A new method of predicting static bearing capacity of a pile foundation is presented. The method utilizes the dynamic behavior of the pile. In particular, the pile velocity, the displacement, and the driving force records are the necessary parameters. The analysis is conducted through a nonlinear differential equation that originates from the assumption that the soil reaction to the pile is a nonlinear function of the pile displacement. Examples based on data of four impact-driven field piles are presented. In these cases, since the driving forcing functions are not regular, it was necessary to resortto numerical solution of the governing equation by using the "continuous analytic continuation" method. The predicted static bearing capacity results of the piles have good agreement with those obtained from the field tests. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1277, Modern geotechnical methods: instrumentation and vibratory hammers 1990.
Abstract