In coastal construction in Japan, an open-ended steel pipe pile is often used as a point bearing pile. Its diameter is sometimes larger than 1m. The point bearing capacity of the pile depends on if it becomes plugged with soil at the bottom tip. In many cases, the pile is not fully but partially plugged with soil. Therefore it is important point to study how the soil plug develop during pile driving.

Our division also studies on examination methods to determine if the soil plug develops sufficiently for the pile to support the design load.

Further information could be obtained in our paper below.

Mizutani, T., Kikuchi, Y. and Taguchi, H., "Cone penetration tests for the examination of plugging effect of open end piles," BGA International Conference on Foundations, pp.655-664, British Geotechincal Association, 2003.