Static Load Capacity of H-Pile Installed with a Pilot Hole in Weathered Rock

Pile foundations for bridges are sometimes constructed by placing a pile in a pilot hole which is pre-drilled into rock. In such cases, dynamic testing is typically not performed, and the geotechnical capacity of the pile should be estimated based on static analysis methods. In this case study, the load capacity of an H-pile installed in a pilot hole in a weathered rock was analyzed. The pile was a production pile for a bridge and was tested by a static load test. A numerical model was used to simulate the general load-displacement behavior of the pile. Four static analysis methods were used to determine the geotechnical capacity of the rock. In general, these static analysis methods provided a wide range of the calculated load capacity. Both the numerical model and the static analysis showed that the generalized Hoek-Brown failure criterion and its parameters produced a reasonable estimation of the load capacity for this pile.