Field load tests of piled footings founded on a tropical porous clay

This paper presents field loading tests of piled footings, isolated footings and freestanding piles cast in place at the research site of the University of Brasilia. The footings were constituted of rafts with 1 m × 1 m in dimension, whereas the piles were manually augered to a circular cross section of 15 cm diameter and 5 m length. One isolated footing and one freestanding pile were vertically leaded with the soil in both inundated and natural water content conditions. Three piled footings were loaded as follows: One with 1 pile underneath, that was loaded with the soil in both inundated and natural water content conditions; Two with 4 piles underneath, that were loaded with the soil in its natural water content condition. In one of these piled footings there was no physical contact between the footing and the soil in order to simulate a freestanding 4 piles group.