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Design of bored piles in residual soils based on field-performance data

M. F. CHANGAND B. B. BROMS

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School of Civil and Structural Engineering, Nanyang Technological Institute, Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 2263
Received April 9, 1990
Accepted October 18, 1990
The current practice for the design of large-diameter bored piles in residual soils in Singapore is based on the calculated
static capacity of the piles. Insufficient consideration of the load-transfer mechanism and overreliance on pile load
tests have led to conservative designs. A better alternative is to adopt a load-displacement analysis method that provides
information on the load distribution along the pile and the complete load-displacement relationship. Results of fullscale load tests on instrumented piles indicate that bored piles in residual soils in Singapore behave in the same way
as in stiff clay and weak rocks elsewhere in that the load transfer at the working load is dominated by shaft friction.
Simple correlations exist between the standard penetration resistance and the load-transfer parameters. An example
illustrates that the proposed design procedure that uses these simple correlations and the load-transfer method is an
improvement over present design methods.
Key words: bored piles, cast-in-place piles, design, drilled piers, field test, load transfer, residual soil, shaft resistance.
La pratique courante pour la conception de pieux forks a grand diamktre dans les sols rCsiduels a Singapour est basCe
sur la capacite statique calculee des pieux. Une prise en compte insuffisante du mCcanisme de transfert de charge et
une confiance indue dans les essais de chargement ont conduit a des conceptions trop securitaires. Une meilleure alternative consiste a utiliser une methode d'analyse charge-dkplacement qui fournit de l'information sur la distribution
de la charge le long du pieu et sur la relation complkte charge-deformation. Des rCsultats d'essais de chargement a
pleine echelle sur des pieux instrument& indiquent que les pieux forks dans des sols rksiduels de Singapour se comportent de la m&mefaqon que dans les argiles raides et les roches molles trouvCes ailleurs, en ce que, a la charge utile,
le transfert de charge est domine par le frottement le long du fiit. Des correlations simples existent entre la resistance
a la pCnCtration standard et les parametres de transfert de charge. Un exemple montre que la procedure de conception
proposee, qui utilise ces corrClations simples avec la methode de transfert de charge, prCsente une amilioration sur
les mCthodes courantes de conception.
Mots clPs : pieux forks, pieux coules en place, conception, essai de chantier, transfert de charge, sol residuel, resistance
de fiit.
[Traduit par la redaction]
Can. Geotech. J. 28, 200-209 (1991)

Introduction
Approximately 200 000 - 400 000 m of large-diameter
bored piles are installed in Singapore each year. The piles
are typically 0.6-1.2 m in diameter, 15-20 m in length, and
are designed to carry approximately 1.8-7.0 MN of axial
load. Most of these piles are constructed in residual soils
derived from the Bukit Timah Granite and weathered
sedimentary rocks of the Jurong Formation in Singapore.
Bored piles are extensively used in Singapore because of the
high capacity, relatively low costs, easy length adjustment,
and low noise and vibration levels during construction.
Present design methods for bored piles in Singapore are
primarily based on the calculated static capacity and a global
factor of safety. The shaft resistance is very often
underestimated and sometimes totally ignored. As a result,
the designs are often conservative. These traditional design
methods rely on verification by pile load tests that are costly
and time consuming. A large number of piles are tested each
year, but they are often neither instrumented nor loaded to
failure. As a consequence, these tests have not significantly
helped to improve the design of the bored piles in Singapore.
Since the early 1980s, a number of studies have been carried
out in Singapore on fully instrumented bored piles in the
Old Alluvium and in residual soil and weathered rock formations. These studies show that load transfer in these
relatively stiff materials is primarily through shaft resistance
and that, at the working load, the mobilized point or base
resistance is usually small. These findings are similar to those
Prln[cd ~n Canada / lrnprlrnc au Canada

for drilled piers in weak rock (Horvath and Kenney 1979).

One should consider this observed load-transfer mechanism
in the design of bored piles in these and similar geological
materials.
Careful considerations of the geology and the engineering
characteristics of residual soils and the limitations of the
traditional design methods for bored piles in these soils provide a basis for improving current design methods. Loadtransfer data from studies of fully instrumented piles can
be compared with site-specific soil properties to develop field
performance based correlations. In particular, load-transfer
parameters or curves estimated from site investigation results
can be used in load-displacement analyses, such as the loadtransfer method developed by Coyle and Reese (1966), to
predict the load-displacement relationship. Such a relationship will provide a sound basis for a rational design of bored
piles in residual soils in Singapore and possibly also in other
similar geological formations.
Residual soils in Singapore
Residual soil includes classical "residual soil," completely
weathered rock, and highly weathered rock, which are "soillike" materials of weathering grades VI, V, and IV, respectively, according to Little (1969) and the Geological Society
Engineering Group (1990). The residual soils in Singapore
are mainly derived from the Bukit Timah Granite or the
sedimentary rocks of the Jurong Formation (Public Works

