Screw auger displacement piling tools have been successfully used throughout the global piling and ground engineering industry for decades. The technique can be used to install circular concrete elements referred to either as piles, to transfer structural loads into stiffer layers; or as rigid inclusions (known as drilled displacement columns, CSC, CMC, etc.), to reinforce and strengthen unsuitable ground as a soil improvement technique. The effect of installation parameters on screw auger displacement pile performance and load capacity in hard clay formations has not been investigated in detail and is the main scope of this research work.For both applications, it is desirable that the pile or column toes are embedded into a displaceable dense, stiff or hard bearing layer. Loads from the structure are then transferred directly (via piles) or indirectly (by settlement of the soft layer and the resulting negative skin friction along the column shaft) into this bearing layer. As the design methodologies for these applications are different, this research work introduces the latest applications and design philosophies for both screw auger displacement piles and rigid inclusions.As the typical diameters for screw auger displacement piling tools range from 270 mm to 610 mm, the working loads to be transferred are typically limited to 500 kN to 2,500 kN, depending on tool diameter and ground conditions. Both displacement piles and rigid inclusions are economical for use in projects with low to medium structural load-transfer requirements, like warehouses, embankment approaches or tanks.For soil improvement projects, rigid inclusions are usually designed by calculating the settlements of the entire soil block (as reinforced with rigid inclusions), typically using finite element methods. Analytical design methods cannot practically reflect the complex interaction between the stiff concrete columns and the softer surrounding soil; therefore, this interaction needs to be modelled by numerical means.For screw auger displacement piles, the additional load capacity caused by the soil displacement effect around the shaft and the base can be taken into account for the design work if there is sufficient evidence about the degree of the potential improvement.By considering increased skin friction because of soil displacement created during the pile installation process, piles could be designed to be shorter and more economical than would be possible using the traditional approaches used for conventional bored piers without any known improvement effects. The traditional 'α-c u ' method and the approach for screw auger displacement piles developed by Bustamante and Gianeselli (1998) are introduced and used in this work.
-iii-To compare the results of the design calculations with real load-settlement data, two different screw auger full-displacement piles (progressive displacement versus rapid displacement tools) and one small diameter Continuous Flight Auger (CFA) pile were installed with 4.0 m penetration into hard clay at...