Impact of pile roughness on shaft resistance in sand

The impact of pile roughness on shaft resistance was studied using centrifuge modelling. Two types of piles with different roughness were jacked in flight at 100g in dense and medium dense Fontainebleau NE34 sands. An experimental method was used to infer the pile shaft and tip capacities. For the piles tested in this study, an increase in pile roughness and sand density increased the shaft resistance significantly. Pile roughness was also found to affect the ratio of the tension to compression shaft resistances. The experimental results obtained were compared with those obtained using the Imperial College pile (ICP) method for different angles of friction. The variation in friction angle according to pile roughness and sand density showed that the ICP method provides a good estimate of pile shaft resistance.