COMBINED PILED-RAFT FOUNDATION (CBRF),

SAFETY CONCEPT
Carsten Ahner1, Dmitri Sukhov1

SUMMARY
There are no standards and no design rules for Combined Piled-Raft Foundation
available up to now. The investigation of this problem is just at the beginning.
The common reliability approach for the elaboration of a safety concept for
Combined Piled-Raft Foundation is proposed and future tasks are set.

INTRODUCTION

The problem of design of Combined Piled-Raft Foundation have become more

and more important in the last years, when some skyscrapers were built in
Germany. Most of them located in Frankfurt Main, where the over soil layer
consists of settlement active clay. The rocky Frankfurt limestone is located at a
depth of 44 metres.
The Combined Piled-Raft Foundation could be a good economic decision for
heavy high buildings, because both the bearing capacity of the slab and the

Institut fr Massivbau und Baustofftechnologie i. Gr., Universitt Leipzig

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bearing capacity of the piles will be fully used. Since 1984 the following projects
have been built or designed:
Messetorhaus (Fair Gate House), Frankfurt/M.
Messeturm (Fair Tower), Frankfurt/M.
American Express High Rise Building, Frankfurt/M.
Deutsche Postreklame, Frankfurt/M.
Landeskreditbank Baden-Wrttemberg
Sdwestdeutsche Landesbank, Stuttgart
High Rise Building Port of Singapur Authority
High Rise Building of Trade Centre Landsberger Allee, Berlin
Westendstr. 1, Frankfurt/M.
Castor and Pollux, Frankfurt/Main.

Many projects already built or designed show an absolute necessity for

elaboration of a common design concept, which could be used by all specialists of
civil engineering.
The Combined Piled-Raft Foundation acts as a composite construction consisting
of the three bearing elements: piles, slab and subsoil. In comparison with the
conventional foundation design the Combined Piled-Raft Foundation exhibits a
total new dimension for the subsoil-structure interaction because of the new
design philosophy, to use the piles up to their ultimate bearing capacity regarding
the soil-pile interaction. This leads to an extreme economic foundation with rather
low settlements, if the stiffness of the soil increases with depth.

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Actually no standards and no definite design strategies are available for the design
and the computation of the Combined Piled-Raft Foundation, so additional
research based on measurements, model tests, and numerical computer
simulations is necessary. It is certain that in the technical and economical sense
the new foundation technology of Combined Piled-Raft Foundation is just at the
beginning of an interesting development.
Some investigations for the design of Combined Piled-Raft Foundation have been
published [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. These reports can be considered as a basis for
further research.

PURPOSE OF RESEARCH

The purpose of the current research is to investigate the safety concept for
different parts of Combined Piled-Raft Foundation.
The reliability of Combined Piled-Raft Foundation should be the same as for
normal piled or raft foundation. There is long-standing experience for the design
of piled and raft foundations. On the basis of this experience the safety and design
philosophy should be investigated. With the help of analysis of current rules for
design of piled and raft foundation and with the help of the reliability theory, the
different elements for a global safety factor (mean values and deviations of
actions and resistance, safety of system, loads redistribution, criteria of failure)
have to be defined for limit states (ULS and SLS). The global safety factor can be

335

represented by means of the reliability index. This safety level needs to be

accepted by the public.
With the analysis of piled and raft foundations and aspects of the interaction, their
synthesis should be obtained. The available design methods can be investigated
for a new safety and design concept, which should not contradict the current one.
The new concept for Combined Piled-Raft Foundation should ensure the same
reliability level as the existing foundation types and describe the transformation
from piled foundation through Combined Piled-Raft Foundation to pure raft
foundation. If in the future more knowledge of Combined Piled-Raft Foundation
is available, they should be included in the codes.

SAFETY CONCEPT

3.1

Design Concept with the Global Safety Factor

The German code DIN 1054 Permissible Loads on Foundation Soils shows how
strong foundation soil could be loaded in the case of piled and raft foundations.
The code uses the global safety factor which depends on the limit state, the
occurrence probability of the load and the type of foundation. The -factors vary
from 1.05 to 2.0. The upper fractile values of the load are multiplied by global
safety factor. These design values of the load are compared with the expected
resistance (see Figure 3.1.1).

