Pile Aging in Cohesive Soils

This technical note presents the results of a field investigation into pile aging in soft clay which was conducted over a period of ten years. Static load tests were conducted after the excess pore pressure generated by the installation of 6 m long driven concrete piles were fully equalised. These tests allowed the time-capacity aging profile to be established. A normalised capacity-time trend established for the case history is seen to be consistent with the response observed from a wider database of pile tests in clay compiled from the literature. A simple reliability based design example is provided to highlight the positive impact that pile aging could have for industrial practice.