CHANG A1VD BROMS

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,',

Department of Singapore, 1976). Each of these two formations covers about one-third of Singapore Island.
The Bukit Timah Granite, generally light grey and
medium grained, consists predominantly of feldspar
(60-65%) and quartz (30%), with small amounts of biotite
and hornblende. The granite is covered by a thick overburden of typically 10-35 m of residual soil that has been
formed primarily through chemical weathering and alteration of the parent rock minerals as a result of the hot and
humid environment in Singapore (Poh et al. 1985).
The granitic residual soil ranges from silty sand to clayey
silt to sandy or silty clay. The material is usually cohesive,
and the plasticity is medium to high, depending on the clay
content and the degree of weathering. The consistency is generally medium stiff to very stiff. Core stones occur
occasionally.
The Jurong Formation, a sedimentary rock formation of
Late Triassic and Lower to Middle Jurassic age, consists
mainly of grey to black interbedded mudstone and sandstone, or reddish sandstone and mudstone conglomerate,
depending on its occurrence. Six different facies (types) have
been recognized.
The rocks, particularly the mudrock, vary considerably
even within a single site, and the bedding contacts are often
weak and ruptured (Pitts 1984). The effect of weathering
has reduced most of the facies of the Jurong Formation to
a similar end product (Public Works Department of
Singapore 1976). The weathered rock is often weak and
friable, although the structure of the rock tends to be well
preserved to a great depth (Pitts 1984).
The residual soil derived from the Jurong Formation consists mainly of interbedded layers of clayey silt and sandy
clay of medium plasticity and clayey to silty sand. The soil
is heterogeneous and highly variable because of the
variability of the parent rock, the high fracture frequency,
and the thin beddings. The weathered material is mostly
cohesive and the consistency is generally stiff to hard. The
thickness of the different layers varies from a few centimetres
to tenths of metres.
The engineering properties of the residual soil of granitic
origin have not been studied extensively. Poh et al. (1985)
have reported that the granitic residual soil is mainly sandy
and clayey silt to sandy and silty clay, and its plasticity index
ranges from 10 to 50, similar to that of kaolinite. The permeability ranges from lo-* to
m/s. The shearing
characteristic of the soil is usually governed by the undrained
shear strength because of the low permeability, even though
the soil is often partially saturated above the groundwater
table. The undrained shear strength of the soil normally
increases with depth and ranges from 30 to 200 kPa. The
initial void ratio of the soil is generally between 0.8 and 1.1,
and the compression index (C,) is between 0.05 and 0.4.
This variation of Cc corresponds to a modulus number (m)
of between 12 and 83 (Janbu 1967).
The engineering properties of the residual soil of the
Jurong Formation have not received much attention.
A study by Yong et al. (1985) indicates that the permeability
of the soil, based on consolidation tests, is of the order of
m/s. On the other hand, Morton and Sayer (1985)
have reported that the permeability of the same soil is
typically 10 - 9 m/s.
According to Yong et al. (1985), the engineering
behaviour of the residual soil of the Jurong Formation is

predominantly that of a clay, even thougb the soil is composed primarily of sand- and silt-sized particles. The soil
will probably behave like an undrained material under normal static loads, although it should be noted that the soil
is usually partially saturated above the groundwater table.
The undrained shear strength is typically between 50 and
200 kPa or higher; its large variation is mainly due to the
spatially heterogeneous nature and the varying degree of
saturation of the soil. The initial void ratio varies from 0.6
to 1.1, based on the moisture contents reported by Yong
et al. (1985). The value of C, is between 0.1 and 0.6,
similar to that of the granitic residual soil. This variation
of Cc corresponds to a m of between 8 and 37 (Janbu
1967).
The residual soils of Singapore, in general, have a low
compressibility, and they gradually become stiffer with
depth. This is particularly true for the granitic residual soil.
Because of the high clay content or the "clay effect" caused
by clay coating of the silt- and sand-sized particles, the
residual soils often behave like "overconsolidated" clay with
respect to both the strength and the compressibility. They
are often treated as stiff sedimentary- clays.
Since these residual soils, particuIarly that of the Jurong
Formation, are highly variable ,and relatively hard to
penetrate, "undisturbed" sampling is very difficult. The
shear strength and deformation properties as determined by
laboratory tests are often not representative because of the
sample disturbance. Pressuremeter tests can be carried out
without much difficulty, but the results are of limited value
mainly because of the large scatter associated with the high
variability of the material. As a result, the standard penetration test (SPT), occasionally supplemented by the Swedish
ram sounding test, is commonly used in Singapore to
estimate the undrained shear strength of residual soils
(Chang 1988). A correlation between the standard penetration resistance (N, blowd0.3 m) and the undrained shear
strength (c,, = 5-6N (kPa)), as proposed by Stroud (1974),
is used for materials with N I60. When N > 60, the ratio
of cu/N becomes higher than 5-6 (MPa), and the correlation, expressed in a scale of cu and N values, proposed by
Cole and Stroud (1977) is often used.
Local practice for design of bored piles
Bored piles constructed in Singapore are commonly
straight sided. The boreholes are normally excavated using
rotary drilling rigs and short-flight augers. The piles are normally concreted "dry" in one continuous pour. The tremie
method is employed when water is present in the boreholes.
The time between the drilling and concreting is normally kept
short to reduce the softening of the borehole wall.
The design of bored piles in Singapore is based on the
traditional design methods. The static ultimate capacity is
usually estimated from

