Lutenegger: one helix can lift a pipe pile's capacity four to seven times
Writing on the CHANCE Foundation Solutions blog, Dr. Alan J. Lutenegger reviews full-scale uplift tests comparing plain round pipe piles with otherwise identical piles fitted with a single helix. He expresses the gain as a Load Improvement Factor, which reached about 4 in stiff Massachusetts clay and 4.7 in silty sand, and as much as 6 to 7 where the helix is four to six times the shaft diameter. He also explains why the same pile typically carries more in compression than in tension.
Writing on the CHANCE Foundation Solutions blog, Dr. Alan J. Lutenegger reviews full-scale uplift tests comparing plain round pipe piles with otherwise identical piles fitted with a single helix. He expresses the gain as a Load Improvement Factor, which reached about 4 in stiff Massachusetts clay and 4.7 in silty sand, and as much as 6 to 7 where the helix is four to six times the shaft diameter. He also explains why the same pile typically carries more in compression than in tension.
Why it matters
Engineers get a simple, test-backed ratio for estimating how much a single helix adds over a plain pipe pile of the same size and length.
Related on Helical Pile USA
Source: CHANCE Foundation Solutions blog. Summary written by the Helical Pile USA editorial team.
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