A Field Study of Soil Plugging of Jacked Pile and Its Effect on the Pile Resistance

Both a static pile load test and cone penetration test were conducted in a field to investigate the effect of soil plugging on the ultimate bearing capacity of a pile. Both the force equilibrium method and Terzaghi’s method were adopted for the theoretical analysis of the soil plugging effect during the pile setting process. Consequently, a new equation was proposed for the estimation of the height of soil plugging. It is observed that the process of pile settlement can be divided into three stages: (i) the soil plugging is initially formed; (ii) the soil plugging reaches its maximum height; and (iii) force equilibrium is reached with a constant soil plugging height. The proposed method in this paper provides an alternative method for the assessment of the height of soil plugging and its effect on the ultimate bearing capacity of the jacked pile.