Results from long-term measurement in piles of drag load and downdrag

Several full-scale, long-term tests on instrumented piles performed since the 1960s and through the 1990s are presented. The results of the tests show that a large drag load will develop in piles installed in soft and loose soils. The test cases are from Norway, Sweden, Japan, Canada, Australia, United States, and Singapore and involve driven steel piles and precast concrete piles. The test results show that the transfer of load from the soil to the pile through negative skin friction, and from the pile back to the soil through positive shaft resistance, is governed by effective stress and that already a very small movement will result in mobilization of ultimate values of shaft shear. The pile toe resistance, on the other hand, is determined by downdrag of the pile and the resulting pile toe penetration. Reconsolidation after the pile installation with associated dissipation of pore pressures will result in significant drag load. An equilibrium of force in the pile will develop, where the sustained loads on the pile head and the drag load are equal to the positive shaft resistance plus the pile toe resistance. The location of the force equilibrium, the neutral plane, is also where the pile and the soil move equally. The drag load is of importance mostly for very long piles (longer than 100 pile diameters) for which the pile structural strength could be exceeded. Downdrag, i.e., settlement of the piled foundation, is a very important issue, however, particularly for low-capacity short piles. Soil settlement at the neutral plane will result in a downdrag of the pile. The magnitude of the downdrag will determine the magnitude of the pile toe penetration into the soil, which will determine the pile toe resistance and affect the location of the neutral plane. Nature's iteration of force and soil settlement will decide the final location of the neutral plane.