Behavior of Pipe Piles in Sand: Plugging and Pore-Water Pressure Generation During Installation and Loading

One of the major difficulties in predicting the capacity of pipe piles in sand has resulted from a lack of understanding of the physical processes that control the behavior of piles during installation and loading. This monograph presents a detailed blue print for developing experimental facilities necessary to identify these processes. These facilities include a unique instrumented double-walled pipe-pile that is used to delineate the frictional stresses acting against the external and internal surfaces of the pile. The pile is fitted with miniature pore-pressure transducers to monitor the generation of pore water pressure during installation and loading. A fast automatic laboratory pile hammer capable of representing the phenomena that occur during pile driving was also developed and used.