Effect of borehole location on pile performance

ABSTRACT

Insufficient or inappropriate soil testing can lead to a range of undesirable consequences, however, there is little research available on-site investigation performance in complex soils. This study investigates site investigation scope in terms of a single borehole and its location relative to the foundation. The results are given in the form of heatmaps showing favourable sampling locations, whereby the optimal location can be found. The method used is statistical in nature, employing Monte Carlo analysis with randomly generated, variable, single layer soils. These soils allow both site investigations and true foundation performance to be conducted, with the resulting statistics analysed. Several site investigation, structural configuration, and soil variability factors are examined, including test type, borehole depth, reduction method, number of piles, building size and investigation performance metric. The results show that investigation quality is maximised by drilling the borehole in proximity to any pile in the foundation, and that failure costs can vary with location by up to 8% of the construction cost.

KEYWORDS:

• Probabilistic site characterisation and modelling
• Monte Carlo simulation
• reliability-based optimisation
• pile foundation
• site investigation optimisation

Disclosure statement

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