• 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.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.965-975
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• 1994

Opening the tip of a PHC pile, under a constant driving energy, can result in an increment of penetration depth due to the decrement of driving resistance. Therefore, the bearing capacity of an open-ended PHC pile may become larger than that of a closed-ended PHC pile by virtue of the increased embedded length. However, two main problems can be caused by opening the end of PHC pile. First problem is the variation of bearing capacity by opening the pile tip, and the second one is whether the tip of an open-ended PHC pile will be failured by a high pressure developed by the soil plug. In this study, model pile tests in calibration chamber were performed to investigate the practicability of open-ended PHC pile in view of both the pile bearing capacity and the possible failure of the pile tip. According to the test results, the total bearing capacity of open-ended piles approaches the total bearing capacity of closed-ended piles with the increase of the penetration depth. The failure of pile tip could be occurred in the region of 0.8~1.1 times as the inside diameter from the pile tip.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.241-261
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• 2013

The bearing mechanism of pile during installation and loading process which controls the deformation and distribution of strain and stress in the soil surrounding pile tip is complex and full of much uncertainty. It is pointed out that particle crushing occurs in significant stress concentrated region such as the area surrounding pile tip. The solution to this problem requires the understanding and modeling of the mechanical behavior of granular soil under high pressures. This study aims to investigate the sand behavior around pile tip considering the characteristics of sand crushing. The numerical analysis of model pile loading test under different surcharge pressure with constitutive model for sand crushing is presented. This constitutive model is capable of predicting the dilatancy of soil from negative to positive under low confining pressure and only negative dilatancy under high confining pressure. The predicted relationships between the normalized bearing stress and normalized displacement are agreeable with the experimental results during the entire loading process. It is estimated from numerical results that the vertical stress beneath pile tip is up to 20 MPa which is large enough to cause sand to be crushed. The predicted distribution area of volumetric strain represents that the distributed area shaped wedge for volumetric contraction is beneath pile tip and distributed area for volumetric expansion is near the pile shaft. It is demonstrated that the finite element formulation incorporating a constitutive model for sand with crushing is capable of producing reasonable results for the pile loading problem.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.37 no.11
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• pp.7-22
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• 2021

In this study, inverse analysis was performed on the bi-directional axial compressive load test conducted on drilled shafts. And the bearing capacities were analyzed by numerical analysis of various pile tip ground conditions of silt clay, silt sand, sand silt, sand gravel, weathered rock, and soft rock. The bearing capacities were analyzed using the P-S method, the Davisson method, and the allowable sttlement of 25.4 mm. The minimum allowable bearing capacities analyzed by three methods were found to be 19.64 MN ~ 24.96 MN. At this time, the base resistances were sharing a 2% ~ 12% of a head load, shaft resistance were shared 88% ~ 98% of the head load. The greater the strength of pile tip was found to increase the allowable bearing capacity. However, the difference between the maximum allowable bearing capacity and the minimum allowable bearing capacity was 5.32 MN, and the increase in the allowable bearing capacity was only 27% depending on the pile tip.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.34 no.11
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• pp.107-119
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• 2018

PHC piles, extension-plate attached PHC piles, and steel pipe attached PHC piles were installed in field test site. Axial compressive static load tests including load distribution test and Pile Driving Analyzer (after driving) were done on the tip-transformed PHC piles and the grouted tip-transformed PHC piles. Load-displacement curves of three different type of PHC piles, which are PHC pile (TP-1), extension plate attached PHC pile (TP-2) and steel pipe attached PHC pile (TP-3), showed almost the same behavior. Thus bearing capacity increase effect of the tip-transformed PHC piles was negligible. Share ratio of side resistance and end bearing resistance for PHC pile, extension plate attached PHC pile, and steel pipe attached PHC pile were 95.8% vs. 4.2%, 95.6% vs. 4.4%, and 97.8% vs. 2.2% respectively.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.23 no.12
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• pp.5-15
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• 2022

