Recent advances and past discoveries on tapered pile foundations: a review

ABSTRACT

The growing tendency to study the behaviour of tapered piles in the last two decades has made it necessary to gain a deeper insight into this specific kind of deep foundation. Tapered piles have been investigated through analytical, experimental, and numerical studies. These piles have revealed different behaviour under various loading conditions. Hence, reviewing and assessing these efforts to comprehend their response can be of great significance. In this paper firstly, it is attempted to go over experimental studies, conducted on tapered piles. Then, the proposed mathematical and numerical solutions, employed to calculate the bearing capacity of single tapered piles, are compared to have a better vision of how these piles behave. In the third section, the optimum tapering angles of tapered piles in loose, medium, and dense sand are discussed. All the efforts are investigated technically to find the advantages, disadvantages, and the research gaps for this specific kind of piles. In addition, another section entitled the directions and ideas for future research on tapered piles is provided comprising the most recent achievements in this area. Moreover, the implementation of tapered piles in a significant project as a case study is discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Axial loading
• bearing capacity
• lateral loading
• tapered piles
• settlement
• step-tapered piles
• dynamic loading

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.