Prediction of uplift capacity of a micropile embedded in soil

Abstract

An analytical approach was performed to predict the uplift capacity of a micropile embedded in soil on the basis of the failure surface generated inside the soil mass around a micropile. The failure surface rises from the critical embedded depth of the micropile and has an angle equal to half of the internal friction angle of soil to the vertical. To investigate the failure surface, image of soil deformation was captured from a model test on a panel embedded in soil. The analytical approach to uplift capacity could evaluate the effect of parameters related to the properties of both the micropile and soil such as the embedded length, the diameter and surface roughness of the micropile, and the shear strength parameters of the soil. A series of model tests were conducted on a micropile to verify the applicability of the analytical approach in actual practice. Furthermore, to increase the reliability of the analytical approach, the predicted uplift capacity was compared with experimental results previously presented in the literature. The predicted uplift capacity of the micropile shows practically good agreement with the experimental results of the model tests. Moreover, the predicted uplift capacity has good agreement with previous experimental results.