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Piles through Soft Clay for a Metro Project

Conference Paper · September 2016

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Ravi Sundaram Sanjay Gupta

Cengrs Geotechnica Pvt. Ltd Fortis Hospital Vasant Kunj New Delhi
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PILES THROUGH SOFT CLAY FOR A METRO PROJECT

Ravi Sundaram, Cengrs Geotechnica Pvt. Ltd., Noida, U.P., India 0120-4206771 ravi@cengrs.com
Sanjay Gupta, Cengrs Geotechnica Pvt. Ltd., Noida, U.P, India 0120-4206771 sanjay@cengrs.com
Sorabh Gupta, Cengrs Geotechnica Pvt. Ltd., Noida, U.P., India 0120-4206771 sorabh@cengrs.com
Abraham Varghese, Cengrs Geotechnica Pvt. Ltd., Noida, U.P., India 0120-4206771 abraham@cengrs.com

ABSTRACT

Geotechnical investigation for the Kochi Metro revealed a critical section of the Viaduct near Ernakulam
Junction Railway Station. Four piers, located over a 220 m stretch, were passing through an area with
substantial thickness of soft clay. The scope of the geotechnical investigation included two boreholes and
a static cone penetration test at each pier location. In the boreholes, field vane shear test was conducted at
different depths in addition to the routine SPT. The design of heavily loaded piles in such strata is a
challenge due to the liquefaction of the shallow sands and negative skin friction / down-drag in the soft
under-consolidated clay. Bored cast-in-situ piles of 1500 mm diameter extending to 50-60 m depth were
used to carry 500-600 tonnes load.

Keywords: metro piers, soft clay, field vane shear tests, bored piles, negative skin friction

INTRODUCTION

The first phase of the rapid transit system at Kochi, Kerala (See Fig. 1) whose elevated route spans from
Aluva to Thripunithura covers a total distance of about 25 kilometers. One of the more critical sections
of the viaduct exists near the Ernakulam Junction Railway station where the alignment takes a sharp
curve to move towards Vyttila, crossing the railway tracks and running partially over the approach of
South over-bridge.

In this section, four piers located on either side of the railway tracks near the Route Relay Cabin of
Ernakulam Junction Railway Station pass through an area with substantial thickness of soft under-
consolidated clay.

The alignment is geotechincally challenging due to the

presence of loose liquefiable sand and soft under-
consolidated and sensitive clay.

Initial investigations by the owner based on limited

boreholes only yielded conservative and inconclusive
pile capacities. For a thorough understanding of the soil
behaviour, a detailed geotechnical investigation was
carried out to assess the engineering behaviour of the
soil strata.

The scope of the geotechnical investigation included

two boreholes and a static cone penetration test at each
pier location. In the boreholes, field vane shear tests
were conducted at different depths in addition to the
Fig. 1. Metro Route Alignment
routine SPT.

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Photographs of the field investigation in progress are presented on Fig. 2.

Fig. 2. Field investigation in progress. Photograph on left shows dead load placed over the Static cone
penetrometer rig since the anchors could not provide sufficient reaction. Photograph on right shows field vane shear
test in progress

REGIONAL GEOLOGY

Kochi is an alluvial plain on the southwest coast of India, in the southern state of Kerala. The city lies at
the sea mouth of seven major rivers which start from the Western Ghats and travel through Kerala’s
midlands, lowlands and coastal areas, to drain out into the Arabian Sea. The alluvial formations occurring
in this coastal belt constitute sand, silt, clay of the lagoonal and back water deposits, beach deposits and
the river/flood plain deposits in mid-land areas (Narayana & Priju, 2006).

SITE STRATIGRAPHY

The four piers are located over a 220 m stretch. The piers are numbered 750, 751, 751B and 752. In spite
of the relatively small distance of 50-100 m between the pier locations, the investigations revealed
substantial variations in stratigraphy from one pier to the next.

In general, there is a surficial silty sand stratum to 5-11 m depth. Groundwater is shallow and met at less
than 1 m depth. This sand layer is liquefiable to 4-7.5 m depth during earthquakes.