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fR (R)
fR (R), fS (S)
f S (S)

mS

S q R q = S q

mR

Fig. 3.1.1: Global Safety Factor

where:
R

resistance

action or load (expected action)

Sq

upper fractile value of the load

Rq

lower fractile value of the resistance

probability density function

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R, S

3.2

Safety Concept for the Combined Piled-Raft Foundation

The Combined Piled-Raft Foundation is a complicated system with special

properties. The simplified bearing capacity of Combined Piled-Raft Foundation is
shown in Figure 3.2.1.

x Z
f S (S)

fR (R)

( - 1) x S q

mS

Rq

Sq

mR

Load
SLimit,SLS

SLimit,ULS

mR, Piles

mR, Slab

Settlement

mR, Piles

mR, Slab

Fig. 3.2.1: Bearing Capacity of Combined Piled-Raft Foundation

338

mR, CBRF

Here, one can see the mean load settlement curves for:
the sum of the piles,
the slab,
the Combined Piled-Raft Foundation (combination of the piles and the
slab).
Combined Piled-Raft Foundation shall be designed for expected value of the
settlement slimit,ULS for ULS and for slimit,SLS for SLS.
Normally, the characteristic value of the load Sq is defined as an upper fractile
value of the load distribution. This one is connected with the lower fractile value
of resistance Rq by means of global safety factor (see Figure 3.1.1).
The distance between the mean value of the resistance (mR) and the mean value of
the load (mS) can be defined as x Z , where is the reliability index and Z is
the total standard deviation obtained from the variations of load and resistance.
A possible safety concept for Combined Piled-Raft Foundation could be described
as following.
As input data the following parameters are used:
Sq

upper fractile value of the load

the load - settlement curves for piles and slab

S

standard deviation of the load

R, Piles -

standard deviation of the piles resistance

R, Slab -

standard deviation of the slab resistance

reliability index

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Mean value of the resistance is calculated with mS and Z:

m R = mS + Z = mS + ( S2 + R2 , Slab + R2 , Piles )
The distribution of the bearing capacity mR on mR, Slab and mR, Piles corresponds to
load-settlement curves and defines the bearing capacity of the piles and slab and
their design. The design of piles and slab is finally derived from these input data.

3.3

Investigation of Resistance

The exact values of load-settlement curves are to be obtained by tests, depending

on the foundation dimensions and soil type.
Because of variation of soil properties, the corresponding load-settlement curves
vary too. This latter variation depends on the settlement.
For the case of one pile it is possible to write:

mR , Pile ( s) = mR , Friction ( s) + mR , Pressure ( s)

R , Pile ( s) = R , Friction ( s) 2 + R , Pressure ( s) 2

with

mR , Friction ( s) = U t m ( s)
mR , Pressure ( s) = A m p ( s)

R , Friction ( s) = U t ( s)
R , Pressure ( s) = A p ( s)

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whereby

settlement

mR , Pile ( s)

mean value of pile bearing capacity

R , Pile ( s)

standard deviation of pile bearing capacity

mR , Friction ( s)

mean value of the part of pile bearing

capacity (skin friction)

R , Friction ( s)

standard deviation of the part of pile bearing

capacity (skin friction)

mR , Pressure ( s)

mean value of the part of pile bearing

capacity (point pressure)

R , Pressure ( s)

standard deviation of the part of pile bearing

capacity (point pressure)

m ( s)

mean value of skin friction

( s)

standard deviation of skin friction

m p ( s)

mean value of point pressure

p ( s)

standard deviation of point pressure

circumference of pile shaft

the length of the pile

the area of the pile tip

Generally, the mean value and standard deviation for each settlement depend on
both mean value and standard deviation of pile skin friction and point pressure
p, and on ratio pile skins surface / pile tips surface.

