PILE TESTS-ARKANSAS RIVER PROJECT

Field driving and loading tests were made on a variety of piles driven with different hammers to develop criteria for the design and construction of pile foundations in sand for locks and dams on the lower Arkansas River. The effect of jetting on the capacity of a pile was determined. Steel pipe and H-piles were instrumented to measure strains produced by compression and tension loadings to determine the distribution of stress in the piles. Load tests were also made on piles driven during construction of some of the locks in the lower valley. The pile tests showed that 12-in. to 16-in. 50-ft long displacement piles driven into the alluvial sands in the Arkansas River Valley have capacities in excess of 100 tons in compression, and 50 tons in tension. The pile capacity was the same regardless of hammer used to drive the pile. Compression test failure loads checked capacities calculated from the Pacific Coast Uniform Building Code and the Janbu equation except for H-piles.