Below this, soft to firm silty clay is met to 20-25 m depth. The clay has high moisture content, close to
the liquid limit. It is under-consolidated to normally consolidated in nature with SPT values of 1-5. The
cone tip resistances (qc) range from 0 to 25 kg/cm2. Field vane shear tests in this stratum indicated
undrained shear strength in the range of 0.25 to 0.7 kg/cm2 for undisturbed condition. The remoulded
undrained shear strength is in the range of 0.06 to 0.4 kg/cm2 indicating that the clay is sensitive with
sensitivity of 4 to 6.

Below the soft clay, stiff to hard clay is met to 62-65 m depth underlain by hard organic clay (peat) with
intermediate discontinuous sand layers. SPT in this deposit generally exceeds 30-40. The cone tip
resistances (qc) range from 30 to as high as 200 kg/cm2. Refusal (N>100) is met below 54-60 m depth.
The peat has a low bulk density of about 1.40 gm/cm3 due to the low specific gravity of peat. However,

396
SPT values in the peat are high, ranging from 90 to more than 100. The peat stratum is underlain by a
hard white clay layer with SPT values of 40-100.

A cross-sectional profile along the route alignment is presented on Fig. 3.

Fig. 3. Cross-Sectional Profile

Soil Characteristics at Each Pier Location

The soil characteristics at each pier location were evaluated in detail to assess the safe pile capacity.
Typical soil properties including N-values, cone tip resistance and undrained shear strength profiles at
Piers 751 and 752 are presented on Figs. 4 and 5.

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Fig. 4. Soil Characteristics at Pier 751

Fig. 5. Soil Characteristics at Pier 752

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Engineering Characteristics of the Soft Clay

The soft clay is under-consolidated to normally-consolidated. A typical consolidation test conducted on it

is presented on Fig. 6. It is highly sensitive with significant loss of shear strength on remoulding. The
sensitivity ranges from 4 to 6 as illustrated in Fig. 7.

Fig. 6. Typical Consolidation Test Results Fig. 7. Sensitivity versus Depth

FOUNDATION DESIGN
Liquefaction Susceptibility Assessment

As per IS: 1893 (Part-1) – 2002, the project area is in Earthquake Zone 3. The design parameters for
liquefaction analysis used are as follows:

Earthquake magnitude on Richter scale : 6.0

Peak ground acceleration : 0.16g
Design Groundwater level : at ground level
Silt content in shallow fine sand layer : 3-5%

The liquefaction susceptibility assessment was performed as per the Summary Report of NCEER (Youd
and Idris, 2001). Liquefaction analysis was done based on the SPT and qc values. Since the investigation
did not include measurement of shear wave velocities, the analysis was restricted to SPT and qc.

As per the simplified procedure, the factor of safety (FS) against liquefaction is given by the following
equation:

 CRR7.5 
FS =   MSF
 CSR  [1]

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Where

CSR = Cyclic Stress Ratio, generated by the earthquake shaking

CRR7.5 = Cyclic Resistance Ratio for magnitude 7.5 earthquakes; and
MSF = Magnitude Scaling Factor, used to scale the calculated CRR7.5 values to the design
earthquake magnitude.

A Magnitude Scaling Factor (MSF) of 1.990 (based on a mean of Scaling Factors defined by various
investigators recommended by the NCEER Summary Report, 2001) was applied to the CRR7.5 value, to
adjust the clean sand curves to the design earthquake magnitude of 6.0. The results are summarized in
Table 1.

Table 1. Assessment of Liquefaction Susceptibility

Pier Liquefaction Susceptibility Assessment
750 Liquefaction potential between 1.5-3.0 m depth
751 Liquefaction potential to 4.5 m depth
751B Liquefaction potential to 5.0 m depth
752 Liquefaction potential to 5-7.5 m depth

Pile Capacities

Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) bored cast in-situ piles of 1500 mm diameter were planned to be
used to support the piers. As per the design, the downward compression load on each pile was about 600
tonnes.

