The Shaft Capacity of Displacement Piles in Clay: A State of the Art Review

The rapid expansion of the offshore wind sector, coupled with increasing demand for high rise structures, has placed renewed demand on the driven piling market. In light of this industry growth, this paper reviews the evolution of design approaches for calculating the shaft capacity of displacement piles installed in cohesive soils. The transition from traditional total stress design towards effective stress methods is described. Complex stress–strain changes occur during pile installation, equalisation and load testing and as a consequence, the selection of parameters for use in conventional earth-pressure type effective stress approaches is not straight-forward. These problems have led to the development of empirical correlations between shaft resistance and in situ tests, such as the cone penetration tests. However, many of these approaches are limited because they were developed for specific geological conditions. Significant insight into pile behaviour has been obtained from recent model pile tests, which included reliable measurements of radial effective stresses. These tests have allowed factors such as friction fatigue and interface friction to be included explicitly in design methods. Whilst analytical methods have been developed to investigate pile response, these techniques cannot yet fully describe the complete stress–strain history experienced by driven piles. The use of analytical methods in examining features of pile behaviour, such as the development of pore pressure during installation and the effects of pile end geometry on pile capacity, is discussed.