Driven Pile Foundations - Capacity Estimation Using PDA Tests

[geotechguy1]

Hi All,

Does anyone have any experience or know of any examples of using PDA tests to estimate pile capacity of untested piles to verify they have reached the design capacity?

I'm getting PDA tests for 5-10% of the Piles but don't have any other method (eg. A GRLWEAP chart) of estimating driven pile capacity based on the blow count record.

My solution is to compare the blow count records from the untested piles to the tested piles, and if they are comparable (final blow count/cumulative blow count) use the PDA test to estimate the capacity of the untested pile.

Any thoughts?

 

[MelCao]

the PDA should give you some curves showing the resistance during the driving. what you can do is to estimate the soil parameter in their program to match back the curves to the real curves, this how you verify the soil parameters, then you use conventional pile design method to calculate the pile capacity based on the soil parameters. allow for some reduction in strength in some kind of soils which provide less resistance after pile driving.