[ll Qu = Qp + Qs = qp A, + fs As
where q, is the point or base resistance, f, is the unit shaft
resistance, and A, and A, are the cross-sectional area and
the surface area of the pile, respectively. A single global factor of safety (F)of 2.5-3.0 is commonly used to evaluate
the allowable load according to Q, = Qu/F.
The point resistance is commonly estimated from the
undrained shear strength (c,) of the residual soils. One of

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the most common relationships is q, = c, Nc, where

Nc = 9 if D < 1.0 m and Nc = 5 if D 2 1.0 m, where D
is the diameter of the pile. An "equivalent" undrained
strength is used when the soil is partially saturated. These
Nc values are similar to those adopted in Canada for very
stiff clays and tills (Canadian Geotechnical Society 1985).
The unit shaft resistance of bored piles, if not ignored,
is normally estimated in Singapore by the a-method:
f, = a c,. The adhesion factor a varies with the undrained
shear strength and the construction method. An a-value of
0.45, as suggested by Skempton (1959) for stiff, fissured
London clay, is commonly assumed in Singapore. Alternatively, the shaft resistance is estimated directly from the
N values. A well-known relationship f, = 2 N (kPa), proposed by Meyerhof (1976) for driven piles in sand, is sometimes used for the design of bored piles in residual soils in
Singapore (Broms et al. 1988). The maximum f, value is
often limited to 120 kPa. Thef, values estimated from this
relationship are similar to those reported by Buttling and
Robinson (1987) for a range of weathered materials in
Singapore.
Using cu = 5 - 6 ~&Pa) based on Stroud (1974) and
f, = 2 N (kpa), one can calculate the static capacity for
piles in weathered materials with N 5 60 directly from the
N values as follows
[2] Qu
and
[3] Qu

2 NJ,

+ 45 NbA,

2 N,A,

+ 30 Nb Ap for D

for D < l.Om

2

1.0 m

In [2] and [3], N, is the average standard penetration resistance along the pile shaft, Nb is the average standard
penetration resistance between 4 0 above and D below the
pile base, and A, and A, (m2) are the surface area of the
pile shaft and the cross-sectional area of the pile base,
respectively.
Reliable prediction of the settlement for single piles normally requires pile load tests. The interpretation is sometimes based on the theory of elasticity (e.g., Poulos and
Davis 1968). The settlement of an incompressible single pile;
6,, that is relevant to cases where the pile material is much
stiffer than the surrounding soil, in a finite compressible
layer is

where Q is the applied load, E, is an equivalent modulus

of elasticity of the soil, L is the pile length, and I6 is an
influence factor that depends on the L/D ratio of the pile
and the location of the underlying incompressible layer.
For most bored piles installed in residual soils in Singapore,
the L / D ratio is typically between 15 and 25. Assuming a
Poisson's ratio of between 0.2 and 0.4, the average value
of I6 is approximately 1.25 when the thickness of the
underlying compressible layer below the pile base is not
greater than one-half of the pile length. A study of decomposed granite in Hong Kong by Whiteside (1986), on the
basis of horizontal-plate loading tests, suggests that the
modulus of elasticity of completely decomposed granite can
be estimated from E, = 1.2N (MPa). This relationship is
the same as that reported by Cole and Stroud (1977) for a
weak rock with an average N value of 200 in the United
Kingdom based on the settlement observation of a pile

group. On the other hand, Hal! et a12(1982) found, from

load tests of bored piles, that in completely decomposed
granite of Hong Kong the ratio of E,/N increased with
increasing penetration resistance. The back-calculated ratio
ranged from 0.4 to 0.8 (MPa) for 50 < N < 150 and was
approximately 1.0 (MPa) for N > 150. Chang and Goh
(1988) used an E,/N ratio of 0.8 (MPa), which corresponds
to E,/c, = 130 (Butler 1974), to analyze some bored piles
in residual soils in Singapore and found that the settlement
at the working load was overpredicted by as much as 100%
in some cases. As an approximation, it is reasonable t o
assume that E, = 1.ON (MPa) for the design of bored piles
in residual soils with N I200 in Singapore. Then, 6, (mm)
can be expressed as
1 25
[51 6p =
NL Q
here Q (in kN) is the applied load and L (m) is the
embedded pile length.
The design of bored piles in Singapore commonly incorporates load tests that could be either proof tests for
evaluating the settlement at the working load or ultimate
load tests to assess the static capacity and to check the structural integrity of the pile. Most of these tests have been performed in the residual soil of the sedimentary Jurong Formation. Typically, about 1% of the installed piles are proof
tested. The maximum applied load ranges from 1.5 t o
2.0 times the design load. Preliminary load tests are usually
required for major projects prior to the installation of the
production piles to verify the design assumptions. In such
cases, the piles are either loaded to 2.5-3.0 times design load
or occasionally tested to failure.
Specifications in Singapore generally require that the maximum total settlement of a large-diameter pile should not
exceed 25 mm at 2.0 times working load, regardless of the
length of the pile (Public Works Department and Housing
and Development Board, Singapore). The Mass Rapid Transit Corporation of Singapore specifies that the maximum
settlement should not exceed 6-9 mm at the working load
and 9-20 mm at 1.5 times the working load (Buttling and
Robinson 1987). These settlements limits or acceptance
criteria for test piles are mainly governed by the maximum
differential settlements that can be tolerated by the supported structures.
Limitations of traditional design methods
The axial displacement that is required to fully mobilize
the shaft resistance for bored piles is small, typically 5-6 mm
(Whitaker and Cooke 1966; Aurora and Reese 1977; Horvath
and Kenney 1979) or 5-10 mm (O'Neill and Reese 1972).
In contrast, a relatively large displacement, approximately
5 (Aurora and Reese 1977) or 10% (Woodward et al. 1972)
of the pile diameter, is required to mobilize the maximum
point resistance. Thus, at the working load, the shaft friction plays a predominant role. This difference in the required
displacement for full mobilization of resistance and its effect
on pile behaviour are not considered in traditional design
methods for bored piles in residual soils in Singapore.
The high safety factor (2.5-3.0) used in traditional design
methods provides some protection against excessive settlements. The settlement of a bored pile with a diameter less than
0.6 m and a safety factor of at least 2.5 will normally not

