End-bearing piles
Foundations provide support for structures, transferring their load to layers of soil or rock that have sufficient bearing capacity and suitable settlement characteristics to support them. Very broadly, foundations can be categorised as shallow foundations or deep foundations.
Pile foundations are a type of deep foundation, formed by long, slender, columnar elements typically made from steel or reinforced concrete, or sometimes timber. A foundation is described as 'piled' when its depth is more than three times its breadth.
Pile foundations are principally used to transfer the loads from superstructures, through weak, compressible strata or water onto stronger, more compact, less compressible and stiffer soil or rock at depth. They are typically used for large structures, and in situations where soil may be subject to excessive settlement.
End-bearing piles develop most of their load-bearing capacity at the toe of the pile, bearing on a hard layer of rock or very dense soil and gravel. The pile transmits the load through soft, compressible strata directly onto firm strata. This type of pile therefore acts in the same way as a column.
This is as opposed to friction piles (or floating piles) which develop most of their load-bearing capacity by shear stresses along the sides of the pile, and are suitable where harder layers are too deep to reach economically. The pile transmits the load to the surrounding soil by adhesion or friction between the surface of the pile and the soil. In this case, the whole surface of the pile works to transfer load to the soil.
For more information see: Friction piles.
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings
- Bored piles.
- Building foundations.
- Caisson.
- Continuous flight auger piles.
- Driven piles.
- Friction piles.
- Geothermal pile foundations.
- How deep should foundations be?
- Pile foundations.
- Piling equipment.
- Screw pile foundations.
- Sheet piles.
- Socket piles.
- Tension piles.
- Testing pile foundations.
- Types of pile foundation.
Featured articles and news
Not buildings. Happy holiday from DB.
Improving government projects with data and AI
Enabling better outcomes, efficient modern delivery and influential leadership on government projects.
BSRIA Living Laboratory Innovation Challenge
Final days for submission, closing March 29.
Windows, their frames, forms, factors and functions.
The hidden subtleties of U-Value calculations
Different contexts and what to include as variables.
A brief run down with related articles.
Electrical sector calls for safer public EV charge points
Serious concerns about electrical safety in the public domain.
Building Blocks manifesto presented to parliament
Architects Declare call in for support of five critical policies.
The four elements of project management with APM
Analysis, expectations, collaborative communication and partnerships.
City of London launches Heritage Building Retrofit Toolkit
Empowering owners to initiate necessary adaptations.
Guidance on RAAC in listed buildings
Published by Purcell, endorsed by IHBC, SPAB and C20.
Learning from the past.
Reluctance to hire people with criminal convictions revealed
Employing People with Criminal Convictions Report.
Tackling unconscious bias; Women's History Month
Personal reflections, as the last week of March approaches.
Comments
Hi,
Under the below orange dots are piles. The quay has a number of old drawings, but the piles are not described. They have presumably been added in the 1980's but no record exists.
Is there a way to figure out what they are (for example friction or end-bearing piles), and their load bearing strength?
File:Lvens quay reinforcements.jpg
https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/File:Älvenäs_quay_reinforcements.jpg ?