Evaluation of Pile Bearing Capacity from Piezocone Penetration Test Data in Soft Jiangsu Quaternary Clay Deposits

This article mainly focuses on the piezocone test results and the related interpretation procedures to predict ultimate pile load capacities of driven and jacked piles for the Jiangsu soft soil deposits. First, the available literature on the evaluations of CPTU methods was collected and reviewed. The new CPTU-based method has been proposed to predict the ultimate capacity from effective cone tip resistance to excess pore water pressure. Second, this article presents an analysis of these pile load tests and correlations to neighboring piezocone data. Four CPTU-based methods are evaluated using the ultimate pile load capacities, shaft friction, and end bearing capacity. The results of a comparison of the calculated pile capacities to the measured pile capacities are very favorable to the new CPTU method, which shows better agreement with the capacity determined in a static loading test and less scatter than other CPTU methods.