Critical depth: how it came into being and why it does not exist Dr B.H. Fellenius, Ping and A. A. Altaee 18 This Paper discumes the fallacy ofthe ‘concept ofthe evtieal depth. The fallacy is ‘due to neglecting residual loads ia fll scale teeta and stress seal efecto at ‘edel-cales, made measured load dis- {bution appear linear below a certain “eritial' depth. Ue is concluded that intor- pretations of results mad inthe light of fhe erica depth concept can result in ‘unsafe designs, Introduction Career ages of ttc pile load transfers In most areas of the wars, based on efectve ress cory, thatthe i a resistance teequal ta vale proportional effective ‘overburden ses plus effective cobesion. Simi Tay, theuit te esatance is uvalyeon- ‘dered tobe proportional tothe effective Sverburdn stress Indesign of ive piles, the fohesion i usually ignored butts orally retained for bored ples. Bxh the unt ska an toe resistance vanes ae often Imi ete by ! neximam given namerical vale rt the ale caleulted aa -ae ecitcal depth ‘The citcal depth hasbeen given authorative {redity by auch document the America Vetroicum Intute Recommended Prac or Planning and Design so the Conadian Ge techie! Enginering Maal 2 he cea! dept, ually esumced be locate 10-20 pie diameters cee. ithe depth ‘haractried by dhe fat tha: down Co this Arpt che ni haf apd toe resistances follow the elective ates principe but below thie pin the sistance ae constant and equal to Therespetive vale atthe critica! depth. The big ofthe etic depth concep es it resus uf flea ple suis published by esi 1984, 1870, 1877)" "and Meseror (964, 14,4 and in results of model ets pablo by Reise These al scale ests were pe formed on instrumented piles and the aft resistance distrbaton published by Vesie {1970}? shown in Fig Isis equi referred to, Ves deebatone actly now that the Uni shat resitane eaves Blow te itil fepth (peak nit shal resistance which as ten explained as the fluence of he si di: Dlacement ner the ple we asoctated wih the Dale oes penetration, The curves als iadiease degradation of the weit shat esstance Wi Sep tat nthe ait haf resistance above ‘he ertial depth becomes sale the longer ‘he pile Similar rests were obind in the srodel tents The ese! depth wae very Avieky screed and much esearch has been Dublited supporting the concep, for example, “Tavents (1971) Felenias (1068) lowever. in tach of he cates of ullseale and mode cle piles, he ciel depth eiginate laa neglect Sa importa aspect, whic willbe explained fn he following Pall-seale behaviour 3. Forget foramnomen hat critical depth may exis and assiee thatthe effective tess Denepies and the Coulm elation fr snest Fesitance sta for theft reste fr, ~ Ba) along the fll lent of pile" thi ‘an instrumented tes ple onde ts fll Uliate eisance woslé show a resistane tition simile to that ation in Figs? assuming se presence of te resistance) Ia reality, However the inetrumectation wold ‘nos probably only register che loads applied to the pile during te test and direpard any Teas present i the pile before the est Suck prior loads are called “residual loads’ and are Induced inal ies, driven ae well as bored, during and folowing instalation. Pu spy ‘reside loa are load which ae sinay ‘resent ia pie even before messurements { taien or an analysis ie performed —and thew elects commen overlooked. ‘Residual loads are caused by sever it {erent pheromena, for example, wave aeaon during iving, soi quakes along te pie and ‘canzoidation of the so after the netallation Aisturbance Resi lat consist ausly of the su of sear frees doe ene sive skin fiction alg the upper partion of the pile inequilbrim withthe sat od te ves nce along the rst ofthe pile below the po ‘of equirium the neural plane, Very seal relative moverents between te ile shalt and the so are necessary to generat shear frees beeween ple ad the sai Theres, the residual toads can be calculated assuming ally Aeveloped shear along the ple shat neo teat at he pl oe larger movements ae casa to generate restance test fF Ariven i, the eid oe resistance i ence ally sale than theultimate oe reste Fig. Sshose he astsbtion of res fads the dashed portion the gure ndates that the neatral plane stersection i resty would how a carved transition (eur thenegaive ——a Gre Bore Seveh ene tos 118 Apes Geotechnical Brererng aver 003 ioe 13 en 1995 = el Univer of Otare a hada Pchotoy Lid, Comat _—AND ALTARE Fie, 1. Distribution ‘ef unit shes resistance (este, ss704) Fig. 2. Resistance siriution ot inate vesstance (stati loading test Unt shat estan AP ‘00. 