Proceedings of the Institution of

Civil Engineers
Geotechnical Engineering 161
February 2008 Issue GE1
Pages 49–57
doi: 10.1680/geng.2008.161.1.49

Paper 14800
Received 30/05/2006
Accepted 26/04/2007
Eric R. Farrell Myles L. Lawler
Keywords: geotechnical Senior Lecturer, Trinity Research Fellow, Trinity
engineering/piles & piling College Dublin, Ireland College Dublin, Ireland

CFA pile behaviour in very stiff lodgement till

E. R. Farrell, MS, PhD, EurIng, CEng, FIEI, MICE, FGS, and M. L. Lawler, BA, PhD

The design of CFA piles in the stiff/hard lodgement till
that underlies most of Dublin is usually based on
published experience from similar piles in other soils
that lack the high density and stiffness of this till. The
results of load tests on two instrumented test piles are
presented, one 450 mm in diameter and 12.3 m long and
the other 600 mm in diameter and 11 m long, which
were loaded to 3.15 MN and 4.5 MN respectively. A 1 m
long instrumented dummy pile was formed at the same
time as the prototype and was tested in the laboratory
to confirm the calibrations for use in interpreting the
instrumentation. The instrumented piles showed that
high average shaft resistances of 230 kPa and 270 kPa
were mobilised, which were of similar magnitude to
those recorded on an instrumented driven pile in this
lodgement till that was reported previously. The pile
load tests indicate an estimated Nc value of about 7 for
the bearing capacity factor in ultimate end resistance,
which is less than the value of 9 normally used and
considerably less than a value of about 55 estimated
from the tests on the driven pile. The results also
indicate a change in the load–pile-head deflection curves
with time, which could be related to disturbance of the
ground caused by the construction process.
high undrained shear strength. The behaviour of structures
founded in this deposit is of interest in many of the large
building and infrastructural projects that are currently under
construction in the city. Structures are frequently required to
be founded on piles in this stratum, either because of overlying
made ground of doubtful quality or because its weathered
upper zone, normally described as the Dublin brown boulder
clay, has insufficient bearing capacity. The behaviour of piles
driven into this lodgement till has been previously researched
at the Croke Park site in Dublin; 1 however, such piles are less
frequently used in recent projects because of noise and
vibration issues.
This paper presents the results of load tests on two
instrumented CFA piles, one 450 mm in diameter and the other
600 mm in diameter, constructed in the Dublin black
lodgement till. The load–strain response of the piles was
verified by forming a short dummy pile on site, which was
subsequently tested in the laboratory. The behaviour of these
piles is compared with that expected from the measured
parameters and with that of a driven pile at Croke Park. The
results show the high shearing resistance that is developed
along the pile shaft, and that the end bearing capacity is less
than that obtained in the driven pile.

NOTATION
cu undrained cohesion
E secant soil Young’s modulus 2. INSTRUMENTED TEST PILES
Ep pile stiffness
K0 coefficient of earth pressure at rest 2.1. Description of piles
N standard penetration test N Two CFA test piles were constructed, one 450 mm in diameter
Nc end bearing capacity factor and 12.3 m long (pile 450) and one 600 mm in diameter and
P pile head load 11 m long (pile 600), using a CFA rig of 15–20 t m torque
Pu ultimate pile capacity capacity. The specification required the piles to have less than
Qu ultimate end bearing capacity 10 mm settlement at 1.5 times the design verification load
wl liquid limit (DVL), and to have an ultimate load capacity in excess of
wn natural water content 2.5 3 DVL. The DVLs of pile 450 and pile 600 were 1400 kN
wp plastic limit and 1800 kN respectively. The augers were bored to the
Æ shaft friction coefficient required depth, and 35 N concrete, with a maximum water–
Æmob mobilised shaft friction coefficient cement ratio of 0.5, a target slump of 175 mm and a maximum
r pile head settlement aggregate size of 20 mm, was pumped under pressure as the

mob mobilised shaft friction auger was withdrawn. Full-length reinforcement cages with
spacers, and with instrumentation attached to the
INTRODUCTION reinforcement bars, were then inserted into the fluid concrete.
Much of Dublin city is underlain by Dublin black boulder clay, The instrumented piles were reinforced with six T20 bars and
which is a lodgement till known for its very stiff behaviour and with R8 helical reinforcement at 300 mm centres.

