Response Evaluation of Axially Loaded Grouted Drilled Shaft

A rational approach of predicting the response of the grouted shaft has been developed in this paper. The mechanisms of how base grouting affects the end bearing and side friction are analyzed in detail. Based on this analysis, four improvement factors are introduced into the hyperbolic load transfer function to account for the improvement of the shaft performance due to base grouting. The rational ranges of these factors have been determined by statistical analyses of a large group of in-situ testing results. The improvement load-transfer function was used to predict the behavior of the grouted shaft and the results show that the measured response of the shaft lies between the predicted upper and lower bound, which indicates the validity of the approach.