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Pile Test Load Selection

Pile Test Load Selection

Pile Test Load Selection

(OP)
Why are piles usually tested to two times design load?

RE: Pile Test Load Selection

Before LRFD, piles were generally designed with a FS of 2.

Mike Lambert

RE: Pile Test Load Selection

If I recall my geotechnical history, piles were loaded to 2X design load, not simply to provide a safety factor of 2 but to statistically assure that all production piles have a very high degree of certainty of having a capacity at or exceeding the design load.

If a pile load test is considered the "sample" and the double design load represents the mean of the capacity of all piles, then (assuming a normal distribution of pile capacities) the risk of any one pile on the project having a capacity less than the design capacity is statistically very small.

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