Design and performance of the piled raft foundation for Shanghai World Financial Center

Abstract

A case history of the piled raft foundation for Shanghai World Financial Center which is a 101-storey, 492 m high building is presented in this paper. To monitor the performance of the piled raft foundation system and to verify the foundation design work, field measurements were carried out on the raft settlements, pile head axial loads, contact pressures of the raft and pore-water pressures underneath the raft during the entire construction period. The measured raft settlements were comparable to the computed results. At six months after topping out, the maximum settlement was 130 mm in the tube area, decreasing to 90 mm at the edges. Axial loads at pile head increased gradually and varied in magnitude from 1000 to 5000 kN, less than the proposed compression capacities of the steel pipe piles. Both contact pressures of the raft and pore-water pressures beneath the raft varied considerably during the initial construction period but changed slightly after the end of construction. Based on the field measurement results, the piled raft foundation design proved to be appropriate.