Limitations of cyclic pile load tests by kentledge system in soft clay soil

Abstract

The paper describes the inadequacies of cycled head-down load tests on two barrettes and one bored pile installed in soft clay soil region in Binh Thanh district, and district 7, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, respectively. The soil profile of these sites consisted of layers of organic soft clay and silt from 22.5 m to 28.6 m depth on compact silty sand or semi-stiff to stiff clays to about 60 m depth and followed by dense to very dense sand. The cross-section area of two barrettes located on the Tan Cang complex area was 2,800 mm by 800 mm, which were constructed using the bucket drill technique with bentonite slurry into 65 m depth.  The bored pile of the Lakeside project in district 7 having a pile diameter was 1200 mm and 80 m depth. All instrumented piles were attached from ten to eleven strain gages levels along the pile shaft to record the deformation data during the load tests. The strain data analysis shows that the shaft frictions of pile portions located in the soft clay soil regions were increased dramatically, and the base resistances were smaller expected by the setting-up of Kentledge and the cyclic loading tests.