The behaviour of bored piles in weathered diabase

D. L. WEBB*

In the design of foundations for the new Johannesburg Academic Hospital it was necessary to predict the settlement of piles as accurately as possible because of the very low tolerance of the structure to uneven settlement. Among the full-scale pile loading tests carried outfor this purpose were two tests on bored piles founded in highly weathered diabase rock and loaded to failure. One of the piles was cast on a disc of expandedpolystyrene at the bottom of the shaft to eliminate end bearing load, and the other was cast in the normal way, so that shaft frictional resistance and end bearing load could be investigated separately and compared with predictions based on the mechanical properties of the diabase measured in the laboratory. From the results of the first two tests the load-displacement curve for an under-reamed test pile was synthesized using a dimensionless parameter method and an elastic analysis. There is close agreement between the observed andpredicted load-settlement curves up to normal working stresses using both methods. At higher stresses there is increasing divergence, particularly with the elastic method based on the compression modulus of the diabase which wasfound to be markedly stress-dependent. Duns le projet des fondations pour le nouveau Johannesburg Academic Hospital, il a ete necessaire de prevoir le tassement des pieux aussi exactement que possible car la structure etait tr&ssensible aux tassements diflerentiels. Parmi les essais en vraie grandeur de chargement de pieux realist% duns ce but il y avait deux essais sur des pieux fores, fond&s duns un rocher constituepar du diabase fortement alttireet charges h la rupture. Un des pieux fut coule SW un disque de polystyrene place 2 la base du fiit afn deliminer la force portante de la pointe, et lautre fut coule normalement, pour que la resistanceparfrottement lateral et la r&stance depointepuissent etre examinees separement et compares aux previsions bus&es sur les proprietes mecaniques du diabase mesurees en laboratoire. A partir des resultats des deux premiers essais la courbe eflort-deplacement pour un essai de pieu sous-al&e a etesynthetiseen utilisant une methode avec parametre sans dimension et une analyse Plastique. I1 y a une bonne concordance entre les courbes de tassement observees et celles prevues jusquh des contraintes de travail normal, en utilisant les deux methodes. A des contraintes plus elevees il y a un accroissement de la divergence, specialement avec la methode elastique basee sur le module de compression du diabase qui apparaft comme etant etroitement dependante du champ de contrainte.

The rocks underlying the site are quartzites and shales of the Witwatersrand system, dipping in a southerly direction at 15-30. A diabase intrusion comprising a highly to completely weathered upper zone up to 30 m thick, and a moderately weathered to slightly weathered or fresh lower zone, was exposed near the surface in the terrace excavations over a large proportion of the site. Pile founding conditions thus varied greatly over very short distances. To obtain information for design of piles founded entirely in the upper zone of highly weathered diabase, three full-scale test piles were loaded to failure.
* D. L. Webb and Associates, Durban, South Africa.

64 FEATURES OF ROCK AT TEST SITE

D. L. WEBB

The results of a number of boreholes showed that subsurface conditions at the positions of each of the three test piles were virtually the same as that reflected by the borehole record in Fig. 1. Based on the descriptive terms for weathering of rocks recommended by the Geological Society Engineering Group Working Party (1972) the weathering of the diabase in the upper 8 to 9 m may be classified as W6, being discoloured and completely changed to a soil in which the original rock fabric is completely destroyed. Below about 9 m the W5 classification applies. Here the rock is discoloured and changed to a hard fissured soil with occasional slickensided surfaces, but the original rock fabric is mainly preserved, and there are occasional small core stones. Between fissures intact blocks are usually less than O-1m3 in volume.
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF THE DIABASE

Roughly cubical blocks of the highly weathered diabase some 3000 cm3 in volume were carefully cut by hand from the sides of several large-diameter bored pile shafts near the test piles, and immediately waxed to preserve their natural moisture contents. Their mechanical properties were determined from laboratory tests and the mean values are given in Table 1. Where intact samples were used for determination of shear strength and compressibility the the test specimens were cut in such a way that their vertical axes corresponded with their vertical orientations in the ground. It is seen that there is moderate, although erratic, variation in the diabase material sampled between 7 and 18 m. In Fig. 1 the SPT N values also vary erratically, within fairly narrow limits.
Water content and Atterberg limits

From Table 1 it is seen that the liquid limits of the highly weathered diabase lie within the range 51-80 and the plastic limits within the range 29-43. With increase in depth there is a trend towards an increase in water content and an increase in the degree of saturation.
Particle size distribution

From the gradings in Table 1 it is seen that the diabase has weathered to a clayey silt. contents vary erratically from 12 to 28% and tend to decrease with depth.
Shear strength

Clay

Unconfined compression tests were carried out on partly saturated test specimens at their natural moisture contents. As seen in Table 1, undrained unconfined compression strengths

Table 1.

