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Pile foundation design using Microsoft Excel

Article  in  Computer Applications in Engineering Education · January 2007

DOI: 10.1002/cae.20206

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Pile Foundation Design
Using Microsoft Excel
HANIFI CANAKCI
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Gaziantep, 27310 Gaziantep, Turkey

Received 14 September 2006; accepted 20 May 2007

ABSTRACT: This article presents a program called Pile-D developed for the teaching of
pile foundation design to undergraduate level geotechnical engineering students. The program
performs drained and undrained analysis for frictional resistance of the pile in clay, and uses
critical depth approach for the analysis of the pile in sand. ß 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput
Appl Eng Educ 15: 355
366, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com); DOI
10.1002/cae.20206

Keywords: pile foundation; geotechnical engineering; spreadsheet application; clay; sand

INTRODUCTION presentation of fundamental principles underlying the

design and operation of different engineering appli-
Pile foundation design is considered as one of the cations. These type of programs not only give students
state-of-the-art areas of the geotechnical engineering. the opportunity to learn fast, but also enable them to
There are different theoretical and empirical methods tackle a broad range of applications by employing
used in pile foundation design. The design procedure various types of problem in very short time period.
requires use of different soil and pile material Thus, problem solving is no longer time-consuming
properties. Teaching this course in a classroom and boring for the students.
environment with limited time and practicing few Many different programs were developed as
examples makes it difficult for students to understand courseware and teaching tools for geotechnical engi-
the concepts of pile foundation design. neering students. The software Geocal [1] developed
Pile foundation design in some cases is lengthy, as a joint project of several universities from UK
which is always a limiting factor in an educational covers many areas of soil mechanics and geotechnical
environment and there is not much we can do to engineering. Budhu’s [2] soil mechanics courseware
change this. However, we may increase the student contains multimedia material for a typical university
experience by exposing the students to many more undergraduate level soil mechanics course. Sharma
cases and variations with the help of user-friendly and Hardcastle [3] developed a geotechnical labo-
computer programs. Computer programs with visual ratory software module. It covers common soil
interface are easy to use even for students with little mechanics tests, which are presented in a multimedia
experience with personal computer. It allows effective format. Masala and Biggar [4] also developed a virtual
geotechnical laboratory for simulation of permeability
Correspondence to H. Canakci ([email protected]). test. Most of these programs are prepared using visual
ß 2007 Wiley Periodicals Inc. interface for ease of use.

355
356 CANAKCI

Pile-D is developed using Microsoft Excel have been conducted in the past to predict the
for more effective teaching of pile foundation design behavior and load carrying capacity of piles in
and it makes use of all the advantageous of visual granular and cohesive soils, the mechanism are not
programs. There are various programs in the market entirely understood. Pile foundation is considered as
performing advanced calculations on the topic. an art because of the uncertainties involved in working
However, they are not much use for the teaching of with some soil conditions [6].
pile foundation design. The program presented here is
a simple tool for more effective teaching of pile
foundation design, which is what a student needs ESTIMATION OF PILE LOAD
during an undergraduate level program. CARRYING CAPACITY
The program is developed for undergraduate level
civil engineering students who already have back- The load is transmitted to the soil surrounding the pile
ground knowledge in pile design analysis. It allows by friction or adhesion between the soil and the sides
the user to practice the solution procedures of pile of the pile or/and the load is transmitted directly to the
design typically used in manual calculations. The soil just below the pile tips. This can be expressed by
Pile-D is designed to play an active role in dealing
Qult ¼ Qs þ Qp ð1Þ
with user-defined problems. The main advantage of
this is that it facilitates active and experiential where Qult is the ultimate bearing capacity of a single
learning. Below, we present the theory of the design pile, Qs is the bearing capacity gained by friction or
procedure for clay and sand as used by the program adhesion, and Qp is the bearing capacity furnished
and explain the modules of the program. by the soil just below the pile tip. The term Qs in
Equation (1) can be evaluated by multiplying the unit
skin friction or adhesion between the soil and the sides
PILE FOUNDATION of the pile f by the pile surface area As. The term Qp
can be evaluated by multiplying the ultimate bearing
In most of the Civil Engineering projects, loads capacity of the soil at the tip of the pile q by Ab.
coming from the super structure are transferred to soil Hence, Equation (1) can be expressed as follows:
through foundation that can be either spread or pile.
Qult ¼ f  As þ q  Ab ð2Þ
Although spread footings are more commonly used,
engineers often encounter circumstances where pile The calculation of Qs and Qp values has been the
foundation is more appropriate. Following conditions subject of numerous published studies. Equation (1) is
can be given as examples: a general relation and applicable to all soils.

