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Pile Design and Construction Practice, Fifth edition

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Ground investigations, contracts <strong>and</strong> testing 521<br />

of load testing since the failure load on the pile is not known with any certainty until the<br />

test is made.<br />

The ML test is best suited for contract work, particularly for proof loading tests on working<br />

piles. It is also suitable for use where empirical methods are employed to predict the ultimate<br />

load from measurement of residual deflections after returning the test load to zero at four or<br />

five stages up to the maximum (see below). The load at each stage is held until the rate of<br />

settlement has decreased to less than 0.25 mm/hour <strong>and</strong> is still decreasing.<br />

EC7-1 Clause 7.5 deals with pile load tests in general <strong>and</strong> outlines procedures for static<br />

<strong>and</strong> dynamic load tests, trial piles <strong>and</strong> testing working piles. BS EN 1536 refers to EC7<br />

requirements giving recommendations for ML, CRP, dynamic <strong>and</strong> integrity testing which<br />

are slightly different from the BS 8004 procedures. For example, in ML tests the loads should<br />

be constant at each of at least six stages for a specified duration <strong>and</strong> unless otherwise stated<br />

the displacement rate should be less than 0.1 mm/20 minutes at the end of each stage. For<br />

CRP tests the rate of displacement should be constant at approximately 1 mm per minute,<br />

unless otherwise agreed. BS EN 12699 is less prescriptive for displacement piles, but<br />

requires testing to be in accordance with the relevant parts of EC7 <strong>and</strong> the specifications.<br />

The section of the ICE Specification dealing with static load tests defines the Specified<br />

Working Load (SWL) as ‘the specified load on the head of a pile as stated in the relevant<br />

Particular Specification’ or in provided schedules. This is differentiated from the <strong>Design</strong><br />

Verification Load (DVL) which is defined as ‘a load which will be substituted for the specified<br />

working load for the purpose of a test <strong>and</strong> which may be applied to an isolated or singly<br />

loaded pile at the time of testing the given conditions of the Site’. The DVL takes into<br />

account special conditions which may not apply to all piles on the site such as negative shaft<br />

friction, or variations in pile head casting level.<br />

The ICE recommends that a proof load test should normally be the sum of the DVL plus<br />

50% of the SWL applied in the sequence shown in Table 11.4 for multi-cyclic pile tests<br />

(reproduced with permission of Thomas Telford Limited).<br />

Table 11.4 Loading sequence for proof load test to a<br />

maximum of 100% DVL plus 50% SWL<br />

Load Minimum time of holding load<br />

25% DVL 30 minutes<br />

50% DVL 30 minutes<br />

75% DVL 30 minutes<br />

100% DVL 6 hours<br />

75% DVL 10 minutes<br />

50% DVL 10 minutes<br />

25% DVL 10 minutes<br />

0 1 hour<br />

100% DVL 1 hour<br />

100% DVL � 25% SWL 1 hour<br />

100% DVL � 50% SWL 6 hours<br />

100% DVL � 25% SWL 10 minutes<br />

100% DVL 10 minutes<br />

75% DVL 10 minutes<br />

50% DVL 10 minutes<br />

25% DVL 10 minutes<br />

0 1 hour

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