An analytical study on pile bearing capacity using static load test results / Nurulzatulshima Abdul Karim

In Civil Engineering point view, the important aspect during design stage is to obtain the
cost effective design or to avoid over and under estimate design on pile bearing capacity.
Most of foundation elements, when tested to soil failure, do not exhibit a clearly defined
failure load. But the design procedure requires that a specific ultimate capacity be taken
from the load test results. Decourt Method, Brinch Hansen 80% criterion Method , Chin
Method and Vander Veen Methods are the method that reviewed. The result of this
study found that in Uitm Pulau Pinang, the piles foundation design could be considered
as under estimate, and a few of them are reasonable and over estimate. The under
estimate pile design has Qultimate are based on Decourt Method, Brinch Hansen 80%
criterion Method, Chin Method and Vander Veen Methods and they are larger than
design load. This resulted in wastage of material and ineffective cost utilisation for the
project. This study also focus on determine the status of pile deduced from design
assumption and manufacturer’s specification. Based on this study, it can be concluded
that most test piles in Penang were experience geotechnical govern while some of them
are under structural govern and pile overloaded. This study also concern about failure
analysis in term of excessive settlement. Excessive settlement was not the major cause in
pile failure. Only 6 Test pile in Uitm Pulau Pinang stes were having excessive
settlement. JKR failure criteria were used to compare between settlement values from
Static Load Test with standard value from JKR criteria.