*
The upper soils are so weak and/or the structural
loads are so high that spread footing would be too PILES IN CLAY
large.
*
The upper soil is subjected to score or under- The bearing capacity at the tip of the pile can be
mining. calculated from:
*
The foundation must penetrate through water. Qp ¼ cu  Nc  Ab ð3Þ
*
Large uplift capacity is required.
*
There will be future excavation adjacent to the where cu is undrained cohesion of the clay below the
foundation, and this excavation would under- pile tip, Nc is the bearing capacity factor and has a
mine shallow foundation. value of about 9, and Ab is the base area of the pile [7].
There are several methods available for the calcu-
Pile foundations typically extent to depths in the lation of the unit frictional resistance of pile in clay.
order of 15 m below ground surface but in some cases Some of the accepted procedures are discussed briefly
they can be as deep as 45 m. Even greater lengths have below.
been used in some offshore structures such as oil
drilling platforms [5].

Method
Engineers and contractors have developed many
kinds of pile foundations each of which is best suited This method is based on drained shear strength. When
to certain loading and soil conditions. Construction piles are driven into saturated clay, pore water
and design of these pile types are different. Although pressure in the soil around the pile increases.
numerous theoretical and experimental investigations However, within a month or so, this pressure gradually
 PILE-D 357

dissipates. Hence, the unit frictional resistance for

the pile can be determined on the basis of the effective
stress parameters of the clay in a remolded state
(c ¼ 0). Thus, at any given depth unit, frictional
resistance can be expressed by
f ¼
 0v ð4Þ
where 0v is the vertical effective stress at any depth,
’R is the drained friction angle of remolded clay, K is
the earth pressure coefficient, and

¼ Kðtan ’R Þ ð5Þ
The value of K can be conservatively taken as the
earth pressure coefficient at rest, or
Figure 1 Variation of alpha factor with undrained cohe-
Ks ¼ 1
sin R ðfor normally consolidated claysÞ sion.
ð6Þ
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Ks ¼ ð1
sin R Þ OCR ðfor overconsolidated claysÞ than or equal to about 50 kPa, the value of  is equal to
one. Thus
ð7Þ
Qs ¼ S  cu pDL ð12Þ
where OCR is overconsolidation ratio.
Combining Equations (4)
(7), the unit frictional
resistance for normally consolidated clay may be
 Method
given as
This method combines drained and undrained analy-
f ¼ ð1
sin R Þtan R  0v ð8Þ
sis. It computes average unit frictional resistance from
For overconsolidated clays 0v þ 2cu Þ
favg ¼ lð
ð13Þ
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
f ¼ ð1
sin R Þtan R OCR  0v ð9Þ where 0 v is the mean effective stress for entire
Once the value of f is determined, the total embedded length and l is the coefficient which
frictional resistance may be evaluated from depends on entire embedded depth of the pile (Fig. 2).
Care should be exercised in obtaining the value of 0 v
Qs ¼ Sf  p  DL ð10Þ and cu in layered soil. This can be explained with the
where p is the perimeter of the pile section, DL is the help of Figure 3. Using Figure 3, the mean value of cu
incremental pile length over which p and f are taken may be determined from
constant. cuðavgÞ ¼ ðcuð1Þ L1 þ cuð2Þ L2 þ cuð3Þ L3 þ . . .Þ=L ð14Þ

Figure 3 shows the plot of the variation of

 Method effective stress with depth. The mean effective stress
should be determined from
Although a drained strength analysis is theoretically
more accurate, it is also possible to analyze frictional A1 þ A2 þ A3 þ . . .

