Evaluation of design methods for side resistance only rock socketed piles

Abstract

The ability of three methods to predict the load-settlement response of rock socketed piles was examined in a recent paper. The piles considered were complete piles in which both the side and base of the piles contribute to the total resistance. For a range of reasons, it is sometimes necessary to consider rock socketed piles for which the resistance is provided only by the side of the socket. This paper extends the earlier paper by comparing predictions for side resistance only piles with the load-settlement response of a suite of full-scale side resistance only pile tests. Only two of the methods of the earlier paper are used for this comparison as the third method could not decouple the two components of resistance. It is demonstrated that one of the methods produces reasonable predictions of performance whereas the other appears to underpredict performance.