Reliability of axial design methods for open steel piles driven in chalk
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Liu, Tingfa
Vinck, Ken
Jardine, Richard J
Kontoe, Stavroula
Buckley, Roisin M
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The prediction of driving resistances and long-term axial capacities for piles driven in chalk suffers from considerable uncertainty that impacts many offshore and onshore projects. This paper assesses the reliability of alternative design methods by checking the accuracy with which conventional and recently proposed approaches can predict a newly collated and independent data set of high-quality static and dynamic pile tests conducted in the UK, France, and Germany, as well as the Axial-Lateral Pile Analysis for Chalk Applying multi-scale field and laboratory testing (ALPACA) joint industry project (JIP) data set from which the recently proposed methods were developed. While the conventional design recommendations by Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA) systematically underpredict the static shaft capacities of appropriately aged large diameter piles, the Chalk ICP-23 method gave unbiased average predictions for driving resistances and long-term static capacities. It was also found that dynamic analysis of restrike tests on aged piles generates more scattered capacity estimates than static measurements and, on average, marginally higher shaft capacities. The database analysis quantifies the reliability of the alternative design methods and so allows design uncertainties to be reduced considerably.
Date Issued
2025-12-01
Date Acceptance
2025-04-07
Citation
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 2025, 151 (12)
ISSN
1090-0241
Publisher
American Society of Civil Engineers
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume
151
Issue
12
Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2025 American Society of Civil Engineers. This is the author’s accepted manuscript made available under a CC-BY licence in accordance with Imperial’s Research Publications Open Access policy (www.imperial.ac.uk/oa-policy)
License URL
Subjects
BEHAVIOR
Chalk
Design methods
Engineering
Engineering, Geological
Geology
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Physical Sciences
Piling and pile testing
Reliability assessment
Science & Technology
Technology
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
04025146
Date Publish Online
2025-09-18