0v ¼ ð15Þ
resistance based on empirical correlation with the L
undrained strength, cu. This method is extensively used
where A1, A2, A3, . . . are the areas in the vertical
because of the large base of experience and because
effective stress diagram.
the test required obtaining cu is simple and inex-
pensive. In this method, the unit frictional resistance is
determined from PILES IN SAND
f ¼ a  cu ð11Þ
The bearing capacity at the tip of the pile can be
where  is the empirical adhesion factor. The calculated by
approximate variation of the value of  is shown in
Figure 1. For normally consolidated clays with cu less Qp ¼ cu  Nc  Ab ð16Þ
358 CANAKCI

Effective stress normally increases as the depth

increases. In the case of pile driven in sand, it has been
determined that effective pressure of soil adjacent to a
pile does not increase without limit as depth increases.
Instead, effective vertical stress increases as depth
increases until a certain depth of penetration is
reached. Below this depth, which is called critical
depth and denoted Dc, effective vertical stress more or
less remains constant (Fig. 4). The critical depth is
dependent on the field condition of the sand and
pile size. Tests indicate that critical depth ranges
from about 10 piles diameter for loose sand to about
20 piles diameter for dense compacted sand.
The coefficient of friction between sand and the
pile surface may be obtained from Table 1.
The load bearing capacity at the pile tip can be
calculated from
Qp ¼ 0v  Nq  Ab ð18Þ
where 0 v is the mean effective stress for entire
embedded length, Nq is the bearing capacity factor,
and Ab is the base area of the pile. Although many
more different approaches are proposed for the design
Figure 2 Variation of  with embedded length of the pile. of pile foundation in sand and clay, the program uses
only the methods explained above.

In the case of piles driven in sand, the unit frictional

resistance at a given depth for a pile can be expressed
as THE PROGRAM Pile-D
Qs ¼ K  0v  tan  ð17Þ
Two essential characteristics are considered while
where K is the earth pressure coefficient, 0 v is the developing the program. These are the capability
effective vertical stress at the depth under consid- of promoting interactivity with the user and easily
eration, and  is the friction angle developed at soil- producing interfaces with a pleasant layout [8]. The
pile interface. The value of K changes with depth. It is layout can strongly influence the improvement of
approximately equal to the Rankine passive pressure user’s motivation. Concerning these characteristics,
coefficient at the top of the pile. It may be less than the Microsoft Excel is chosen as programming platform.
at rest earth pressure coefficient at the pile tip. Based Readiness of a wide group of functions for different
on presently available results, the coefficient of lateral tasks such as graphic capacities, two-dimensional
earth pressure is assumed to vary between 0.60 and array with the capacity to link rows and columns,
1.25, with lower values used for silty sand, and higher handling of data, accessibility, and manageability are
values for other deposits. considered as advantages of Microsoft Excel [9].

Figure 3 Application of l method in layered clayey soil.

 PILE-D 359

embedded in layered clay. Frictional resistance of the

pile in clay is analyzed using three different theories
known as Alpha, Beta, and Lambda. The user can
obtain the solution using all these three methods. End
bearing capacity of the pile in sand is calculated using
user selected bearing capacity factor. To allow para-
metric studies, four different bearing capacity factors
proposed by different researchers are included in the
program. The user can easily move between the
subsections and change soil and pile properties and
observe changes in the result immediately. The
program can be used for back calculation for existing
pile if soil and pile properties are known. Also, the
length of a pile can be calculated for a specific load by
trying different pile shapes and materials.

Figure 4 Variation of vertical effective stress adjacent to

DEMONSTRATING EXAMPLES
pile with depth.
In this section, two examples are given to demonstrate
the computational and graphical utilities of Pile-D.
These advantageous of Microsoft Excel are mostly The first example is for pile design in clay and
used in Pile-D. the second one is for pile design in sand. Cells and
The program interfaces are developed in such a combo boxes used in the program are explained while
way that it is not only easy to use but also provides an going through examples.
environment where students feel motivated to explore.
The visual graphics used in the pages ensure a
Example Calculation for Pile in Clay
motivating environment. In the developed program
Pile-D, a consistent screen layout is designed to Example 9-4 of Reference [6] is selected for
provide effective instruction, appropriate navigational demonstrating example calculation. The problem
tools, and visual aesthetics. The screen is organized requires the calculation of ultimate point resistance
into functional areas. These areas appear in the same and frictional resistance of a 30 m long circular pipe
locations throughout the program for consistency. pile embedded into two different clay layers. The
Pile-D has two sections. These are pile in clay frictional resistance of the pile is to be determined
and pile in sand. Pile in clay section has six sub- using alpha, beta, and lambda methods. We notice that
sections, namely geotechnical data input, pile pro- the water table remains within the embedded length of
perties input, alpha and lambda values selection, the pile.
presentation of results, and calculation check. Pile in To start the solution of the problem, ‘‘pile design
sand has four subsections namely, geotechnical and in clay’’ section is called from the main page (Fig. 5).
pile properties input, bearing capacity factor selec- Given soil data and ground water level are entered as
tion, presentation of results, and calculation check. an input data into provided cells as shown in Figure 6.
Pile in clay section is designed to solve vertical The user is allowed to choose pile shape from the
downward axial load carrying capacity of a single pile combo box (Fig. 7). Three most widely used pile
shapes are placed into the combo box. These are cir-
cular, square, and octagonal. After selecting the shape
Table 1 Coefficient of Friction Between Sand and Pile
of the pile, the user can input size of the pile into the
Materials
provided cell. If the user wants to choose alpha and
Coefficient of friction between
lambda factor he/she simply clicks on ‘‘Chose 
sand and pile material tan 
factor’’ or ‘‘Chose l factor’’ buttons and calls alpha
Concrete 0.45 and lambda graphs. From these graphs, he/she reads
Wood 0.40 corresponding alpha and lambda values depending on
Steel (smooth) 0.20 the undrained cohesion and total embedded length of
Steel (rough, rusted) 0.4 the pile, and enters these values into the provided cell
Steel (corrugated) Use tan  of sand (Fig. 8). This option of the program encourages the
360 CANAKCI