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203

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exceed 10 mm at the working load (Tomlinson 1977). However, for piles larger than 0.6 m in diameter, the settlement
increases with increasing pile diameter. It is common that
a factor of safety that is adequate to ensure that the soil
or the pile does not fail is insufficient to limit the settlement
at the working load (Whitaker 1976). Usually, the settlement
of the pile has to be estimated from full-scale proof tests.
One possible improvement of the traditional design
methods is to use different partial factors of safety for the
shaft resistance and the point resistance:

where Fs and Fp are partial factors of safety. Various

values of F, and Fphave been suggested (Skempton 1966;
Burland et al. 1966) to take into account the uncertainties
involved in the assessments of Qs and Qp and the different
displacements required for full mobilization of the two resistance components. However, because of the large displacement required to mobilize the point resistance and the difficulties to clean the bottom of the borehole before the
casting, it is advisable to consider only the shaft resistance
in the design. The allowable load is then

where F, is a factor of safety which can be taken as 2.0.

A lower value of 1.5 can be used if the skin friction resistance
is determined by full-scale load tests. The neglect of endbearing resistance can be considered as an addition to the
safety factor.
The current practice of verifying the design of bored pile
in residual soils in Singapore by load tests adds substantially
to the cost of a project, since load tests are expensive.
Routine proof tests or even ultimate load tests do not always
provide sufficient information about the load-transfer mechanism that is needed to improve present design methods.
The use of partial safety factors relies heavily on local experience, and it does not provide any information on pile settlements. This approach is suitable only for the preliminary
design of bored piles. In the final design, one should consider the complete load-displacement curve obtained from
load tests on instrumented bored piles or from a loaddisplacement analysis using field-performance data.

Previous studies of instrumented bored piles in

Singapore
Since load tests on instrumented piles are expensive, it
would be an advantage for the design to be based on a
systematic study of the load-transfer characteristics as determined from load tests of instrumented piles for similar
ground conditions. Results from previous studies provide
an important base of field-performance data. Correlations
between parameters observed in the field and the relevant
ground conditions or soil parameters can be used for
improving future designs.
A number of case studies on instrumented bored piles in
the Jurong Formation in Singapore have been reported since
1982. The case studies involving primarily residual soil or
"soil-like" weathered material include Chin (1982) (case I),
Buttling (1986) (case 2), Chang and Wong (1987) (case 3),
Buttling and Lam (1988) (case 4), and Chang and Goh (1988)