Geotechnical Engineering 161 Issue GE1 CFA pile behaviour in very stiff lodgement till Farrell • Lawler 49

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 2.2. Dummy pile
A 1 m long dummy pile was formed within a 450 mm diameter
steel tube at the same time and with the same concrete,
reinforcement and instrumentation as used in the 450 mm
instrumented test pile. This dummy pile was cast to enable the
pile instrumentation and calibration to be tested in the
laboratories of Trinity College, Dublin.

2.3. Pile instrumentation

Vibrating-wire strain gauges (VWSGs) were fitted to the
longitudinal rebar at seven levels along the pile, with two
gauges diametrically opposite at each level, as illustrated in
Fig. 1. The spot-welded gauges were sealed on site using a
70 mm diameter plastic housing filled with polyurethane
potting compound (Fig. 2). Spacers were added along the
lengths of the piles to ensure concentric placement of the
reinforcement in the concrete-filled shaft. In addition, K-type
thermocouples were placed at the same instrument level in the
450 mm pile, to determine the effects of heat of hydration on VWSG housing
the gauges. Care was taken during installation of the pile cage
to ensure that the VWSGs did not go outside their calibration
ranges. An acceptable overall gauge working rate of 80% was
found for the TCD piles, although VWSG breakage was evident
in the middle level of the 600 mm pile at maximum load. Spacer

2.4. Proof load tests

A total of five piles 12.3 m long and 450 mm in diameter and
Fig. 2. Photographs of instrumentation
three piles 11 m long and 600 mm in diameter were proof-
tested to 1.5 times their working load. These piles were
reinforced with a central T32 3 m rebar and a reinforcement
cage layout of six T20 rebars 6 m long.
about 1 mile from the city centre, as shown in Fig. 3. In
3. GROUND CONDITIONS general, the ground conditions comprised about 2–3 m of
The test piles were installed as part of the pile-testing made ground/silty clay overlying a lodgement till, which in
programme for an extension of Saint James’s Hospital, Dublin, turn overlies limestone bedrock at about 15 m below ground
level. The water table, as observed in standpipes, corresponded
with the top of the lodgement till, which was about 2–3 m
below ground level.
600 mm 450 mm
The lodgement till comprised an upper 2 m weathered zone of
0·4 m firm/stiff brown sandy gravelly clay over the very stiff/hard
R8 helical at 300 mm centres black sandy gravelly clay, which is the typical stratification in
1·8 m 6 No. T20 ⫻ 6 m max.
the Dublin area. 2 These strata are generally called the brown
2·9 m 3·9 m VWSG and black boulder clay, the former being the weathered upper
T Thermocouple zone of the lodgement till.

6·1 m 5·9 m
The general properties of the brown and black lodgement till
have been presented in the literature. 2 The moisture contents
7·6 m and Atterberg limits on this site were similar to those
7·4 m T T
recorded on the Croke Park site, which was the location of
8·6 m
9·1 m the instrumented driven pile, 1 as can be seen from Fig. 4,
and are consistent with values expected for a heavily
10·1 m overconsolidated low-plasticity till. The plasticity index of
10·25 m
10·6 m 10·95 m
this till varied from 8% to 14% with an average of 10.8%.
The particle size distribution analyses on samples from the St
11 m
James’s Hospital recorded about 35–40% fines, which is
typical of these soils.
12·3 m
The high undrained shear strength and the presence of stones
Fig. 1. Diagrams of instrumented piles prevented successful recovery of undisturbed samples of the
lodgement till, a typical problem when investigating these

