POSSIBILITY OF REDUCING THE DURATION OF STATIC PILE TESTS.

During the period 1979-83, the NIIpromstroi Institute jointly with several construction organizations of West Siberia and the lower Volga Region carried out, under different soil conditions, over 80 static tests to establish the effect of the pile loading duration on the obtained limit strengths. In addition to the comparisons of the accelerated procedure of the NIIpromstroi Institute with the standard procedure, there were studies of the possibility of using more simplified methods, such as the so-called 'quick' tests of 10-15-min duration, based on the 'constant penetration rate' method, in which jacking of the pile under a smoothly increasing load (hydraulic jack) is performed until sinking is obtained without increase in the load. This paper describes the accelerated pile testing methods.