Bearing Capacity of Uplift Piles with End Gates

The pile base plays an important role in increasing its bearing capacity. Several studies have been carried out to produce types of piles which are enlarged at their bases. Therefore, it was thought in this study to design a mechanism on enlarged base for the pile at a selected depth so that it does not intersect with pile driving process. The manufactured pile is square open-ended from both sides and provided with two or four gates. The gates are linked on the pile shaft at the base by steel hinges which allow the gate to rotate at an angle of (90°). The pile is driven alone while the spreader (inner Shaft) is kept inside the pile using a hammer. The driving in this stage is stopped when the penetration of the pile and spreader is equal. At the end of this stage, the spreader is extruded from the pile shaft and the pile becomes ready for loading test. This type of piles (steel piles with gates) does not demand reaching the strong soil layer or knowing its depth, because this type of piles is suitable for soft to medium soils and it provides very good results, so that the required pile length will be shorter than in ordinary piles. This means lower cost and time but with additional efforts.