Some Aspects of Shear Behavior of Soft Soil–Concrete Interfaces and Its Consequences in Pile Shaft Friction Modeling

This paper examines the stiffness degradation and interface failure load on soft soil–concrete interface. The friction behavior and its variability is investigated. The direct shear tests under constant normal load were used to establish parameters to hyperbolic interface model which provided a good approximation of the data from instrumented piles. Four instrumented piles were used to obtain reference soil–concrete interface behavior. It was found that the variability of the friction characteristics is the highest for organic clays and the lowest for organic silts. The intact samples exhibit lower shear strength than reconstituted ones. The adhesion varies significantly depending on interface and soil type, which can result in high scatter of the skin friction prediction. The analysis of parameters variability can be used to determine the upper and lower bound of friction behavior on the interface at constant normal load condition. The backward shearing results in decrease in shear strength up to 40% of the precedent forward phase but higher initial stiffness by a factor of between 2 and 3. Presented research provides basic shear and stiffness parameters for four soft soils (organic clay, organic silt, peat, and silty loam) and gives information about variability of interface characteristics.