• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.61-75
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• 2007

Deep foundations have been popularly installed in hard stratum such as gravels or rocks in Korea. However, it is necessary to consider sand or sandy gravel layers that locate at the mid-depths as the bearing stratum of piles in the thick Nakdong River deltaic deposits, as done in the Chaophraya (Bangkok) and Mississippi River deltas. This study was focused on the finding of suitable methods for estimating bearing capacity when driving prestressed high-strength concrete (PHC) piles to a required depth in the deltaic area. Ground investigation was performed at five locations of two sites in the deltaic area. Bearing capacity of the driven piles has been computed using a number of proposed methods such as CPT-based and other analytical methods, based on the ground investigation and comparison one another other. Five PDA (pile driving analyzer) tests were systematically carried out at the whole depths of embedded piles, which is a well-blown useful technique for the purposes. As the results, the bearing capacities calculated by various methods were compared with the PDA and static load testing results. It was found that the shaft resistance is significantly governed by set-up effects and then the long-term value agrees well with that of the $\beta$ method. Also, the design methods for toe resistance were determined based on the SLT result, rather than PDA results that led to underestimation. Moreover, using the CPT results, appropriate methods were proposed for calculating the bearing capacity of the piles in the area.