A Novel Numerical Method for Calculating Vertical Bearing Capacity of Prestressed Pipe Piles

A novel method for calculating the vertical bearing capacity of prestressed pipe piles with the acceptable error was proposed and verified. Soils at the pile side and end were, respectively, simulated by an elastic-plastic model and a new double-line (at soft rock and soil layers) or triple-line model (at hard rock and soil layers); then, a mechanical model was established for simulating vertical bearing capacity of prestressed pipe piles, and the corresponding calculation process was carried out. The values of pile side resistance, pile end resistance, and pile end elastic displacement were first obtained from the results of high-strain dynamic testing (HSDT) and then were imported into the proposed numerical model for calculating the vertical bearing capacity of prestressed concrete pipe piles. The static load test was carried out to verify the numerical results. Besides, 20 piles were tested at two typical test sites (soft and hard rock bearing strata), of which 8 piles were arranged at the soft rock bearing stratum site and 12 piles were arranged at the hard rock bearing stratum site. The numerical results achieved from an empirical formula were also used for making a comparison. The values obtained by the proposed method were highly close to those achieved from the static load test with an error of within 10%. The outcomes indicated that the proposed numerical method can be potentially applied to predict the bearing capacity of prestressed pipe piles.