(case 5). The diameter (D) of the ~ i l raqged

e
from 0.46 to
1.0 m, and the length (L) varied between 6.0 and 28.5 m.
In addition, two case studies involving bored piles with a
maximum diameter of 1.50 m and a maximum length of
12.4 m in fractured rock or "rock-like" weathered material were reported by Radhakrishnan et al. (1985) and
Radhakrishnan and Leung (1989). The piles were constructed
generally dry in boreholes excavated by rotary drilling using
short-flight augers. Most piles were tested in compression
up to 1.5-2.5 times the design load using the maintainedload method. However, the majority of piles investigated
by Chang and Goh (1988) were provided with a base plate
and subjected to pull-out tests. Several of the compression
piles were preliminary test piles, but only a few were loaded
to failure.
Most of the piles were instrumented with vibrating-wire
strain gauges and telltales, although rebar stressmeters and
load cells were used in some piles. The vibrating-wire strain
gauges were attached either directly on to the main reinforcement or to separate steel bars that were protected by cement
mortar. These gauges were found to be very reliable. Telltales
were found to be difficult to install when the piles were long
and more than one section of steel cage was required.
Telltales were also found to be inadequate when the piles
were short.
In the analyses of test results, load-transfer curves representing the relationship between &hemobilized resistance and
the corresponding pile displacement for various supporting
layers were deduced from the reported load-settlement data
and the measured strain distribution. Two key parameters,
the fully mobilized resistance and the corresponding critical
displacement (Vijayvergiya 1977), were estimated from the
deduced load-transfer curves whenever possible. Typical
load-transfer curves for bored piles in residual soils in
Singapore have been reported by Buttling and Lam (1988)
and Chang and Goh (1988).
Table 1 summarizes the results from the piles that were
tested in compression. The results of pull-out tests, reported
by Chang and Goh (1988), are summarized in Table 2. In
Table 1, the fully mobilized point resistance (9,) could not
be determined because the degree of mobilization of point
resistance was too low, even at the maximum applied load.
The mobilized tip load, at the working load, was generally
small and less than 10-20% of the applied load. This finding is similar to that experienced in Malaysia. Toh et a/.
(1989) reported that, for bored piles in a weathered sedimentary rock formation in Malaysia, the mobilized tip load was
approximately 10% of the applied load before the shaft
resistance had been fully mobilized over a significant pile
length. These results highlight the importance of shaft friction on the behaviour of bored piles in residual soils. Toh
et al. (1989) found that qp = 27-60N (kPa) from two piles
that were tested to failure.
The unit shaft resistance (f,) could not be evaluated for
all the test piles. For those cases in which the test loads were
not high enough to fully mobilize the shaft resistance,
extrapolated values or lower bound values are shown in
Tables 1 and 2. Comparing the fs values in these two tables,
one finds that there is no clear difference in the measured
f, values between piles loaded in compression and piles subjected to pull-out. This is in contrast with the findings of
other investigators, such as Horvath and Kenney (1979), who
argued that a smaller shaft resistance would be expected

204

CAN. GEOTECH. J.

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VOL. 28, 1991

'"

TABLE1. Summary of results of compression tests on instrimented bored piles

Case
No.
1

Pile
No.
P1

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P2
2

TP5

Geologic stratum
(1) Medium stiff silty clay
(0-8.1 m)
(2) Very stiff to hard silty
clay (8.1-10.1 m)
(3) Hard silty clay
(10.1-11.1 m)
Weathered shale (1.0-7.6 m)
(1) Hard clayey silt (0-13 m)
(2) Hard clayey silt with
siltstone fragments (13-14.5 m)

8-28 (avg. 18)

28-60 (avg. 44)
60-64 (avg. 62)
Avg. 60

37-188

(3) Highly weathered siltstone

(14.5-16.5 m)
(4) Highly weathered siltstone
(16.5-18.0 m)
M1

J1

52

(1) Medium stiff to hard

silty clay (0-1 1.0 m)
(2) Highly weathered siltstone
(1 1.O-24.0 m)
(1) Dense to very dense silty
sand (3.2-6.6 m)
(2) Highly weathered silty
sandstone (6.6-10.5 m)
(3) Highly weathered siltstone
(10.5-14.0 m)
(1) Highly weathered shale
(14.5-20.0 m)

TP2

403
TP1

A-1

B-1

(1) Medium dense to very dense

clayey silt (13.5-21.5 m)
(2) Very dense clayey silt
(21.5-23.5 m)
(3) Very dense clayey silt
(23.5-28.5 m)
(1) Very dense sandy silt to
highly weathered siltstone
(7.5-10.5 m)
(2) Highly to moderately
weathered siltstone
(10.5-14.0 m)

Shaft
resistance,
f, (kPa)

Critical
displacement,
z, (mm)

80-95
(avg. 88)

6-8

195-240

24

63-117
40-57
52-83

2
6
4

31.5
6.7
13

78-116

19.5

&/z,
(kPa/mm)

l9
12

230
270

Negligible

20-36 (avg. 32)

145

1.2

(2) Highly weathered shale

(20.0-28.0 m)
4

Tip/applied
load ratio
at Q, ( % )

N value from SPT

(blowd0.3 m)

100
36-73 (avg. 50)
73-127 (avg. 100)
127

l o

12.5

200-375 (avg. 288)

(1) Stiff silty clay (0-0.75 m)

(2) Hard clayey silt (0.75-3.0 m)
(3) Hard silty clay (3.0-4.6 m)
(4) Highly weathered siltstone
(4.6-6.0 m)
(1) Stiff silty clay (0-3.1 m)
(2) Hard clayey silt (3.1-4.2 m)
(3) Highly weathered sandstone
(4.2-7.0 m)

N2,

"

I-

> 182"

Soft toe

is the Swedish ram sounding resistance in blowd0.2 m.

b~xtrapolatedvalues.

ON2,

from pull-out tests. One possible reason could be that the

concrete in the pull-out piles with an anchor plate at the pile
base was actually subjected to compression rather than tension during the pull-out.

The adhesion factor a can be calculated from Tables 1

and 2 using the c, values estimated from the SPT N values.
There is a clear indication that the a factor decreases with
the penetration resistance. For N I60, the a factor gener-

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/

TABLE2. Summary of results of pull-out tests (from Chang and Goh 1988)
Shaft resistance

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Pile
No.

