Static load test and numerical analysis of influencing factors of the ultimate bearing capacity of phc pipe piles in multilayer soil

Prestressed high-strength concrete (PHC) pipe piles have been widely used in engineering fields in recent years; however, the influencing factors of their ultimate bearing capacity (UBC) in multilayer soil need to be further studied. In this paper, a static load test (SLT) and numerical analysis are performed to obtain the load transfer and key UBC factors of pipe piles. The results show that the UBC of the test pile is mainly provided by the pile shaft resistance (PSR), but the pile tip resistance (PTR) cannot be ignored. Many factors can change the UBC of pipe piles, but their effects are different. The UBC of the pipe pile is linearly related to the friction coefficient and the outer-to-inner diameter ratio. Changes in the pile length make the UBC increase sharply. Low temperatures can produce freezing stress at the pile–soil interface. The effect of changing the Young modulus of pile tip soil is relatively small.