Figure 5 Main page of the program Pile-D.

user to contribute to the solution. To obtain the The results page contains point resistance; fric-
solution, the user simply clicks on ‘‘Calculate’’ button tional resistances calculated using three methods,
and the page with results comes on to the screen ultimate capacity, and allowable capacity values. The
(Fig. 9). user may change the factor of safety value and

Figure 6 Pile design in clay section soil data entrance page.

 PILE-D 361

Figure 7 Selection of pile shape and dimension.

recalculate allowable capacity. The screen also angle of friction is 388. K is assumed as 0.95. Ground
contains frictional resistance values calculated using water table is 3 m below ground surface. Calculate
the coefficients read by the user. This allows the user pile’s axial load carrying capacity assuming factor of
compare these resistances by those calculated by the safety is 2.
program. In the computer solution, the coefficients are The problem requires the calculation of frictional
determined using best fit curve functions of the alpha resistance, tip resistance, ultimate load, and allowable
and lambda graphs. The program allows the user to go load carrying capacity of circular concrete pile driven
back to previous data entrance screens and change soil into medium to dense sand.
or pile properties using the buttons located at the First, ‘‘pile in sand’’ section is called from main
bottom part of the screen, and obtain the new results. page of the program. Geotechnical properties and
When the user clicks on the ‘‘check your depth of the water table are entered to appropriate
calculation’’ button, the screen shown in Figure 10 cells provided in the data entrance page (Fig. 11). The
comes on. This page contains selected parameters user is allowed to choose bearing capacity factor from
and certain intermediate results obtained during the the graph that comes on by clicking ‘‘For bearing
calculations. This page allows the student to compare capacity factor click’’ button. Four different bearing
his hand calculation with that of the program. This capacity factors are presented in the graph (Fig. 12)
way the student has opportunity to identify his/her proposed by different researchers and the user can
mistakes and correct them. select any of them. Two options including loose and
medium to dense for the in situ state of sand are
provided in the same page. This selection affects the
Example Calculation for Pile in Sand
value of critical depth. The combo box provided at
Example 10-2 of Reference [7] is used to illustrate the the top right corner of the window allows the user to
use of program for pile in sand problems. The problem choose a pile material. The options are concrete,
statement is as follows: A concrete pile is to be driven wood, corrugated steel, smooth steel, and rusted steel.
into a medium dens to dens sand. The diameter of the The program assigns a specified friction coefficient
pile is 305 mm, and its embedded length is 7.62 m. between pile-soil interfaces depending on the selected
Unit weight of the sand is 20.1 kN/m3 and, its internal pile material. The user can select the shape of the pile
362 CANAKCI

Figure 8 Selection of design parameters (a) alpha parameter and (b) lambda parameter.

from the same page. The options provided are square, and obtain new results. Also, ‘‘check your calcula-
circular, and hexagonal cross-sections. Once the user tion’’ button allows the student to compare his/her
enters the pile diameter into the provided cell he/she hand calculation with that of the program (Fig. 14).
can click ‘‘Calculate’’ button to call results page
(Fig. 13). The page contains point resistance, fric-
tional resistance, ultimate capacity, and allowable INSTRUCTOR’S EXPERIENCE AND
capacity values. The user may change the factor of STUDENT EVALUATIONS
safety value and recalculate allowable capacity.
As in ‘‘pile in clay’’ section, the user can move Pile-D program is used in CE 466 Foundation
between the pages and change soil or pile properties, Engineering II course, which is offered every
 PILE-D 363

Figure 9 Output page for pile design in clay.

