extent by this plugging effect. The experimental set-up consists of foundation medium,
model piles, model testing tank, hopper for pouring
Many design criteria for open-ended piles based on field
sand, arrangement for driving pile, arrangement for
tests, analytical methods have been suggested [e.g. Klos
measurement of soil plug length, penetrometer for
& Tejchman 1977; Nishida et al. 1985; American
checking density, frictionless pulleys, non-extensible
Petroleum Institute (API) 1991; Randolph et al. 1991;
wire rope, impact hammer, guide rod, pile caps, plumb
Jardin Et al. 1998]. In case of API RP2A (1991), which
bob, level, etc.
is generally used for offshore foundation design, bearing
capacity of open-ended pile can only be estimated for Foundation Medium
either the fully coring mode or fully plugged mode of
Sand was used as foundation medium as its behaviour is
penetration. However, in practice most open-ended piles
free from time effects & reproducible densities can be
are driven into sands in partially plugged mode. Extent
achieved reasonably well. Dry local river sand obtained
of plug formation i.e. partial or full can be demonstrated
from Pune (Maharashtra, India) having uniformity
only from the experimental results on model or field
coefficient 2.57 & specific gravity 2.65 with emin = 0.435
pile testing.
and emax = 0.606 is used in present study. Tests were
carried out at relative density Dr = 35 % (loose) & 70 %
2. SCOPE OF STUDY (dense). The average dry unit weight was 17kN/m3 for
loose condition and 18.2kN/m3 for dense condition. The
The scope of present investigation is to study the soil angle of shearing resistance of sand Ö corresponding to
plugging & its effects in open-ended driven piles.
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the above placement densities were 300 and 360
respectively.
Model Piles
Model piles were made of G.I. pipes having outside
diameter 20.3 mm, 26.0 mm and 32.4 mm and wall
thickness 2 mm. The top end of the pile was threaded to
connect it to pile cap and the bottom end was kept open.
The pile-soil friction angle δ was 210 and 250 for loose
and dense sand.
Model Testing Tank
Model steel tank of size 900 mm X 700 mm X 900 mm
depth was used to perform the tests. The size of testing
tank was selected based on the previous research work
(Dash & Pise 2003a, b). Fig. 1 shows experimental set-
up with driving arrangement.
opening was kept 8 mm & 4 mm and sand was poured
by keeping height of fall 10 cm & 25 cm respectively.
This rainfall technique is reported to achieve good
reproducible & uniform densities (Dash & Pise 2003a,
b). The adopted method of sand pouring gives
placement unit weights of 17kN/m3 and 18.2kN/m3
corresponding to relative densities 35 % & 70 %
respectively.
Installation of model piles
Model piles were placed in the tank over the prepared
sand bed. Driving of pile up to required depth were
carried out by allowing an impact hammer of weight 2.6
kg (approximately equal to the weight of pile) to fall
freely from a height of 30 cm by pulley and wire rope
arrangement (Dash & Pise 2003b). To avoid eccentricity
during drop, the diameter of impact hammer was made
little less than diameter of pile cap & a clearance of
about 1 mm was provided between the central hole of
impact hammer and guide rod. The driving arrangement
is shown in Fig. 1.
Observations
The pile is driven to the required embedment depth.
During driving of the pile, plug is formed in the pile at
tip. To measure the plug length, a graduated rod with
enlarged base was inserted from the top of pile, and
length of rod from plug top to pile top L1 is measured.
Plug length D is thus calculated by subtracting L1 from
total length of pile (L2)

4. EXPERIMENAL PROCEDURE
The experimental test procedure was same for all the
series of testing. All the vertical piles were driven in
sand bed of uniform density for different diameters and
varying L/d ratios. The plug length is measured from the
top of the pile. Detailed procedure is described below.

Sand Placement
The technique of sand placement plays an important
role in process of getting reproducible densities in
reasonable amount of time. The reliability of results
depends much on density of foundation material &
therefore as explained earlier, the required density of
sand was predetermined. According to that the sand bed
was prepared in tank by manually pouring sand through
the slit of the hopper by keeping height of fall constant.
To obtain loose and dense sand condition, the slit

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5. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Variation of Plug Length with L/d Ratio
Figs. 3 & 4 show variation of plug length observed in
open-ended driven piles for respective L/d ratio for
various diameters of pile in loose and dense sand
respectively. It is observed that soil plug length
increases with increase in L/d ratio for both loose and
dense sand medium. For larger diameter piles the plug
length is more as compared to small diameter piles of
identical L/d ratio both in loose and dense sand.

Variation of D/d Ratio with L/d Ratio

Fig. 7 shows variation of D/d ratio with L/d ratio for
different diameters and variable densities. It is observed
that the D/d ratio remains almost constant over the
entire range of L/d (5 to 20). The value of D/d is
approximately equal to 4 for all the piles.

Plug Length Diameter of Pile Curves

Effect of diameter on plug length was also studied. The
observed plug length for particular length and various
diameters was plotted in Figs. 5 & 6 for loose and dense
sand. It is observed that for any given length of a pile, as
diameter goes on increasing the plug length increases
almost linearly i.e. plug length formed in open-ended
driven piles is directly proportional to the diameter of
pile irrespective of its length. The change in diameter of
pile has negligible influence on nature of variation.

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6. CONCLUSIONS
From the foregoing model study following conclusions
are drawn.
• Plug length increases with increase in L/d ratio
• Plug length is directly proportional to the diameter
of pile irrespective of its length.
• The average plug length observed in all the piles is 4
times the diameter of pile.
REFERENCES
American Petroleum Institute [API], (1991)
Recommended Practice for Planning, Designing &
Constructing Fixed Offshore Platforms. 19th Ed.,
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Load on Uplift Capacity of Model Piles, Journal of
Geotechnical & Geo-environmental Engg., ASCE Paper
No. 023132, November.
Dash B. K. & Pise P. J. (2003b). Pullout Resistance of
Driven & Embedded Piles in Sand., IGC 2003,
Roorkee, pp. 117-120.
130
Jardin R. J., Overy R. F. & Chow F.C. (1998). Axial
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