Use of the piezocone test to predict the axial capacity of driven and jacked piles in clay

Results of 43 load tests on driven and jacked piles performed at eight clayey sites have been back-analysed using piezocone test data. A method to evaluate the axial capacity of piles has been proposed in which the pile unit skin friction and the unit end bearing resistance are computed from the net corrected cone resistance, q(net). Correlation factors between piezocone and pile load tests were back-calculated using this approach. As most of the pile tests performed were tension tests, special emphasis was given to the evaluation of the pile unit skin friction.