Development of Axial Pile Load Transfer Curves Based on Instrumented Load Tests

The load transfer method is an efficient and practical tool for the analysis of single piles and combined systems such as pile-raft foundations and rigid inclusions. The existing transfer curves rely either on the measurement of the pressuremeter modulus, which is not widespread at the international level, or they have been developed only for specific pile and ground types. In order to develop new transfer curves valid for all pile and ground types without the need of pressuremeter tests, a database of 50 instrumented pile load tests was examined. The existing curves were first compared to the measurements at the pile shaft and at the tip. Then the parameters of the most appropriate curve types, the cubic root and the hyperbolic curve, were calibrated in order to best match the measurements. A single set of parameters for each proposed curve type is suitable enough for most pile and ground types. The good agreement of the proposed curves was confirmed by applying them to assess the overall load-settlement curve of 72 other pile load tests. (C) 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.