Pile Load Testing and Data Collection Advances in the Last Ten Years and the Case for Design Optimisation.

There have been significant developments within ground engineering over the past ten years in terms of pile load testing, however opportunities relating to scheme optimisation and performance based design are not being realised in most cases.  Static load tests of up to 50MN have been carried out in the UK and the ability to test piles up to 30MN is readily available.  Alongside this, advances in measuring real time strain along the length of the pile and displacement mean that piles are being tested to higher loads and higher quality meaningful data is being collected.  This in turn gives us a better understanding of pile behaviour both at serviceability limit state and ultimate limit state, alongside improved data on the strength of the soils that we are installing piles into.  However, even though this data is incredibly meaningful, project programme pressures and lack of Client buy-in means that this data is usually being used for design validation rather than optimisation.  This paper will set out examples of where high quality data has been obtained in the UK in the last ten years, how these advances can better be embraced to impact design optimisation and why this should be considered in the early stages of design development.