Pile load test of jacked open-ended prestressed high-strength concrete pipe pile in clay

Abstract

The performance of open-ended piles can be different from that of closed piles due to the effect of soil plugging. This paper presents the results of a large-scale field pile load test conducted on an open-ended pile in clay under static compressive loads. A prestressed high-strength concrete pipe pile with an outer diameter of 400 mm and a wall thickness of 75 mm was instrumented with strain sensors and installed in a marine deposit for static load testing. The measured load-transfer data during pile installation and the pile load test results are reported and analysed. The data show that the pile was in a partially plugged condition during jacking and behaved in a fully plugged mode in the static load test. The measured ultimate shaft resistance and total resistance of the test pile were 659 and 1180 kN, respectively, which were smaller than the values calculated using a previously proposed method. The back-calculated α and β values (as used in the α and β methods) for axial pile capacity in marine deposits were 0·42 and 0·56, respectively.