Experimental Modelling of Helical Piles Subjected to Axial Loading

In the construction sector, axial loads have traditionally been supported by piles. There hasn't been sufficient comparative study related to the economics and viability aspects of conventional and helical piles up to this point in natural soil condition. The current study was conducted to test the behavior of helical piles subjected to axial loading and the results were compared with the conventional pile counterpart. For this, a total of eighteen experiments were performed with varying number of helical piles either single or multi helical piles in a raft. Helical piles were penetrated into ground, vertical load of 512 kg was applied and the settlements were recorded with the gauges installed. The reduction in settlement was found to increase due to increasing the number of piles, inter distance between the piles and increasing the number of helices. Nine double helical piles were observed to reduce settlement by 80.5% when compared to nine conventional piles. Due to the smaller number of piles needed to support the applied axial load when employing helical piles as opposed to conventional piles, the cost was greatly lowered.