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3.4

Determination of Partial Safety Factors for CBRF

Accordingly to [10, 11], it is possible to consider the partial safety factor of the
resistance R as independent of the partial safety factor of the load S , if values of
sensitivity factors S, R are given.
For normal distribution:

S Sq

Rq
R

mS + ~S S mR + ~R R

~S = 0,7
~R = -0,8

(see [11, 12]),

whereby

mR = mR , Pile + mR ,Slab

R = R , Pile 2 + R ,Slab 2
If R , Slab > R , Pile then (see [10, 11]):

R = R ,Slab + 0,4 R , Pile

S Sq mR ,Slab (1 + ~R VR ,Slab ) + mR , Pile (1 + 0,4~R VR , Pile )

S Sq Rd , Slab + Rd , Pile
S Sq

Rq , Slab

R , Slab

Rq , Pile

R , Pile

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whereby

Rd , Slab -

design value of slab bearing capacity

Rd , Pile -

design value of pile bearing capacity

Rq , Slab -

characteristic value of slab bearing capacity

Rq , Pile -

characteristic value of pile bearing capacity

R , Slab -

partial safety factor for slab bearing capacity

R , Pile -

partial safety factor for pile bearing capacity

The estimation R,Slab = 1 and R,Pile = 0.4 are very rough. In future research the
real sensitivity factors R should be obtained by Level II Methods of the
reliability analysis (e. g., FORM - First Order Reliability Method) for possible
ratios R Slab / R Pile .
The given proposals correspond only to the normal distribution of S and R.
Because of the great influence of the type of distribution on partial safety factors,
the adjustment of the lognormal distribution of R should be considered.
Accordingly to ENV 1991, Part 1 [11] reliability index = 3.83 is used for design
life equals 50 years.

3.5

Conclusions

Because of the plenty foundations projects which apply Combined Piled-Raft

Foundations in resent times, the development of an accepted design and safety
concept for this type of foundation is extremely necessary. Proposals for a

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solution to this problem should be elaborated with the use of additional data of the
variation of soil properties.

4
[1]

LITERATURE
Rolf Katzenbach; Zur technisch-wirtschaftlichen Bedeutung der
Kombinierten Pfahl-Plattengrndung, dargestellt am Beispiel schwerer
Hochhuser, Bautechnik 70 (1993), Vol. 3, pp. 161-170, Ernst und
Sohn

[2]

R. Katzenbach, H. Quick, U. Arslan; Commerzbank-Hochhaus

Frankfurt am Main: Kostenoptimierte und setzungsarme Grndung,
Bauingenieur 71 (1996), pp. 345-354, Springer-Verlag 1

[3]

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Sommer; Kombinierte Pfahl-Plattengrndung eines

Hochhauses im Ton, Mitteilungen des Grundbauinstitut Prof. Dr.-Ing.
H. Sommer und Partner GmbH, Vol. 1, Dezember 1987

[4]

T. Vo; Messungen an einer Pfahl-Plattengrndung in weichem Fels.,

KTB, Bauingenieur 64 (1989), pp. 207-208

[5]

M. Thaher; Pfahlplattengrndungen, Geotechnik Sonderausgabe 1992:

Praxisbezogene

Anwendung

der

Zentrifugen-Modelltechnik

im

Grundbau, Tunnel- und Schachtbau und Umwelttechnik, Deutsche

Gesellschaft fr Erd- und Grundbau, Essen (1992)
[6]

M. Thaher, H. L. Jessberger; The behaviour of pile-raft foundations,

investigated in centrifuge model tests., Centrifuge 91, Balkema (1991),
pp. 101-106

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[7]

R. W. Cooke; Piled Raft Foundations on stiff clays-A contribution to

design philosophy, Geotechnique (UK), Vol. 36, No. 2, Mar. 1986, pp.
169-203

[8]

J. Hooper; A observation on the behaviour of a Piled Raft Foundation

on London clay., Proceedings, Instit Civil Engr, part 2 (UK), Vol. 55,
Dec. 1973, pp. 855-877

[9]

P. Clancy, M. F. Randolph; An approximate analysis procedure for

Piled Raft Foundations., International J. Num. & Anal. Methods in
Geomechn (UK), Vol. 17, No. 12, Dec. 1993, pp. 849-869

[10]

General Principles on the Specifications of Safety Requirements for

Structures, 1981, Beuth Verlag GmbH, Berlin

[11]

ENV 1991 Basis of Design and Actions on Structures, Part 1: Basis

of Design, August 1994

[12]

ISO 2394 General Principles on Reliability for Structures, May 1994

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