209 q 10 q 20 beh besa 4 Fa x 40 vs io + ‘Unt shat estore postive direction of shear instead ofa “hink ‘rode. In Figs dand 5 the dashed portion the line corresponds to the dashed portion in Fig. 3.) Ordinarily, the instromentation woul ‘dicate zero load atthe star ofa static leading test, thus disregarding the eesdeal load. Then, the measured resistance distribution would not show the ee shape of Fig 2, but the false ‘Shape shown in Pig, made up ofthe tue value ‘ims he reid Loa, ‘5. Ina static lading test, one does not measure a contiguous resistance curve, ony the load in the fee points where the gauges are located, say in four locations as illustrated ia Fig 5 To this case, when connecting the load values, a resistance distribution resus, similar torthat shosen inthe figure. This isteibuion is ‘ite different tothe tre distribution also Shown in Fig. 5. The false shape would indiate fan upper zone, where the unit shaft resistance increases progressively with epth, thats, roe to the effective sess principle, fliowed by a zone where the resistance is essentially Vines Ergo. the rites! depth is indicated. 6. Figure 6 shows the results of state loading test ona 285mm diameter, 15 ong square concrete pile in homegeneous sand (see ‘Rises era") The igure shows the loads te the test measured at failure by means of nine suges embedded inthe pile and the dstribu- fons of tre resistance and residual load, (Note that the residual load distribution transfers igadually from increasing Toad to decreasing Trad, ie, no kink at the neutral pane }Obyi ‘ously, ad the residual lad bee nected the test would Have proven the existence of eri ‘al depth tan embedient of about & m (28 ple meters Fig 7 shows the distribution of unit Shaft esstance forthe plead fra Wdencical Lm long adicent tet pile indicating fr bts piles thatthe shaft resistance i proportional to the effetve sires (except fora one in the tmmeiteviintyof the ple toe) fon the other hand, the resiual load is removed from the analysis results, the unit shat resistance diagrams offer avery differen picture, as shown in Fig. 8. Note che similarity of the two figures with those shown in Fig. 1- Note aso that she apparent values of unt shaft resistance are about wie as Terge a the trae values ‘Shown in Fig 7 7 Iris quite clear that critical depth has no foundation in reality, but the result of the neglect ofthe resid load. Critical depth is scssed forther in the htrature."- “Model-scale behaviour ‘BA critical depth was also found to exist in small stale tests on moe ies in sand, ‘where residual loads are very smal. The inte- rotation ofthe tests still wrong because it ‘lect an aditional nfuencing fact. The behaviour of sands subjected toa stress increas follows the principles of steady state soil mechanics also called rites state soil ‘mechanics, which states that at every stress level mean stress) there is a certain (eritical) oid ratio, the value of which reduces with increasing stress (the fonction i neat if Dotted as void ratio versus logarithm of mean Sere) If the void ratio of the snd is at higher valve than the eitical voi ratio, the sand wil have a tendency to contract when ‘hese forces are induced If at Tower vale, theen ig. 5. Residual load present in the pile tmomediately before th star of the tate ang test Fig. 4. False resistance distribution appearing sehen raring the residual load coxrricaL DEPTH ange ae Fig, 6. Resistance dictribution a determined {from four load gouges placed i the ple and Der hfore the start of the tests compared tothe tras distribution Dept Fig. 6. Distribution of true tad, residual toad, and false load in a 15 m lon test pile m sud (Altace tat, 1993")