Summary of results of laboratory tests W, $L,, I ;L, % /of/, --; 4 : 1 25.0 23.1 26.3 25.7 32.0 28.5 51 80 46 72 69 G kpyi; ---34 2.77 43 2.91 29 2.87 40 2.90 33 2.78 ;;6& 1435 1496 1386 1482 77 75 80 85 90

E)zitd, Nuffber CL, m -~ ;:; 11.8 14.2 16.5 18.0 tests

s
2

Particle size, % smaller than, mm 2.00 0.42 0.074 0.053 ---94 99 100 91 98 95 9.5 91 95 84 91 89 Z :: :: ;: 78 Z 72

Unconfined compression strength, 0.002 kN/m2 12 f ;: :; 16 433 332 471 :4: 493

mv, mZ/MN

0.0123 0.0141 0.0134 0.0112 0.0122 oxtO9o

Note: w= water content, Yd=dry density, &=degree

of saturation, m,=coefficient

of volume compressibility.

PILES

IN WEAK

ROCK

65

Made ground
Hillwash sand and gravel

urple to dark yellowish

24

27 16 21

Hard, damp, purple to dark yellow to dark yellowish orange and light grey rli;kenrided. firru;ed highly weathered diabare

23

29 22 -

Fig. 1.

Representative borehole log

lie within the range 322-560 kN/m2. Ten undrained triaxial compression tests were carried out to examine the effects of confining pressures on samples from 11.8 and 14.2 m. Although erratic, the results suggest a value cU,the cohesion, of 125 kN/m2 and a value of I$,the angle of shearing resistance, of 18, in terms of total stress. Compressibility The coefficient of volume compressibility, m,, in Table 1, is applicable to the range of pressure PI to (P,+300) kN/m2, where Pi is the estimated overburden based on total bulk density. Correction for sample disturbance was made using the method given by Schmertmann (1953). It is seen that the values of m, range within fairly narrow limits. The mean value below the founding level of the test piles is 0.0115 m2/MN and the corresponding moduIus of compressibility E= l/m is 87 MN/m2.
DESCRIPTION OF TEST PILES

A Williams rig was employed for boring the three 615 mm diameter shafts for the test piles which are referred to as piles X, Y and Z. The piles are 3 m apart at the corners of an equilateral triangle and the depth of shaft in each case was 12 m. Pile X was cast on a polystyrene disc initially 300 mm thick at the bottom of the shaft excavation to allow movement of the base of the pile without mobilizing significant endbearing load, so that a relation could be established between pile head deflexion and shaft frictional resistance.

66
Stress: kN/m* 200 I I I 400 I I 600 I I ml I

D. L. WEBB

6(

Fig. 2.

Stress-strain relationship for expanded polystyrene

Pile Y was identical with pile X except that the polystyrene disc at the bottom of the shaft excavation was omitted and the pile was cast with its base in direct contact with the highly weathered diabase. Pile Z was provided with an under-ream of twice the shaft diameter and cast with its base in contact with the diabase. The pile shafts were left open for between three and four days before casting the reinforced concrete piles. Concrete cube strength at 28 days was in the range 20-25 MPa. Loads were applied to each pile by three hydraulic jacks each of 136 000 kg capacity located on a level steel bearing plate grouted to the concrete pile head. Reaction to the jacking load was provided by a steel beam anchored at each end by a steel cable grouted into bedrock. Settlement of the pile head was measured to an accuracy of 0.05 mm using a precise level mounted on a concrete plinth 16 m from the nearest test pile. Initial loading of pile X was applied in 5 increments of 25 t each, and observations of pile head settlement continued until there was no difference in settlement over a 15 min period. At loads in excess of 125 t increments were reduced to 15 t and settlement observations continued until there was no difference in settlement over periods of up to an hour. After maintaining the yield load of 300 t for 2 h the load was similarly reduced in decrements of 55 t to 27 t and then zero before reloading in increments to 300 t. Pile Y was loaded incrementally, in a similar way to pile X, with two cycles of loading to 300 t followed by unloading and reloading to 350 t. Pile Z, with the two-diameter under-ream was loaded in increments of 55 t to 220 t and then in increments of 27 t to the maximum capacity of the steel cross-head beam of 355 t.

