Estimation of the ultimate carrying capacity of bored piles using the static load settlement curve

Abstract

Testing of bored piles is carried out to investigate the load-settlement behavior of the tested pile. The pile is loaded upto about l.5 times the working load to establish the loadsettlement behavior. The termination of the load testing at 1.5 times the working load is mainly due to the cost associated with providing the reaction load required to load the pile. If the pile doesn't reach the ultimate failure before the final test load, the ultimate carrying capacity of the pile cannot be obtained directly from static load testing. Therefore, it is not possible to obtain the Factor of Safety (FoS) of the pile against the shear failure of the soil surrounding the pile.