Behaviour of piles in consolidating soil

The development of negative skin friction on circular piles in a consolidating layered soil is investigated by an elasto-plastic load transfer theory which accounts for slippage of the soil. The elastic load transfer theory is premised on the compatibility condition that the vertical displacement of the 'pile' is equal to the summation of the vertical displacement of the layered soil due to the consolidation of the upper soil layer and the vertical displacement in the 'soil layers' along the pile's centroidal axis caused by a system of pile-soil interactive forces. Slippage of the soil is accounted for by imposing the shear strength of the clay layer as the limit of the pile-soil interface shear stress. The saturated upper clay is consolidating under a uniform surcharge in accordance with Terzaghi's one-dimensional consolidation theory. The validity of the proposed solution is confirmed by comparison with field measurements. Extensive parametric studies with regard to the effect of pile-soil slip on pile behaviour are presented.