Designing a pile cap for an elevated marine wharf platform, as follows....Phase 1: Install bearing piles at 15-ft x 15-ft grid pattern, with tops extending above high tide; Phase 2: Place 3-ft thick precast reinforced concrete pile caps atop the piles; Phase 3: Place 2-ft thick precast reinforced concrete deck panels atop the pile caps. The live load on top of the precast deck panels will be 1,000 PSF. Question: When checking the two-way shear resistance at the pile cap locations, should I use only the thickness of the pile cap, or may I use the combined "stacked" thickness of the pile cap and deck panels (even though they are not compositely connected)? This is a hypothetical scenario where the pile cap and deck panels cannot be compositely connected for reasons beyond this forum. Is there a provision in ACI that addresses this scenario? Thank you.
