A study of the effect of driving on pre-bored piles

A finite element model for pile-driving analysis is developed and used to investigate the behaviour of pre-bored piles, which are then driven the last 1.25 or 2.25 in to their final design depth. The study was conducted for the case of saturated clays. The model traces the penetration of the pile into the soil and accommodates for large deformations. The non-linear behaviour of the clay in this study is predicted using the bounding-surface-plasticity model, as applied to isotropic cohesive soils. The details of the 3-D numerical modelling and computational schemes are presented. A significant difference was observed in the pile displacement during driving, and in the computed soil resistance at the pile tip, particularly at the earliest driving stages. No difference in soil resistance at the soil pile interface along the pile shaft was detected between the pre-bored piles whether driven 1.25 or 2.25 m. Copyright (C) 2002 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.