Rectangular barrettes and circular bored piles in saprolites

In the last two decades, many full-scale compression loading tests have been performed to verify the design parameters of the shaft resistance of rectangular barrettes and large-diameter bored piles founding in deep-seated thick saprolites in Hong Kong. In this study, comparisons are made between the results from the investigations of the behaviour of the mobilised shaft resistance with respect to the relative pile-soil movements (i.e. local displacements), the in situ soil properties (i.e. standard penetration test values), and the effective stress principle ( with which the ss values are estimated). Also, the behaviour of the mobilised shaft resistance for the barrettes and bored piles in Hong Kong is compared with that elsewhere.