50 Geotechnical Engineering 161 Issue GE1 CFA pile behaviour in very stiff lodgement till Farrell • Lawler

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M50
Croke Park
St James’s Dublin City
Hospital
M50
Fig. 3. Site Locations
Moisture content: %
0 10 20
0 mean effective cell pressures of the CIU tests were converted
2 can be seen from Fig. 5, a value of cu
6 N gives a good
Depth below ground level: m
4
6 Croke Park site, and cu values of 350 kPa (N
60) and
8 undrained shear strength over the shaft was less than the
10
Fig. 4. Moisture content (w), liquid (wl ) and plastic (wp ) limits
of Saint James’s and Croke Park sites
soils. Standard penetration tests (SPTs) carried out in all the
boreholes on the site recorded N values of about 25–75 for
the brown boulder clay and N values between 25 and 100 for
the black boulder clay with some refusals. An average N value
in the black till was about 60, with an estimated average
value of about 75 round the depth of the pile toe. Ground
investigation companies usually consider refusal as 50 blows
for less than 75 mm penetration and this would limit some of
the recorded N values. The SPTs were taken beyond this limit
in a borehole put down within 1 m of the 450 mm diameter
pile, and this recorded high N values of 175 and 285 at two
locations.
A plot of the SPT data obtained from St James’s Hospital is
compared in Fig. 5 with undrained shear strength (cu )
Geotechnical Engineering 161 Issue GE1
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1 km Undrained shear strength, cu: kPa
Pile
0 250 500 750 1000
M1 450 600
Dublin Port 0
Fill
Depth below ground level: m
Tunnel Soft SILT
Stiff brown gravelly CLAY
5 Very stiff black
gravelly CLAY
10
N 6xN (all data from St.
15
James’s Hospital site)
20 CIU test results (all
data from Dublin Port
project)
Fig. 5. Undrained shear strength from CIU tests compared
with SPT data
obtained from consolidated isotropic undrained (CIU) tests on
Dublin lodgement till at the site of the Dublin Port Tunnel
project in the city. The till was found to possess similar
30 40
characteristics to those at the St James’s Hospital site. The
to equivalent depths in the ground using the relationship
between K0 and effective stress of Mayne and Kulhawy. 3 As
fit to the data shown, and this would agree with the
relationship between N and cu determined by Stroud and
Butler 4 for a soil with a plasticity index of 11. The SPT data
at St James’s Hospital, are similar to those reported1 for the
450 kPa (N
75) are considered appropriate for the average
over the shaft and at the toe, respectively. The average
Pile 450: w value of 450 kPa used to assess the shaft friction at the
Pile 600: w Croke Park site,1 as the N values above the base were
wp-wl: Saint James’s
slightly lower on the St James’s Hospital site. From previous
Croke Park: w
wp-wl: Croke Park research, the St James’s lodgement till would be expected to
have a high angle of shearing resistance of about 378.
Lawler5 inferred an apparent vertical yield stress of the order
of 1200–1500 kPa for the lodgement till at the Dublin Port
Tunnel site from the change in behaviour of the till in one-
dimensional compression.
4. TEST PILE PROGRAMME
Load was applied to the piles with a reaction frame of 5 MN
capacity. Four anchor piles were placed for the reaction
assembly (see Fig. 6), each a minimum of 1.5 m from the test
pile. The pile head displacement was measured electronically
every 5 min by four displacement gauges at 908 offsets
mounted on two reference beams supported by steel posts on
either side.
The maintained load test (MLT) was used to test the piles in
accordance with the ICE specification. 6 Each applied load
increment (of 350 kN and 450 kN for pile 450 and pile 600,
respectively) was held until either the rate of settlement in a
period of 30 min was less than 0.5% of the current cumulative
settlement that had occurred, or until the rate of settlement was
0.05 mm per 30 min, whichever occurred first. The load test on
CFA pile behaviour in very stiff lodgement till Farrell • Lawler 51
 testing in the laboratory to determine the modulus of
deformation and strength of the concrete. The load–strain
Reaction frame characteristics of the dummy pile determined up to failure at
1500 kN are shown in Fig. 8.

