Pile Foundation

Basics in Building Construction 4(2+2)

Lesson 03 : Deep Foundation

Pile Foundation

A pile is a wood, steel or reinforced concrete pillar, usually less than two feet (60 cm) in diameter, embedded or driven into the ground, to withstand vertical load or provide lateral support. Pile foundation is a type of deep foundation in which the loads are taken to a low level by means of vertical members called pile. The use of piles as a foundation can be traced since olden times. The art of driving piles was well established in Roman times. Today, pile foundation is much more common than any other type of deep foundation. Pile foundation is more commonly used in building construction.
The structure of pile is presented below in figure 1.

Pile foundation is preferred when

  1. the load of the superstructure is heavy and its distribution is uneven.
  2. the top soil has poor load bearing
  3. the subsoil water level is high so that pumping of water from the open trenches for the shallow foundation is difficult and uneconomical.
  4. there are large fluctuations in subsoil water level.
  5. the structure is situated on the sea shore or river bed, where there is danger of scouring action of water.
  6. canal or deep drainage lines exists near the foundations
  7. the top soil is of expansive nature.
  8. deep strip foundation is attempted and timbering of sides is difficult to maintain or retain the soil of sides of the trench.
  9. there is no firm bearing strata exists at any reasonable depth and the loading is uneven.
  10. a firm bearing strata does exist but at a depth such as to make strip or spread footing uneconomical.
  11. pumping of sub-soil water would be too costly or timbering to excavations too difficult to permit the construction of normal foundation.

Types of Pile foundation
Based on the function or the use, piles are classified into four types.

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Last modified: Tuesday, 28 February 2012, 6:47 AM