Stratum
No. '

SPT N value
(blowd0.3 m)"k~a)

(f,),,,

f~
(kPa)

'All the strata consist of silty clay - clayey silt o r highly weathered rock.
b ~ o n v e r t e dfrom Swedish ram sounding resistance N2, (blows/0.2 m) using N

ally ranged from 0.3 to 0.8 and averaged 0.55, similar to

those reported by Skempton (1959) for stiff fissured London
clay, by O'Neill and Reese (1972) for Beaumont clay, and
by Toh et al. (1989) for weathered sedimentary rock in
Malaysia. The a values were approximately 0.16-0.42 for
the completely weathered materials with 60 < N < 120 and
0.1 or 0.2 for the highly weathered rocks with N 2 120.
These values of a are similar to those compiled by Horvath
and Kenney (1979) for weak rocks.
Chang and Goh (1988) observed in a few cases that the
shaft resistance increased with increasing displacement
without reaching a maximum stable value. However, a
critical displacement existed beyond which the stiffness, or
the slope of the tangent to the load-transfer curve, is
noticeably smaller. This type of response is typical especially
for piles loaded in compression partly because the piles were
slightly tapered. In these cases, the ranges off, values are
shown in Table 1, and both the shaft resistance corresponding to the critical displacement (f,) and the maximum
measured shaft resistance (A),, are shown in Table 2. For
an ideal elastic-plastic load-transfer curve, f, is equal to
(fs),,.
Tables 1 and 2 also show that the shaft resistance increases
with increasing penetration resistance. However, the rate of
increase becomes smaller as N exceeds 100-200. Buttling and
Robinson (1987) and Toh et al. (1989) have reported similar
results. Results of two detailed investigations by
Radhakrishnan et al. (1985) and Radhakrishnan and Leung
(1989) clearly indicate that, for bored piles in "rock-like"
materials with N > 200-300 and higher, the f,/N ratio is
generally lower than that indicated in Tables 1 and 2.
In Tables 1 and 2, the critical shaft displacement (2,)
varied between 1.0 and 12.0 mm. In most cases, z, =
4.0-7.0 mm, irrespective of the diameter and length of the
piles. This finding is similar to those reported in the literature
(e.g., Whitaker and Cooke 1966; O'Neill and Reese 1972).
Similarly, Toh et al. (1989) found that for bored piles with
D = 50-1220 mm and L = 9-21 m in a weathered
sedimentary rock in Malaysia the pile head movement

Critical
displacement,
Zs (mm)

f,/z~
(kPa/mm)

2Nzo (Chang 1988).si

ranged from 3.5 to 9 mm when the'ihaft resistance had been

fully mobilized over a significant length of the pile.
Recommended design procedure
An improved design procedure should make full use of
field-performance data derived from load tests on
instrumented piles, such as those reported in Tables 1 and 2.
The procedure should make use of analytical methods that
can predict the load-displacement relationship and other
information necessary for a safe and economical pile design.
Analytical methods such as those suggested by Coyle and
Reese (1966) require tedious calculations, but with the
availability of microcomputers this is no longer an obstacle.

Recommended procedure
The procedure recommended herein for the design of
bored piles in residual soils uses the load-transfer method
proposed by Coyle and Reese (1966), which provides predictions of the load-settlement curves and the load distributions
in the piles. The design is based on a permitted maximum
allowable settlement and a minimum global factor of safety
of 2.0 with respect to the static capacity interpreted from the
load-settlement relationship (Chang and Goh 1989). Knowledge of the load distribution also provides a basis for more
effective adjustment of pile length according to the applied
load.
The load-transfer method has been selected for the prediction of load-settlement relationships in preference to the
elastic method (Poulos and Davis 1968) and the finite-element
method (Osterberg and Gill 1973). In the load-transfer
method, the pile is idealized by a series of elastic discrete
elements supported by a number of nonlinear side springs and
a base spring, which represent the soil-structure interaction.
A set of assumed load-transfer curves is used to describe
the load-deformation properties of the springs. Using the
finite-difference technique (Coyle and Reese 1966; Meyer
et al. 1975), one can then obtain the complete relationship
between the applied load and the pile head displacement
based on a range of assumed displacements at the pile tip.

206

CAN. GEOTECH. J. VOL. 28, 1991

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90

ti

=Compression test
aPartially mobilized fs
Pull-out test

Standard penetration resistance,

N (blowsl0.3 m)

Standard penetration resistance,

N (Mowsl0.3 m)

FIG. 1. Relationship between unit shaft resistance and standard

penetration resistance.

FIG.2. Relationship between f,/z, and standard penetration

resistance.

