ESTIMATION OF SETTLEMENT OF PILE GROUPS

Abstract

Estimation of settlement of pile foundation is generally carried out based on equivalent raft method, which is empirical in kind. On the other hand, the literature provides a few sophisticated methods which involve inputting too many soil parameters which cannot be reliably estimated. Therefore, an attempt has been made to develop a simple but a rational method of estimating settlement of pile groups based on load transfer approach as adopted by Hazarika & Ramasamy (2000) for single piles and equivalent pier method given by Randolph (1994). The method takes into account layered soil system and makes use of input parameters obtained from usually conducted field tests such as standard penetration test (SPT) and static cone penetration test (SCPT) in cohesionless soils and consolidation test in cohesive soils. The method has been computerized and a user friendly program has been developed using C++. Using the program, settlement of pile groups has been estimated for a number of cases and parametric studies have been carried out to bring out the effect of type of soil and number of piles in a group. Further a few reported case histories have been compiled and a comparison of predicted and observed settlements has been made.