The load–strain relationship of the dummy pile was non-linear,

but could be approximated with a Young’s modulus of
23.5 GPa, as can be seen in Fig. 8. The Young’s modulus
Anchor pile Anchor pile
determined on the concrete cylinder was 24.2 GPa, and using
this value the theoretical modulus of the dummy pile would be
Anchor pile
Anchor pile expected to be 25.0 GPa, which is relatively close to that
measured. The theoretical modulus was calculated by allowing
for the additional stiffness of the reinforcement.
Fig. 6. Photograph of reaction frame test
The load–strain relationship from the high-level gauges in the
450 mm test pile compared favourably with that of the dummy
pile, as can be seen from Fig. 8.
the 450 mm pile was terminated at a pile head load P of
3150 kN owing to failure of the pile cap. The 600 mm pile was
6. CURING STRAINS
brought close to the capacity of the test frame. Time
The strains recorded during curing of the 450 mm pile are
constraints were such that the 450 mm pile was tested about 3
shown in Fig. 9. These strains have been adjusted for the
days after installation and the 600 mm pile following 5 days. A
difference in the reaction of the reinforcement cage and the
concrete test cylinder, formed from the same concrete pour as
the piles, was tested at 3 days.

5000
The proof load tests on the working piles were carried out in
the same manner as the instrumented piles and to the same
criteria; however, the load tests on the 450 mm diameter piles 4000
were at 22–28 days following construction and those on the
Pile head load: kN

600 mm piles were at 13–15 days, rather than the 3 and 5 days
allowed for the instrumented piles. The 450 mm and 600 mm 3000

diameter piles were taken to loads of 2700 kN and 2100 kN

respectively. 2000 Dummy pile
Pile 450 @ 1·8 m from top

5. PILE INSTRUMENTATION CALIBRATION 1000 Pile 600 @ 0·4 m from top

The dummy pile consisted of a pile section 1 m long and E ⫽ 23·5 MPa
450 mm in diameter, with the reinforcement cage instrumented
with VWSGs identical to those used on the full-scale pile. The 0
0 300 600 900 1200
pile was formed from the same batch of concrete used to Microstrain
construct the 450 mm test pile, and its load–strain
characteristics in compression were determined in a laboratory Fig. 8. Calibration of VWSGs
test frame (see Fig. 7) at the same time as the full-scale pile test
in order that the concrete was of similar age (3 to 5 days). At
the same time, cylinders of the pile concrete were cast for

1·8 m depth
3·9 m depth
150 5·9 m depth
Contractive strain

8·6 m depth
10·25 m depth
100
Microstrain

50

0
0 1 2 3
Expansive strain

Time elapsed since casting: days

⫺50

⫺100

Fig. 7. Photograph of dummy pile test Fig. 9. Curing strains against time (Pile 450)

52 Geotechnical Engineering 161 Issue GE1 CFA pile behaviour in very stiff lodgement till Farrell • Lawler

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 VWSGs by applying the temperature readings taken at the time
in accordance with Pennington. 7 The graph generally compares
favourably with expected curing behaviour: thermal expansion
(up to about 1 day), followed by thermal contraction (up to
about 2 days), followed by equilibrium. Furthermore, the top of
the pile, which is less constrained, deflected about twice as
much as the pile centre. The overall contraction of the pile at
the curing stage was about 1 mm at 2 days. These initial
deflections would cause initial shaft friction stresses to be
mobilised.
7. PILE TEST RESULTS
Pile head load P against pile head deflection r of the
instrumented piles is plotted along with the piles that were
proof-tested to 1.5 times working load in Figs 10(a) and 10(b).
These figures show that the proof pile tests, which were carried
out to the same loading specification as the instrumented pile,
possessed an initial stiffer response than the instrumented piles.
The concrete of the proof piles would be stiffer than the
instrumented piles, as these were tested typically following 22–
28 days (450 mm diameter piles) and 13–15 days (600 mm
diameter piles), whereas the instrumented piles were tested
after 3 to 5 days. Published information 8 indicates that the 28-
4000
3000
Pile head load: kN
day pile stiffness (Ep ) of 35N concrete would be about 32 GPa,
with 3-day and 5-day stiffnesses of 85% and 90% of this value.
Increasing the pile stiffness Ep for a 450 mm diameter pile in a
finite element analysis—which assumes that the soil behaves as
a linear elastic isotropic material with a secant modulus, E, of
150 MPa9 —from the measured value of Ep ¼ 23.5 GPa at 3
days to Ep ¼ 50 GPa, which is greater than the estimated pile
stiffness of 32 GPa at 28 days, did not fully account for the
higher stiffness of the proof piles at small strain, as can be seen
from Fig. 11. It is therefore considered that some of the
difference in the performance between the instrumented and
proof piles is due to installation effects that decrease with time.
These installation effects could arise from pore pressures set up
by the construction process, as was experienced in the tests on
driven piles on the Croke Park site, and could result in lower-
than-expected pile capacity.
The load distribution along the length of the piles is shown in
Fig. 12 and in the form of shaft friction distribution in Fig.
13. In the case of the 450 mm pile, included in Fig. 13(a) is
the shaft friction mobilised prior to loading in the curing
stage.
The average shaft shear stresses generated by an applied load
are plotted against pile head displacement in Fig. 14(a) and as
Æmob against pile head displacement in Fig. 14(b). The shaft
shear stress is the difference in the load between instrument
levels divided by the shaft area, measured within the
lodgement till. In the latter graph, the mobilised shaft friction