The corresponding load distribution along the pile can also

be evaluated.
The load-transfer method has the advantage that the
required load-transfer curves or parameters are directly
determined or estimated from load tests on instrumented
piles. In contrast, the elastic method requires substantial
idealization and simplifications of the behaviour of the soil
and the pile-soil interface. The finite-element method usually
requires a powerful computer and considerable computational time. The construction method, which has a large
effect on the behaviour of bored piles, is difficult to incorporate in the latter two methods.
Because of its simplicity, the load-transfer analysis can
be carried out using a microcomputer with minimal costs.
A simple computer program AXCOL developed by Meyer
et al. (1975) based on the concept proposed by Coyle and
Reese (1966) is recommended.
Two load-transfer parameters, the ultimate resistance and
the displacement required to fully mobilize this resistance,
are required to define the load-transfer curve for each supporting stratum (Vijayvergiya 1977). Using parameters
deduced from pile load tests in Singapore and Vijayvergiya's
relationships, Chang and Goh (1988) found that the loadtransfer method produced reasonable values with respect to
both the settlement and the load distribution for bored piles
in the residual soil of the Jurong Formation.

that the unit shaft resistance for bored piles in the residual
soil of the Jurong Fornfaiion increases with increasing
penetration resistance. The scatter of the data also increases
as the penetration resistance increases. Nevertheless, for
materials with N I 150-1 80, an approximate relationship
between f, and N is
[8] f, = 2N (kPa)

The load-transfer parameters

The load-transfer curves are governed by the soil conditions and the construction method. For major projects, load
tests on instrumented piles can provide these curves or the
corresponding parameters. For small projects, however,
estimates of these curves have to be made directly from site
investigation data, such as the standard penetration resistance.
The relationship between the unit shaft resistance (f,)
and the standard penetration resistance (N) based on the
data in Tables 1 and 2 is shown in Fig. 1. The figure indicates

Note that in Fig. 1 the shaft resistance, for some of the

data points (marked as open squares) below the f, = 2 N
line, has not been fully mobilized. Some data reported earlier
by Chang and Goh (1988) for which reliable N values were
not available have been excluded. With the reasonable data
base for bored piles of different diameters and lengths in
Tables 1 and 2, [8] represents an updated and average correlation for bored piles in residual soils in Singapore. The
f,/N ratio indicated by [8] is slightly smaller than that,
between 2.5 and 2.7 for N I 120, reported by Toh et al.
(1989) for a weathered sedimentary formation in Malaysia.
It should be noted that the f,/N ratio tends to decrease
with increasing N value as the material becomes relatively
hard, with the N value exceeding 150-180. This tendency
of f,/N decreasing with increasing N has also been noted
by Toh et al. (1989). Data collected by Radhakrishnan and
Leung (1989), primarily for bored piles in highly fractured,
"rock-like" materials with N > 200, indicate that
f,/N < 1.0, in general. Toh et al. (1990) suggested that the
design value o f f , should not exceed that at N = 200 even
for bored piles in materials with N > 200. It is recommended that, for N > 150-180, the shaft resistance should
be estimated directly from load tests on instrumented piles.
The critical shaft displacement (2,) depends on the interface characteristics, or the stiffness of the soil and the unit
shaft resistance. The variation in the z, value is generally
small, between 4 and 7 mm. As shown in Tables 1 and 2,
the value of z, is largely independent of the penetration
resistance and the pile diameter. The ratio of f,/z,, a

CHANG AND BROMS

measure of the stiffness of the pile-soil interface, has been

related to the penetration resistance in Fig. 2. The scatter
of the results is large, but the data indicate that the ratio
of f,/z, increases with increasing penetration resistance. An
approximate correlation is
l 7 (kPa/mm)
4.25
From [8] and [9], the critical shaft displacement for
N I 150-180 is then
[9]

2 =

z,

8 5N
(mm)
N + 17
According to [lo], z, increases from 4 to 7 mm when the
standard penetration resistance increases from 15 to 80.
As discussed earlier, a large displacement is required to
mobilize fully the point resistance. The corresponding loadtransfer parameters, the point resistance (9,) and the
critical point displacement (z,), do not significantly affect
the predicted settlement at the working load, since the
mobilized point resistance is usually small (Chang and Wong
1987). If the point or end-bearing capacity is considered,
q, = 30-45N (kPa) and z, = 5-10% pile diameter will
usually be satisfactory for the design of bored piles in
residual soils. The lower limit of q, and the upper limit of
z, should be used if the pile diameter is larger than 1.0 m.
[ 101 z,

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'
-

Design example
An example involving a bored pile with a required
allowable load of 5750 kN serves to illustrate differences
between the recommended and the traditional design
methods. The soil conditions are as follows:

Depth (m)

Soil description

N (blowd0.3 m)

0-4
4-10
10-16

Stiff silty clay

Hard silty clay
Hard clayey silt to
completely weathered rock
Completely weathered rock
Highly weathered rock

20
45

16-20
120

75
100
180

It is assumed that a short-flight auger is used for the

excavation and the concrete is of grade 30, having a
characteristic cube strength of 30 MPa. The maximum
allowable settlement of the pile is 5 mm.
From structural considerations, the minimum required
pile diameter is 1.0 m. The estimated pile length (L) is 23 m
at a global factor of safety of 3.0, using a = 0.45 for
N < 60, a = 0.3 for N r 60 (Skempton 1959), and
c, 15 N depending on the range of N (Stroud 1974; Cole
and Stroud 1977). A pile of larger diameter or greater length
(if the end bearing capacity does increase with depth) would
be required if the shaft resistance is ignored. The predicted
settlement for a 1.0 m diameter and 23 m long pile is approximately 5.0 mm at the working load, according to [5] using
a weighted average value of 1/N along the pile shaft.
Figure 3 shows the predicted load-settlement relationship
for a 1.0 m diameter pile at the proposed site, based on the
new recommended procedure. The load-transfer parameters

