A Novel Approach Proposal for Estimation of Ultimate Pile Bearing Capacity Based on Pile Loading Test Data

Abstract

Determining the ultimate bearing capacity of piled foundations has been one of the most important problems in geotechnical engineering. It has been observed that the pile loading test evaluation methods based on the mathematical model give values far away from the failure load, even in piles that have reached the failure state. For this reason, it is aimed at developing a new mathematical pile loading test evaluation method based on the load-settlement curve. It has been thought that the main problem with the pile loading test evaluation methods based on other mathematical models giving values far from the failure load is that the methods iterate excessively. The new method proposed in the study was developed by taking this situation into account. The performance of the proposed new method was investigated using eight pile loading tests conducted in various provinces of Turkey. In order to verify the reliability of the newly developed method, the study was completed by applying multiple comparison tests with other methods in the literature (theoretical methods, finite element analysis methods, and pile loading test evaluation methods). According to the applied analysis of variance, it was concluded that the proposed new method remained within the 95% confidence interval and was usable. © 2023 by the authors.