mob was divided by the average cu value along the shaft
(¼ 350 kPa), giving Æmob ¼
mob /cu .

Proof piles
The approximate end bearing response of pile 600 is
2000
demonstrated in Fig. 15 as a graph of end bearing mobilised
against pile head displacement and against pile toe
displacement. These plots are based on the assumption that
1000
the base readings, which were 0.4 m from the toe, represent
the actual pile toe response. In the case of the 450 mm pile
the base level gauges were 1.35 m from the toe, and the
0
0 4 8 12 errors in extrapolating the results to the base would be
Pile head deflection: mm excessive.
(a)

5000

Ep (GPa)
2500
4000 50 32 23·5

2000
Pile head load: kN

3000 Proof piles

Pile head load: kN

1500
2000

1000

1000 Instrumented pile: pile 450

Proof piles: average
500 Linear elastic FE prediction

0
0 10 20 30
0
Pile head deflection: mm 0 2 4 6 8
(b) Pile head deflection: mm

Fig. 10. Pile head load against pile head deflection: (a) 450 mm Fig. 11. Comparison of finite element analysis with measured
diameter piles; (b) 600 mm diameter piles pile head deflection

Geotechnical Engineering 161 Issue GE1 CFA pile behaviour in very stiff lodgement till Farrell • Lawler 53

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 Load: kN Shaft friction: kPa
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 ⫺150 0 150 300 450 600
0 0
Initial shaft friction
2 Maximum load
Depth below ground level: m

Initial ⫹ maximum
2

Depth below ground level: m

4

4
6

8 6

10
8
12 (a)

Load: kN 10
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
0
Depth below ground level: m

12
2 (a)

4
Shaft friction: kPa
6 ⫺100 0 100 200 300 400
0
8
P ⫽ 450 kN
10
2 P ⫽ 1350 kN
12
(b) Depth below ground level: m P ⫽ 2250 kN

4 P ⫽ 3150 kN
Fig. 12. Load distribution against depth: (a) pile 450; (b) pile
600 P ⫽ 3607 kN

6 P ⫽ 4050 kN

P ⫽ 4481 kN

8. DISCUSSION
10
8.1. Pile settlement
The apparent soil stiffness E, based on the recorded settlements
12
of the piles, was highly non-linear. A modulus of E ¼ 150 MPa (b)
was, however, shown to produce a reasonable estimate of the
settlement of the proof-loaded piles at working load, when Fig. 13. Shaft friction distribution against depth: (a) pile 450;
applied in a finite element analysis (Fig. 11). This modulus (b) pile 600
value was the same as the soil modulus determined 9 for precast
concrete piles in Dublin till. Weltman and Healy’s formula for
the apparent modulus of piles in glacial till 10 could not be
applied in this case, as the value of cu for the Dublin
lodgement till exceeded the range of values cited. Using this
soil stiffness value, the ratio of E mobilised, Esoilmob , to cu in the Dublin till may be explained by the additional shaft
(¼ 350 kPa) would be about 430. friction capacity.

