• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.27-36
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• 2016

This paper presents the investigation of the major influence factors on the degree of soil plugging for open-ended piles based on the Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) numerical technique. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effect of soil plugging on the response of piles in various conditions. Through comparison of the results of field load tests, the CEL methodology was found to be in good agreement with the general trend observed by in situ measurement. Additionally, the parametric studies were performed by controlling the soil conditions, soil elastic moduli, end-bearing conditions and multi layers. It was found that the degree of soil plugging for sand layers was greater than that of clay layers. Also, the degree of soil plugging increased with an increase in both the soil stiffness and length of pile embedded in the bearing layer.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.385-400
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• 2016

Bearing capacity of open-ended piles depends largely on inner frictional resistance, which is influenced by the degree of soil plugging. While a fully-plugged open-ended pile produces a bearing capacity similar to a closed-ended pile, fully coring (or unplugged) pile produces a much smaller bearing capacity. In general, open-ended piles are driven under partially-plugged mode. The formation of soil plug may depend on many factors, including wall thickness at the pile tip (or inner pile diameter), sleeve height of the thickened wall at the pile tip and relative density. In this paper, we studied the effects of wall thickness at the pile base and sleeve height of the thickened wall at the pile tip on bearing capacity using laboratory model tests. The tests were conducted on a medium dense sandy ground. The model piles with different tip thicknesses and sleeve heights of thickened wall at the pile tip were tested. The results were also discussed using the incremental filling ratio and plug length ratio, which are generally used to describe the degree of soil plugging. The results showed that the bearing capacity increases with tip thickness. The bearing capacity of piles of smaller sleeve length (e.g., ${\leq}1D$; D is pile outer diameter) was found to be dependent on the sleeve length, while it is independent on the sleeve length of greater than a 1D length. We also found that the soil plug height is dependent on wall thickness at the pile base. The results on the incremental filling ratio revealed that the thinner walled piles produce higher degree of soil plugging at greater penetration depths. The results also revealed that the soil plug height is dependent on sleeve length of up to 2D length and independent beyond a 2D length. The piles of a smaller sleeve length (e.g., ${\leq}1D$) produce higher degree of soil plugging at shallow penetration depths while the piles of a larger sleeve length (e.g., ${\geq}2D$) produce higher degree of soil plugging at greater penetration depths.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.209-222
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• 2022

Finite element analyses using coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian technique are performed to investigate the effect of soil conditions on plugging of open-ended piles in sands. Results from numerical simulations are compared against the data from field load tests on three open-ended piles and show very good agreement. A parametric study focusing on determination of the coefficient of lateral earth pressure (K) in soil plug after pile driving are then performed for various soil densities, end-bearing conditions, and layering conditions. Results from the parametric study suggest that the K value in the soil plug - and hence the degree of soil plugging - increases with increasing soil densities. The analysis results further show that the K value within the soil plug can reach about 63 to 71% of the coefficient of passive earth pressure after pile driving. For layered soil profiles, the greater K values are achieved after pile driving when the denser soil layer is present near the pile base regardless of number of soil layers. This study provides comprehensive numerical and experimental data that can be used to develop advanced theory for analysis and design of open-ended pipe piles, especially for estimation of inner shaft resistance after pile driving.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2002.03a
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• pp.397-404
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• 2002

The bearing capacity of open-ended piles is affected by the degree of soil plugging, which is quantified by the IFR. There is not at present a design criterion for open-ended piles that explicitly considers the effect of IFR on pile load capacity In order to investigate this effect, model pile load tests using a calibration chamber were conducted on instrumented open-ended piles. The results of these tests show that the IFR increases with increasing relative density and increasing horizontal stress of soils. The unit base and shaft resistances decrease with increasing IFR. Based on the results of the model pile tests, new empirical relations for base load capacity and shaft load capacity of open-ended piles are proposed. In order to check the accuracy of predictions made with the proposed equations, the equations were applied to the full-scale pile load test preformed in this study, Based on the comparisons with the pile load test results, the proposed equations appear to produce satisfactory predictions.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.99-110
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• 2001

