Estimation of pile settlement in calcareous sands

The calcareous soils found off the coasts of many parts of the world represent an extreme soil type in terms of their compressibility. In such compressible sediments, there are geotechnical engineering problems, which is the much lower bearing capacity of pile foundations in comparison with that in normal soils. Furthermore, one has to point out the large amount of settlement for the pile foundation required to reach the bearing capacity, and therefore the design should be considered not only by the estimation of the bearing capacity but also the estimation of settlement in calcareous sediments. The authors have suggested a method to estimate the settlement against mobilized end-bearing capacity, using the compressibility parameters for calcareous sands. The suggested formulas are compared with the results of model pile tests. The curves estimated by the suggested equation well agree with experimental results. The simple method is useful in estimating the settlement of pile.