Figure 10 Calculation checking for pile design in clay.

364 CANAKCI

Figure 11 Data entrance for pile design in sand.

academic year. This is an elective course and an examples considering various cases are solved.
average of 20 students in their senior year takes the Next, new example is given to students to solve it
course. After teaching the theory of load carrying in the classroom in a 30-min period. When the
capacity of a single pile in sandy and clayey soil, some given time is over, same sample problem is solved

Figure 12 Selection of bearing capacity factor.

 PILE-D 365

Figure 13 Output page for pile design in sand.

while demonstrating the use of Pile-D program in the The students taking the course obtain the program
classroom. This takes only about 20 min, and thus the from the instructor and they are allowed to install it
use of this program does not affect the content that in their personal computer. They are assigned some
needs to be covered during the classroom time. homework problems and they are asked to solve the

Figure 14 Calculation checking for pile design in sand.

 366 CANAKCI

problems by hand and check their solutions using change various parameters used in the calculations
Pile-D program. They are supposed to submit both and observe their effects on load carrying capacity of
hand and Pile-D solutions. As part of the homework pile in sand and clay. Using the program, the user can
assignments, the students are also asked to perform configure and conduct his/her own examples inter-
some analytical studies by varying some soil and pile actively instead of following a limited number of
material parameters and observe their effects on the examples selected by the instructor.
results.
Verbal feedback from students is usually sought
after they complete their assignments on the use of
Pile-D. Almost all of the students find the program REFERENCES
user-friendly. The navigation through the program is
found easy. They say they have no problems with [1] GeotechniCAL, Educational technology for ground
understanding the meaning of buttons and icons engineering. http://www.uwe.ac.uk/geocal/geocal.htm
within the program. The automatic generation of a 2002.
plot showing the effective stress with depth consid- [2] M. Budhu, Soil mechanics and foundations, Wiley,
New York, 2000.
ering critical depth in sandy soil and a plot showing
[3] S. Sharma and J. H. Hardcastle, Computer based
the change in effective stress with depth in layered
instruction for consolidation testing, Proceedings of
clayey soil are favored features. The students also the 36th Annual Symposium on Engineering Geology
pointed out that the use of this program helped them to and Geotechnical Engineering, Las Vegas, Nevada,
understand the load carrying capacity of single pile in March 2001, 28
30.
sandy and clayey soil much better. [4] S. Masala and K. Biggar, Geotechnical virtual
laboratory. I. Permeability, Comp Appl Eng Educ
11 (2003), 132
143.
CONCLUSIONS [5] D. P. Coduto, Foundaton design principles and
practices, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1994.
Microsoft Excel is a useful programming platform [6] B. M. Das, Principles of foundation engineering,
4th ed., PWS-KENT, Boston, 1999.
due to its easy accessibility and execution on any type
[7] C. Liu and J. B. Evett, Soils, foundations, 5th ed.,
of computers. It is well-suited to perform Geo-
Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 2001.
technical Engineering calculations. Pile-D is a Micro- [8] S. A. Brretto, R. Piazzalunga, and V. G. Ribeiro, A
soft Excel based educational computer program web-based 2D structural analysis educational software,
module. It is developed as a courseware for more Comp Appl Eng Educ 11 (2003), 83
92.
effective teaching of pile foundation design in clayey [9] K. Y. Kabalan and A. El-Hajj, Digital filter design
and sandy soil in undergraduate level geotechnical using spreadsheets, Comp Appl Eng Educ 7 (1999),
engineering courses. The program allows the user to 9
15.

BIOGRAPHY

Hanifi Canakci received his BSc degree in

civil engineering from Middle East Technical
University, Turkey, in 1989, and his MSc
and PhD in geotechnical engineering from
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United
Kingdom, in 1992 and 1996, respectively.
He is currently an assistant professor in
the Department of Civil Engineering at The
University of Gaziantep in Turkey. His
current research interests are computer-aided learning and ground
improvement.

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