College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Term of Award

Summer 2026

Degree Name

Master of Science, Civil Engineering

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Civil Engineering and Construction

Committee Chair

Soonkie Nam

Committee Member 1

Xiaoming Yang

Committee Member 2

Junan Shen

Abstract

The resistance of driven piles typically increases with time after installation, a phenomenon known as pile setup. This behavior is primarily associated with the dissipation of excess porewater pressure and the progressive reconsolidation of soil surrounding the pile shaft, particularly it is observed in cohesive soils. Although several empirical and analytical models have been proposed to estimate pile setup, their practical implementation in foundation design remains limited due to uncertainties associated with soil conditions, pile geometry, resistance variability, and time dependent behavior. To address some of these uncertainties, this study collected 221 pile load test data at the End of Initial Driving (EOD) and multiple restriking measurements obtained from 83 driven piles across five southeastern coastal states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and North Carolina, from which a total of 130 selected pile load test results were used to determine setup trends using the Skov & Denver (1988) relationship. These setup trends were then compared between total and shaft resistance, highlighting the importance of selecting the initial reference time (t0) in pile setup behavior as well as determining the setup factor (A). Furthermore, to identify the most influential parameters affecting pile setup behavior a statistical analysis, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), were conducted. Finally, a reliability-based Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) approach was applied using Monte Carlo simulation with 50,000 simulation trials to evaluate the setup resistance factor (ϕsetup). Although the collected data remains limited for direct implementation into routine design practice, this study provides a potential framework for incorporating time-dependent pile setup behavior into LRFD-based driven pile foundation design for future development in the southeastern coastal region.

Research Data and Supplementary Material

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