PILES

IN

WEAK

ROCK Applied load: Mg 200

67

i
B 2 E 1 3

20 -

z_

Test pile X shaft friction

only

45 I-

Fig. 3.

Load-settlement carves

To establish the proportion of the test load supported in end bearing on the polystyrene disc beneath pile X, a 300 mm cubical block of expanded polystyrene was placed between steel loading platens in a compression testing machine in the laboratory and increments of load applied. The stress-strain curve for the expanded polystyrene of initial density 17.7 kg/m3 is shown in Fig. 2.

RESULTS OF PILE LOADING TESTS

The total applied load in each pile test is plotted against pile head deflexion in Fig. 3. In the assessment of shaft frictional resistance of pile X it is necessary to apply a correction to the load-settlement curve to allow for the end bearing load on the polystyrene. This latter load will be relatively small and as a first approximation it is assumed that the entire load is supported by shaft friction uniformly distributed along the pile shaft. This enables the end bearing load on the polystyrene to be estimated. The modulus of elasticity of the concrete at the time of testing was approximately 20 000 MPa and thus at a load of 250 t, for example, the elastic compression of the pile is approximately 2.5 mm compared with a pile head deflexion,

68

D. L. WEBB

I
I

I
1

I
4

I
5

Fig. 4.

Dimensionless parameters from results of pile loading tests

Fig. 3, of 18 mm. Owing to the mass of the wet concrete during placement the stress on the polystyrene was approximately 290 kN/m2 and the corresponding strain, from Fig. 2, about 71%. On this basis the additional deflexion of the pile base of 15.5 mm at an applied load of 250 t increases the strain in the polystyrene to about 76x, at which the net applied end bearing load is 3.4 t. At applied loads approaching the ultimate, the end bearing load on the disc of polystyrene initially 300 mm thick, increases appreciably, and can be estimated more closely by successive approximation until the sum of the estimated frictional and end bearing loads equals the applied load. In Fig. 3 the dashed line is the frictional load-settlement curve derived in this way. It is seen that the ultimate load of pile X is 280 t. Average shaft frictional resistance is thus 122 kN/m2 compared with an average undrained unconfined compression strength of the diabase material in Table 1 of 412 kN/m2. At a pile head detlexion of 1% of the pile shaft

PILES IN WEAK

ROCK
APplted 0 50 100 load : Mg 150 200 250 300

69

2-

Pile head settlement:

mm
and Bucher method method non-dimensional

0
x IO A

Observed Predicted Predicted by Ha&Ii using

12L

Fig. 5.

Comparison of observed and synthesized load-settlement curves for under-reamed test pile

diameter, shaft friction is just under 70% of the ultimate. This relatively slow rate of development of the ultimate value is attributed to overbreak in the completely weathered diabase resulting in an irregular pile surface at shallow depth. The ultimate end bearing load of pile Y, represented by the difference between the ultimate applied load of pile Y and the ultimate frictional load of pile X is 80 000 kg, equivalent to an ultimate end bearing stress of 2650 kN/m2. From Table 1 the undrained unconfined compression strength of the diabase below founding level is probably about 520 kN/m2, thus the ratio between ultimate end bearing stress and undrained shear strength in the partly saturated diabase material is slightly over 5.
SYNTHESIS OF LOAD-SETTLEMENT CURVES FROM DIMENSIONLESS PARAMETERS

A load-settlement curve for pile Z has been synthesized using dimensionless parameters obtained from the results of the tests on piles X and Y using the method described by Whitaker and Cooke (1966) and Burland et al. (1966). From Fig. 3 the ratio S/D is plotted against the ratio q,/qfcul,, in Fig. 4(a) and the ratio S/B is plotted against qB/qBcultj in Fig. 4(b) where D is the pile shaft diameter, qf is the average shaft friction developed, qfcult,is the ultimate shaft friction, S is the pile head settlement, B is the pile base diameter, qB is the end bearing stress developed, and qBcult)is the ultimate end bearing stress. In synthesizing the load-settlement curve for pile Z the shaft frictional load and the end bearing load are summed over a range of pile head settlements. The relationships in Fig. 4 are plotted with respect to pile head settlement. Thus the effects of pile compression are inherently taken into account in predicting the behaviour of pile Z which has the same diameter as piles X and Y.

70

D. L. WEBB

Observed and synthesized load-settlement curves for pile Z are compared in Fig. 5, from which it is seen that the curve obtained from the non-dimensional analysis almost coincides with that observed for small loads, but tends to overestimate pile head settlement slightly at loads in excess of the allowable working load of about 125 t.

