Measured versus Predicted Shaft Resistance of H- and Closed Ended Pipe Piles in Sands

Abstract

There are many factors that influence the skin friction capacity of steel Hand closed ended pipe (CEP) piles driven into sands. As part of a bridge replacement program near Texas gulf coast, we evaluated the performance of various design methodologies for predicting driven pile shaft resistance in sands. We predicted the shaft resistance of steel Hand CEP piles at one bridge location using the SPT Method (Meyerhof, 1979), FHWA DRIVEN computer program, and WEAP-SPT Method. The actual pile shaft resistances were then determined during end-of-drive (EOD) and at beginning of restrike (BOR) using dynamic testing and CAPWAP procedures. The dynamic testing shaft resistance distribution results were compared to our predictive methods to evaluate which predictive method would be best suited for estimating the pile capacity at the remaining bridge locations. This paper describes the installation of the driven steel Hand CEP piles, presents the dynamic load test results as compared with predicted design values and evaluates the performance of the predictive methods.