Calculation of the Reliability of Pile Foundations

Abstract

The article analyzes the existing probabilistic methods for assessing the bearing capacity of single piles and pile foundations (taking into account mutual influence). It is noted that in the beginning there were attempts to somehow assess reliability (safety) through the coefficient of uniformity, similar to for soil samples, which often led to erroneous decisions.

     It is emphasized that most of the available proposals for the probabilistic calculation of piles and pile foundations are devoted to certain particular issues; for example, determining the required (minimum) amount of testing of piles with a trial static load, in other cases they have very conditional assumptions, and the mathematical apparatus is very complex, which makes it difficult to use it in practice.

     The analysis of the above data indicates that they do not take into account such important issues as the reliability of input parameters, on which the reliability of pile foundations directly depends (for example, the mutual influence of piles in the foundation, the variability and nature of load transfer, etc.), and which are key to quantifying their reliability.