8.2. Ultimate pile capacity
A prediction of ultimate capacity Pu assuming a hyperbolic
extrapolation 11 is given in Fig. 16 for pile 600. (The Chin
extrapolation has been found to be applicable in cases where
sharing of the load is low. 12 ) Pu of about 7.25 MN for pile
600 was estimated. The ultimate capacity of pile 450 could
not be interpreted by the hyperbolic extrapolation, but the
measured maximum load was 3.15 MN. These were
considerably greater than the estimate of Pu for similar bored
piles in Edmonton till, 13 which is also a stiff, limestone
based well-graded lodgement till, similar to the Dublin
lodgement till. For example, an ultimate capacity of 2350 kN
was measured for a pile 610 mm in diameter and 14.3 m
long in Edmonton. The additional capacity of the CFA piles
A hyperbolic extrapolation of the end bearing load against
deflection for pile 600, shown in Fig. 16, gives an
approximate ultimate end bearing Qu (end bearing not
measured directly) of 900 kN. Assuming cu ¼ 450 kN/m2 at
the pile base—in keeping with Fig. 5 (N
75) and Croke
Park 1 —the end bearing factor Nc is about 7 for pile 600. This
is in contrast to a value of Nc ¼ 55 for driven piles,1
reflecting the differences in the effective mean stresses set up
at the pile base in the pile construction phase. Nc is, however,
closer to but less than the value of Nc ¼ 9 generally assumed
for stiff glacial till. 10,13 However, as the cu values were
estimated from N values, and as the pile was not actually
taken to failure, there is a significant amount of uncertainty
in this assessment.

54 Geotechnical Engineering 161 Issue GE1 CFA pile behaviour in very stiff lodgement till Farrell • Lawler

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 400 Est. ultimate Pu of 7250 kN
8000

7000
300
Average shaft friction: kPa

6000
600 pile Qu
5000
200 600 pile Pu

Load: kN
4000
Hyperbolic
extrapolation
100 3000
Pile 450
Pile 600
2000
Driven pile1

0 1000
0 10 20 30
Pile head deflection: mm
(a) 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
Pile deflection: mm

1·00
Fig. 16. Hyperbolic extrapolation of load–deflection curves to
ultimate load, Pu and Qu
Mobilised shaft friction coefficient

0·75 3150 kN
4500 kN

0·50 1750 kN
2700 kN 8.3. Shaft friction
Pile 450
The values of shaft friction shown in Fig. 13 are greater than
1800 kN the values normally quoted for auger-cast piles in glacial
0·25 Pile 600
till. 10,12 For example, assuming Æ ¼ 0.45 from these references
and cu ¼ 350 kN/m2 , an average shaft friction of 160 kN/m2
350 kN
0
would be expected over the length. This compares to an
0 10 20 30 average shaft friction mobilised,
mob , over the entire length of
Pile head deflection: mm
the pile in the till (at maximum load) of 230 kN/m2 in the
(b)
450 mm pile, whereas the 600 mm pile mobilised an average of
270 kN/m2 . Furthermore, it is noted that some further shaft
Fig. 14. (a) Average shaft friction from gauges in till against pile
head deflection; (b) shaft friction coefficient Æmob from gauges friction could develop at higher loads. Estimates of the
in till against pile head deflection mobilised Æ for the piles are therefore in the region of 0.65–
0.75. Mobilised shaft shear stresses were about equal to that of
driven piles in Dublin lodgement till,1 where
mob ¼ 200 kPa at
maximum load.

The shaft friction initially mobilised on loading may reflect

the shaft shear stresses set up in the pile prior to loading in
Fig. 13(a). These latter stresses—derived from the corrected
750 strains shown in Fig. 9—approximately mirror the mobilised
shaft friction on loading, in that when the initial stresses
Pile toe Pile head are decreasing with depth along the pile the mobilised shaft
friction is increasing with depth and vice versa, in
500 agreement with previous work.7 If it is assumed that some
End bearing: kN

point along the pile remains stationary during the curing

process, then positive shaft resistances would be expected
above that point and negative below. Pile 450, in contrast,
250 generated positive shaft friction from 6.5 m to 8 m at the
curing stage (Fig. 13(a)), which is in the lower section of
the pile. The analysis of the shaft friction developed along
the pile during the loading tests was based on the
0
assumption of an unstrained pile at the start of the test. On
0 10 20 30 loading, pile 450 developed the greatest shaft resistance
Pile deflection: mm below about 8 m depth, and the shaft resistance above that
level is more uniform if the curing stresses are added, as
Fig. 15. Pile 600: end bearing load against pile head/pile toe
deflection shown in Fig. 13(a). Fig. 13(b) for pile 600, in contrast,
demonstrates shaft friction distribution at maximum load

