Differential settlement - belled piles

[allovertheplace]

Hi!

We plan to install multiple belled piles in our project. The geotechnical report shows that a movement tolerance of up to 25 mm is expected on these piles. My question is what would be a differential movement between the piles? Being a mechanical engineer, I get up to 50 mm of differential, but our civil consultant says it would be actually 12.5 mm.

What is the right answer?

Also, a different geotechnical report for the same area and application states that the settlement is expected to be up to 25 mm. Again, in my understanding, this is very different and the maximum differential will be 25 mm. According to the civil consultant, it is the same and the settlement is expected to be 12.5 mm.

Could you help me to sort it out?

Thank you

 

[SlideRuleEra]

Settlement of "UP TO" 25mm is expected. Therefore actual settlement MAY be anywhere from 0 mm to 25 mm. If a design settlement of 12.5 mm is intentionally planned, then the maximum deviation from the planned 12.5 mm settlement would be either +12.5 mm (total settlement of 25 mm) or -12.5 mm (zero total settlement). So, I would agree with the civil consultant (maximum DIFFERENTIAL settlement of plus or minus 12.5 mm).

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