SYNTHESIS DIABASE

OF LOAD-SETTLEMENT

CURVES

FROM

MODULUS

OF COMPRESSION

OF THE

A load-settlement curve for pile Z has also been synthesized using the procedure described by Haefeli and Bucher (1961) which is an elastic analysis involving E, the modulus of compression of the foundation material at the base of the pile. The relationship between E and the stress at the base of the pile is obtained from the expression . . . . . . . . . . (1)

where y is the settlement of the base of the pile, crO is the uniformly distributed stress over the pile shaft cross-section at the top of the pile and D is the diameter of the pile. The symbol bc is a function of the L/D ratio and X, L being the length of the pile and h the ratio between point load and total load. Numerical values of h for pile Y can be obtained from Fig. 3 for loads corresponding to any chosen pile head settlement. Fig. 6 shows the relationship between E and end bearing stress ob derived from eqn (1). Using values of E from Fig. 6 and values of X based on observed shaft frictional resistance of pile X the load-settlement curve for pile Z has been synthesized and is also plotted in Fig. 5. It is seen that this curve is virtually coincident with the observed load-settlement curve in the range of applied loads from zero to about 200 t which is well above the working load of the pile. At greater applied loads the values of E, when substituted in the Haefeli-Bucher equations, tend to overestimate the settlement.

PREDICTION

OF SElTLEMENT

OF WORKING

PILES

The settlement of representative large diameter 12 m long working piles has been predicted from the results of the pile load tests using the two methods just outlined and the results are given in Table 2. Some variations from the predicted settlements are anticipated because of variations in the condition of the weathered diabase, in the lengths of the piles and in the magnitudes of the applied dead and live loads. At the present time construction is well advanced, although not

Table 2.
Pile type

Predicted settlements of single working piles

Shaft diameter, mm Base diameter, mm Settlement, mm YZng t

Nondimensional method a:: 2:; 9.0

Haefeli and Bucher method

: : 5

1070 1372 1220 1524

2140 1830 2440 2740 3048

240 z 570 730

;:: ;:; 9.9

PILE.3 IN WEAK

ROCK

71

0
Fig. 6. pile

IO3

200 /I: MN/m2

300

400

500

Observed relationship between modulus of compression of highly weathered &base and stress at base of

yet complete. No excessive pile settlements have been recorded, and preliminary observations indicate that in relation to predicted settlement the long-term behaviour of the piles should be satisfactory.
CONCLUSIONS

The mechanical properties of the partly saturated highly weathered fissured diabase rock are similar to those of very stiff fissured clays. From the results of loading tests on two straight shaft bored piles in the highly weathered diabase, ultimate pile shaft friction was found to be about O-3 of the average unconfined compression strength of the material surrounding the shaft, and ultimate end bearing load about five times the unconfined compression strength of the diabase beneath the pile base. Up to working load close agreement was found between the observed and synthesized loadsettlement curves for the under-reamed test pile in the highly weathered diabase. At higher loads the method based on dimensionless parameters overestimates settlement slightly, whilst the method based on elastic analysis tends to overestimate settlement significantly. Back analysis of the pile load test results shows that the modulus of compression of .the highly weathered diabase, E, which was found to be markedly stress-dependent in the practical range of pile end bearing stresses, varies in the range 50-500 MPa. Values of E of block samples measured in the oedometer apparatus are lower than the field values despite substantial correction for sample disturbance.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The Author wishes to thank Hospital Contractors, Johannesburg, for permission to publish this Paper.

72

D.

L. WEBB

REFERENCES Burland, J. B., Butler, F. G. & Dunican, P. (1966). The behaviour and design of large diameter bored piles in stiff clay. Proc. Symp. large boredpiles, 51-71. London: Institution of Civil Engineers. Geological Society Engineering Group (1972). The preparation of maps and plans in terms of engineering geology. Q. Jnl Engng Geol. 5,293-381. Haefeli, F. & Bucher, H. (1961). New methods for determining bearing capacity and settlement of piles. Proc. Fifth Znt. Conf. Soil Mech. Fdn Engng, Paris 1, 65-72. Schmertmann, J. M. (1953). Estimating the true consolidation behaviour of clay from laboratory test results Proc. Am. Sot. Civ. Engrs, Separate No. 311. Whitaker, T. & Cooke, R. W. (1966). An investigation of the shaft and base resistances of large bored piles in London: Institution of Civil Engineers. London clay. Proc. Symp. large bored piles, l-49.