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 increasing linearly to a point at about 8 m and then
reducing linearly to the pile toe. The difference in the
response of the piles may be due to the very high stiffness
of the till round pile 450, reflected in N values of 175 and
285 recorded at about 6 m depth. The relatively stiff ground
may have resulted in the increased ground restraint on the
pile recorded at the same depth. Despite the 450 mm
instrumented pile mobilising less consistent shaft friction,
the overall deflection of the pile, r, was less than that of
the 600 mm pile. This was because very high shaft friction
was generated to compensate for those areas of the pile
where positive shaft friction was not mobilised. The
downdrag in the fill at the top of the 600 mm pile (Fig.
13(b)) results from the unloading–reloading of the pile in
the maintained load test (MLT).
8.4. End bearing
From Fig. 12(a) it can be deduced that, at the maximum load
applied in the test on the 450 mm diameter pile (3150 kN),
about 20% of the load was transferred to 1.35 m above the
base. Pile 600 had a low end bearing of about 12% measured at
the base level of gauges (0.4 m from the pile toe).
9. CONCLUSIONS
The paper presents the results of two load tests on
instrumented CFA piles founded in Dublin black boulder
clay, one 450 mm in diameter and 12.3 m long and the
other 600 mm in diameter and 11 m long, which were
loaded to 3.15 MN and 4.5 MN respectively. An instrumented
dummy pile was tested in the laboratory to confirm
calibrations.
Laboratory calibration tests on the 450 mm diameter, 1 m
long dummy pile section, formed at the same time and from
the same materials as the instrumented CFA pile, performed
as expected based on the concrete rebar stiffnesses. The full-
scale dummy pile calibration was, in turn, in good
agreement with results from the top level of VWSGs of the
full-scale test pile.
There was a significant difference between the load–pile
head deflection curves of the instrumented piles and the
piles that were proof-tested on the project, even though the
testing criteria were similar for both. The instrumented
piles were tested within 3–5 days after construction,
whereas the proof piles were tested after 22–28 days. The
differences could not be accounted for on the basis of
differences in the stiffness in the pile itself, and it is
considered that this is due to installation effects that
decrease with time, such as pore pressures in the ground
outside the pile.
The ultimate pile capacity Pu of 7.25 MN was extrapolated
from the instrumented 600 mm diameter pile. This capacity
is over twice that of bored piles of similar diameter and
length in Edmonton till, which was also in a limestone
based till, and might have increased further had the tests
been carried out after full equalisation of pore water
pressures.
An extrapolation of the recorded end resistance indicates that
the appropriate value of Nc in an undrained bearing capacity
56 Geotechnical Engineering 161 Issue GE1 CFA pile behaviour in very stiff lodgement till
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analysis for CFA piles in the very hard Dublin black boulder
clay is 7, which is considerably less than the value of about 55
interpreted for the driven pile on the Croke Park site. However,
as the cu values were estimated from N values, and as the pile
was not actually taken to failure, there is a significant amount
of uncertainty in this assessment.
The shear stress mobilised along the shafts of the instrumented
piles was non-linear with respect to depth. The average shear
stresses mobilised along the shaft in the lodgement till were
230 kPa and 270 kPa in the 450 mm and 600 mm piles
respectively, which are higher than normally used in this soil
but similar to those recorded on the driven pile at the Croke
Park site. These shaft shear stresses corresponded to Æmob of
0.65 and 0.75 respectively.
A soil modulus of about E ¼ 150 MPa gave an
approximate estimate of pile settlement at working loads,
when applied in a finite element analysis. This modulus
was taken from experience of driven precast concrete piles
in Dublin till.
10. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to acknowledge the support and
contributions of May Gurney Ltd, T. J. O’Connor & Associates,
Irish Geotechnical Services Ltd and the Geotechnical Trust
Fund to the project.
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