207

10

20
0

LC

?$

30

Pile section

73

-, 40 -

Diameter
EA = 23.56= x1000
106 mm
k~

ii

E E E E E
';

,\

>\

:60
0

M",s

50

\\\\

8
10
12
App(ied load, Po (MN)

14

16

18

FIG. 3. Load-settlement relationship for piles of different

lengths.
were estimated from measured N values using the correlations in [8] and [lo]. The required pile length is 22 m, considering both the settlement and the stability requirements.
At L = 22 m, the expected settlement, at the design load
of 5750 kN, is about 3.6 mm, which is less than the
allowable limit of 5 mm. The corresponding global factor
of safety, approximately 2.0, is also adequate, if the ultimate
capacity of the pile is defined as the applied load that corresponds to a pile head displacement of between 20 and
25 mm on the basis of local acceptance criteria for test piles.
The computed load-settlement curve in Fig. 3 shows that
the estimated settlement of the piles at the design load will
not increase significantly if the pile length is reduced from
25 to 20 m. Nevertheless, the factor of safety will be smaller
than the required value of 2.0 when the length of the pile
is less than 22 m. It is therefore necessary to also specify
the factor of safety against failure, in addition to the maximum allowable settlement, in the design of bored piles in
residual soils (Chang and Goh 1989).
Figure 4 shows the load-distribution curves calculated by
the load-transfer method. The figure clearly indicates the
importance of shaft friction on the behaviour of the pile.
The mobilized tip load at the design load increases only
marginally from 1.6 to 5.3% of the applied load when the
pile length is reduced from 25 to 21 m. The reduction of
the pile length results in an increase of the mobilized shaft
resistance above the pile base. This increase compensates
partially for the loss of shaft resistance along the cutoff
section.
In summary, the traditional design method requires a pile
length of 23 m or greater. The minimum required pile length

CAN. GEOTECI4.

J. VOL. 28, 1991

' r

..

,\

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The recommended design grocedure using the loadtransfer method of analysis can result in safer and more
economical solutions, since the complete load-settlement
behaviour of the piles is considered. The resulting savings
can be significant for large projects owing to the reduction
of the pile lengths.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Dr. Anthony Goh for his assistance
in the preparation of an earlier version of this paper, Professor James Graham for his constructive comments, and
Professor John McNown for his advice on the technical
writing.

Axial load, P (MN)

FIG. 4. Load distribution curves.

based on the recommended design procedure using the loadtransfer method is 22 m. The difference in the pile length,
as illustrated by this example, is relatively small, mainly
because similar f,values have been used in the traditional
method and in the recommended design procedure. The
situation can be more critical in other cases, especially when
the shaft resistance is underestimated or totally ignored in
the traditional method. The savings in material and construction costs, even for a reduction of the pile length by
1.0 m/pile, can be significant for large projects. The recommended design procedure has the additional advantages that
it is based on the mechanism of how a pile actually transfers
load to the supporting strata and on empirical correlations
obtained from direct measurement of this mechanism.
Conclusions
Insufficient consideration of the load transfer and overreliance on pile load tests for verification are responsible
for the conservative traditional design methods that are presently used in Singapore for bored piles in residual soils.
Results from load tests of instrumented bored piles in
Singapore have shown that the shaft resistance
predominantly governs the behaviour of bored piles in the
residual soil of the Jurong Formation, a finding similar to
those for bored piles in stiff clays and soft rocks elsewhere.
Test results suggest that f, = 2 N (kPa) for the unit shaft
resistance and z, = 8.5 N/(N + 17) (mm) for the critical
shaft displacement for bored piles in weathered materials
with N r 150-180. These correlations are specifically for
the residual soil of the Jurong Formation in Singapore.
However, it is expected that similar correlations can be
derived for other soil conditions.

AURORA,
R.R., and REESE,L.C. 1976. Field tests of drilled shafts
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BUTTLING,
S. 1986. Testing and instrumentation of bored piles.
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S.A. 1987. Bored piles-design and
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List of symboli'
:-

cross-sectional area of the pile (m2)

cross-sectional area of the pile tip (m2)
surface area of the pile shaft (m2)
compression index
undrained shear strength (kPa)
diameter of pile (m o r mm)
elastic modulus of pile (GPa)
elastic modulus of soils (MPa)
unit shaft resistance (kPa)
factors of safety
influence factor for pile settlement
modulus number
length of pile (m)
standard penetration resistance (blowd0.3 m)
average N value a t the pile base
bearing capacity factor
average N value along the pile shaft
r a m sounding resistance (blows/0.2 m)
axial load in pile (kN o r MN)
axial load a t the pile t o p (kN o r MN)
applied load (kN o r MN)
point resistance pressure (kPa)
allowable load (kN)
point resistance force (kN)
total shaft resistance (kN)
ultimate pile capacity (kN)
critical shaft displacement (mm)
critical tip displacement (mm)
adhesion factor
pile settlement (mm)
pile head movement (mm)