Calculation method for settlement of micropile installed in rock layers through field tests

Micropiles consisting of steel bars and grouts are commonly used in underpinning methods to reinforce supports or to suppress the subsidence of existing structures. Recently, applications in the field of geotechnical engineering have expanded. Despite the increasing use of micropiles are used, the PHC or steel pile formula is still applied for the settlement amount of micropiles. Compared with field test results, the amount of micropile subsidence obtained from the existing method may result in a very large error in the displacement of the micropile. Therefore, it is difficult to utilize micropiles effectively. Hence, to solve this problem, this study evaluated the behaviors and support characteristics of micropiles through field compression and tensile tests, and proposed a method for predicting the amounts of their subsidence. To confirm the appropriateness of the proposed method, field test results and the results obtained using the proposed method were compared. It was found that the settlement amounts of the micropiles as predicted through the existing method were significantly overestimated (error ≈ 50-80%) relative to the field test results, whereas the settlement errors of the piles predicted through the proposed method decreased (error ≈6-32%). Thus, it is possible to reduce the previously overestimated amount of settlement, and the modified method of this study allows more efficient design than the conventional method.