Conventionally, because evaluation methods of the bearing capacity for double steel pipe-concrete composite pile design have not been established, the conventional vertical bearing capacity equations for steel hollow pile are used. However, there are severe differences between the predictions from these equations, and the most conservative one among vertical bearing capacity predictions are conventionally adopted as a design value. Consequently, the current prediction method for vertical bearing capacity of composite pile prediction composite pile causes design reliability and economical feasibility to be low. This paper investigated mechanical behaviors of a new composite pile, with a cross-section composed of double steel pipes filled with concrete (DSCT), vertical bearing capacities were analyzed for several DSCT pile conditions. Axisymmetric finite element models for DSCT pile and surrounding ground were created and they were used to analyze effects on behaviors of DSCT pile pile by embedding depth, stiffness of plugging material at pile tip, height of plugging material at pile tip, and rockbed material. Additionally, results from conventional design prediction equations for vertical bearing capacity at steel hollow pile tip were compared with that from numerical results, and the use of the conventional equations for steel hollow pile was examined to apply to that for DSCT pile.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.443-455
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• 2023

This is a research analyses on the bearing capacity at a pile tip embedded in rock. The aim is to propose a shape coefficient for an analytical solution and to investigate the influence of the plastic flow law on the problem. For this purpose, the finite difference method is used to analyze the bearing capacity of various types and states of rock masses, assuming the Hoek & Brown failure criterion, by considering both plane strain and an axisymmetric model. Different geometrical configurations were adopted for this analysis. First, the axisymmetric numerical results were compared with those obtained from the plane strain analytical solution. Then the pile shape influence on the bearing capacity was studied. A shape factor is now proposed. Furthermore, an evaluation was done on the influence of the plastic flow law on the pile tip bearing capacity. Associative flow and non-associative flow with null dilatancy were considered, resulting in a proposed correlation. A total of 324 cases were simulated, performing a sensitivity analysis on the results and using the graphic output of vertical displacement and maximum principal stress to understand how the failure mechanism occurs in the numerical model.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2006.03a
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• pp.506-513
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• 2006

In this study, multi-level hi-direction pile load tests for drilled shaft pile socketed into the gravel were performed. The lower and upper hi-direction load test assemblies were located on tip of pile and 15m above the tip of pile. Based on the results of pile load test, it was analyzed bearing capacity of gravel, skin firction of upper soils and skin friction of lower soils. It was confirmed that drilled shaft socketed into the gravel had enough bearing capacity.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.91-99
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• 2023

To test the effect of various pile tip shape series of model scale loading tests were carried out on test piles with special pile tips. Special pile tips were made using the 3D printer and were attached to the bottom end of the test pile for loading tests. The pile tips were made to have 30°, 45°, 60° inclined tips, as well as a rounded tip. The main objective of the test was to observe the effect of various pile tip shapes on settlement and penetrability of the pile. Moreover, a numerical model simulating the pile loading test carried out in this study was established and verified based on the loading test results. From this, the stress concentration around the pile tip was investigated. This will allow us to analyze the decrease of stress concentration around the pile tip which is the main cause of the pile tip damage during pile installation. However, modifying the pile tip shape will eventually increase the settlement of the pile. By estimating the degree of increase in pile settlement, the viability and the efficiency of the pile shape modification was judged. In addition, case studies on the effect of different pile tip shape and ground conditions on pile settlement and stress dispersion was conducted.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.1760-1769
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• 2007

The cut slope sliding which has been frequently encountered in Pohang area has been reported due to the rapid reduction of shear strength in mudstone after being exposed to the air. Mudstone has characteristics that it has high enough strength and stiffness in a dry condition, but the strength and stiffness decrease in a wet condition with groundwater infiltration. The case study in this paper shows that mudstone which had enough strength in a boring stage has lost the strength after installing PRD steel pipe pile inducing an insufficient bearing capacity, which has been ascertained by the static load test. Test construction has been performed to investigate the most favorable method for increasing a pile bearing capacity in mudstone with various methods such as MSG (Micro Silica Grouting) around the tip and side of a pile, the perimeter grouting combined with Micro pile reinforcement, and concrete filling after tip reinforcing grouting. From the test construction, MSG has been turned out to be the most favorable method for increasing a pile bearing capacity in mudstone, which has been confirmed by the static load test.