In spite of the relatively small distances between the pier and test locations, the investigations revealed
substantial variations in stratigraphy. The soft clay stratum is encountered at the pier locations from 5 to
8 m and from 18 to 24 m depths at Piers P-751, P-751B and P-752. At Pier P-750 location, the soft
stratum is encountered between about 14 m and 30 m depth. In these depth zones, negative skin friction /
downdrag have been considered on the piles. Pile capacities have been calculated based on the following
boundary conditions:

Pile Cut-Off-Level (COL) : 3.0 m depth below EGL

Design Groundwater Level : At Ground Level
Depth of Liquefaction Potential : 3.0 m depth below EGL
Overburden pressure considered to become constant below 15 pile diameters

Typical design profile for Pier 751 is shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Design profile for Pier 751

Layer Depth, m SPT qc values c φ γ
Soil Classification
No. From To values kg/cm2 T/m2 degrees T/m3
1 0.0 3.0 Fill - 2 Ignored 1.60
2 3.0 5.0 Loose silty sand 9 11 0 30 1.65
3 5.0 24.0 Very soft silty clay 3 5 2.5 0 1.55
4 24.0 32.0 Firm silty clay 6 30 4.0 4 1.50
5 32.0 42.0 Very stiff silty clay 17 50 6.0 5 1.70
6 42.0 60.0 Very dense fine sand 60 - 0 32 1.85
7 60.0 74.0 Peat 95 - 14.0 4 1.40
8 74.0 75.0 Hard clay 50 - 20.0 6 1.90

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Negative skin friction was considered in the soft clay stratum between 5 and 24 m depth.

Based on the analysis, safe pile capacities for 1500 mm diameter bored cast-in-situ piles computed in
accordance with IS 2911 (Part 1/Section 2): 2010 are summarized in Table 2 below. The values include a
factor of 2.5 under compression load and 3.0 for uplift.

Table 3. Computed Safe Pile Capacities – 1500 mm diameter Bored Piles

Pile Length Computed Safe Pile Magnitude of Negative
Pier below COL, Capacities, Tonnes Skin Friction (in ultimate Remarks
m Compression Uplift capacity), Tonnes
(FS=2.5) (FS=3.0)
Pier 50 430 277 Pile tip in hard clay
81.5
P750 53 646 307 Pile tip in dense sand
Pier 52 561 281 Pile Tip in dense
96.8
P751 55 611 310 sand
Pier 65 585 380 Sand zones not met.
71.3
P751B 70 646 418 Pile tip in hard clay
Pier 66 564 369 Sand zones not met.
61.1
P752 71 622 406 Pile tip in hard clay

The piling system has been designed using the above capacities. As may be seen in the above table, the
pile tip level has to be decided depending upon the bearing strata. Where thick sand zones are met, pile
length is relatively less.

The contractor was advised to perform pile load tests at all four pier locations since the results cannot be
generalized over the stretch. The negative skin friction is a long-term phenomenon and will not be
mobilized during the load test on the test pile which is usually conducted over a 36 to 48 hour period. To
ensure that the piles are safe under the design loads, the applied load on the test pile has to be at least
equal to the computed ultimate pile capacity load plus the magnitude of negative skin friction.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

The geotechnical investigation program should be planned carefully to incorporate appropriate tests as per
the strata conditions. Project specifications should be formulated accordingly as against the current
practice of having standard specifications for all ground conditions.

The design of piles in strata containing soft clay and loose sand requires a detailed and thorough
geotechnical investigation. Static cone penetration tests and field vane shear tests should supplement the
routine investigation by boreholes so as to add value to the geotechnical data and characterize the soils
properly. The design should be optimized after assessing the thickness of the zone that may experience
negative skin friction. Pile load tests should consider the influence of negative skin friction on the test
results.

REFERENCES

IS 1893 (Part-1): 2002. Indian Standard Criteria for Earthquake Design of Structures, Part 1: General
Provisions and Buildings. 5th revision. Bureau of Indian Standards, New Delhi.

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 IS 2911 (Part 1/Section 2): 2010. Indian Standard. Design and Construction of Pile Foundations – Code
of Practice. Part 1 Concrete Piles. Section 2 Bored Cast-in Situ Concrete Piles. 2nd revision. Bureau of
Indian Standards, New Delhi.

Narayana, A.C, and Priju, C.P. 2006. Evolution of coastal landforms and sedimentary environment of the
late Quaternary period along Central Kerala, southwest coast of India. Journal of Coastal Research,
Special Issue 39. Proceedings, 8th International Coastal Symposium, Brazil, 2004. pp 1898-1902

Youd, T.L., and Idriss, I.M. 2001. Liquefaction Resistance of Soils: Summary Report from the 1996
NCEER and 1998 NCEER/NSF Workshops on Evaluation of Liquefaction Resistance of Soils. Journal of
Geotechnical and Geo-environmental Engineering, April 2001. pp 297-313.

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