Response of tapered piles in cohesionless soil based on model tests

Abstract

This paper describes model tests of different types of tapered piles in cohesionless soils. Chromium plated three steel piles, one straight and two taper-shaped piles of same length and pile tip diameters have been executed for pile loading test in a downward frictional mode. Two different types of model grounds have been prepared for the test. Relative densities of 80 % and 60 % have been modeled to penetrate piles in two different types of sands to observe the effectiveness of skin frictions of different types of piles. The response of tapered piles has shown that the skin friction has increased with increasing the tapering angle at normalized settlement ratio of 0.4. High density ground yields higher skin friction when the maximum tapered pile was penetrated. Slightly increased tapering angle of the pile affects remarkably on the skin friction with compared to conventional straight cylindrical pile even at small 0.1 settlement ratios.