Investigation of the bearing capacity of piles driven in plastic frozen soil

Conclusions

The bearing capacity of a pile lowered into a borehole whose cross section exceeds the cross section of the pile for the possibility of filling in with slurry (frozen-in, friction, bored-sunk piles) is close to the calculated, but has a greater settlement under a standard load in comparison with a bored-drive pile.

The bearing capacity of piles driven by the VMS-1 vibratory hammer into plastic frozen soil (bored-drive piles) is on the average 1.6 times greater than the calculated. Such an excess of the bearing capacity of the piles can be explained by the formation of a new structure and frost texture of the soil within 30–50 mm around the pile skin. A characteristic feature of the newly formed zone of soil is a considerably greater homogeneity and density of the soil than under natural conditions and absence of ice lenses and interlayers directly contacting the pile.

The settlements of the pile tested under a standard load were less than the allowable deformations for the bases of the majority of buildings and structures.

The cross-sectional area of the pilot hole should be equal to 0.65–0.75 of the pile section in the case of driving it at the time of the maximum depth of thawing of the soil and 0.95 at the time of seasonal freezing of the soil.

Restoration of the contact bonds between the soil and pile during its freezing-in after driving into soil with a temperature of -0.5°C and higher can continue for several months.