Abstract
Field studies have shown that the driving of a displacement pile into cohesive soil generates large excess pore pressures in the vicinity of the pile. These pore pressures are often larger than the effective overburden pressure and facilitate the installation of the pile. The subsequent increase in bearing capacity of the pile is largely controlled by the dissipation of the excess pore pressures and a consequent increase in the effective stresses acting on the pile. The paper presents a closed formanalytical solution for the radial consolidation of the soil around a driven pile, assuming that the soil skeleton deforms elastically. This assumption is examined in the light of the predicted effective stress changes in the soil and is shown to lead to, a realistic model for the decay of pore pressure near the pile with time after driving. Although the solution may be applied to any initial distribution of excess pore pressure, attention is focussed on that due to the expansion of a cylindrical cavity in an ideal elastic, perfectly plastic soil. The resulting logarithmic variation of excess pore pressure with radius is considered to be close to that generated around a pile as a result of driving. In addition to giving estimates of the time needed for a driven pile to achieve its maximum strength, the solution may also be used in the analysis of pressuremeter tests to provide inβsitu measurements of the coefficient of consolidation of the soil.