Open-ended pipe piles are often used for the foundations of both land and offshore structures because of their relatively low driving resistance. In this study, load tests were performed on model pipe piles installed in calibration chamber samples in order to investigate the effects of pile installation method on soil plugging and bearing capacity. Results of the test program showed that the incremental filling ratio (IFR), which is used to indicate the degree of soil plugging in open-ended piles, decreased (i) with increasing hammer weight for the same driving energy and (ii) with increasing hammer weight at the same fall height. The base and shaft resistance of the piles were observed to increase (i) with increasing hammer weight for the same driving energy and (ii) with increasing hammer weight at the given same fa11 height. The jacked pile was found to be have higher bearing capacity than an identical driven pile under similar conditions, mostly due to the more effective development of a soil plug in jacking than in driving.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.51-61
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• 2014

This paper presents an experimental study of the plugging effect on the capacity of open-ended piles installed in sandy soil. Full-scale tests, including dynamic and static axial-compression load tests, were carried out on three instrumented piles with different diameters (508.0, 711.2 and 914.4 mm). To measure the outer and inner shaft resistances acting on the piles, a double-walled system was utilized with instrumented strain gauges on the outside and inside walls of the pile. The results of field tests show that the inner shaft resistance was mostly mobilized at the location between the pile tip and 18-34% of the total plug length. It was found that the soil plugging in the lower portion has influence on the inner shaft resistance. In addition, it can be also demonstrated that the ratio of inner shaft resistance plus annulus load resistance to total resistance decreased with increasing pile diameters. The results of these tests show that the relationship between the degree of plugging and pile diameter is clearly established. Direct observations of the soil plugs were made and used to quantify both the plug length ratio (PLR) and the incremental filling ratio (IFR). Based on this result, it was found that the N value of the standard penetration test (SPT) is highly correlated with the IFR.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.189-197
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• 2002

The bearing capacity of open-ended piles is affected by the degree of soil plugging, which is quantified by the incremental filling ratio, IFR. There is not at present a design criterion for open-ended piles that explicitly considers the effect of IFR on pile load capacity. In order to investigate this effect, model pile load tests using a calibration chamber were conducted on instrumented open-ended piles. The results of these tests show that the IFR can be estimated from the plug length ratio PLR, which is defined as the ratio of soil plug length to pile penetration depth. The unit base and shaft resistances decrease with increasing IFR. Based on the results of the model pile tests, new design equations for calculating base load capacity and shaft load capacity of open-ended piles are proposed.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.199-206
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• 2002

The bearing capacity of open-ended piles is affected by the degree of soil plugging, which is quantified by the incremental filling ratio, IFR. However, most design criteria for open-ended piles do not consider the variation of pile bearing capacity with IFR. In this study, new design equations for calculating the pile base and shaft load capacities, based on IFR value of the pile, were proposed using the results of model pile tests. A full-scale pile load test was also conducted on fully instrumented open-ended pile driven into gravelly sand. The IFR for the pile was continuously measured during pile driving. In order to check the accuracy of predictions made with the proposed equations, the equations were applied to two examples, including the pile load test preformed in this study. Based on the comparisons with the pile load tests results, the proposed equations appear to produce satisfactory predictions.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.695-710
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• 2018

Formation of a soil plug in an open-ended pile is a very important factor in determining the pile behavior both during driving and during static loading. The degree of soil plugging can be represented by the incremental filling ratio (IFR) which is defined as the change in the plug length to the change of the pile embedment length. The experimental tests carried out in this research contain 138 tests that are divided as follows: 36 tests for single pile, 36 tests for pile group ($2{\times}1$), 36 tests for pile group ($2{\times}2$) and 30 pile group ($2{\times}3$). All tubular piles were tested using the poorly graded sand from the city of Karbala in Iraq. The sand was prepared at three different densities using a raining technique. Different parameters are considered such as method of installation, relative density, removal of soil plug with respect to length of plug and pile length to diameter ratio. The soil plug is removed using a new device which is manufactured to remove the soil column inside open pipe piles group installed using driving and pressing device. The principle of soil plug removal depends on suction of sand inside the pile. It was concluded that the incremental filling ratio (IFR) is changed with the changing of soil state and method of installation. For driven pipe pile group, the average IFR for piles in loose is 18% and 19.5% for L/D=12 and 15, respectively, while the average of IFR for driven piles in dense sand is 30% and 20% for L/D=12 and L/D=15 respectively. For pressed method of pile installation, the average IFR for group is zero for loose and medium sand and about 5% for dense sand. The group capacity increases with the increase of IFR. For driven pile with length of 450 mm, the average IFR % is about 30.3% in dense sand, 14% in medium and 18.3% for loose sand while when the length of pile is 300 mm, the percentage equals to 20%, 17% and 19.5%, respectively.