Question
What is main purpose of conducting load test for piling works?
Answer
Pile load test gives information on ultimate bearing ability but not settlement behavior. In essence, it is able to determine if load is taken up by stratum designed or if centre of resistance is at plan location in piles.
After conducting load tests, curve of movement of pile head and curve of plastic deformation be able to be plotted. By subtracting curve of plastic deformation from curve of pile head group at each load, curve of flexible deformation can be obtained. For piles of end-bearing sort abandoned by friction, theoretical elastic deformation can be calculated from e=RL/AE everywhere e is elastic deformation, L is pile length, A is area of pile, E is Young's Modulus of pile fabric and R is reaction load on pile. By substituting e in formula, elastic deformation read from curve of elastic deformation, L be able to be obtained that shows location of a centre of conflict corresponding to that load.