Helical Pile Design Verification - Pipe - Individual Plate Method
- Dec 27, 2023
- 1 min read
Updated: Apr 28
8in Diameter Circular Shaft with 14''-16''-18'' HelixesIndividual Plate Method
A. Project description
This example presents a detailed example for calculating the ultimate axial capacity of a helical pile according to Vesic 1974 and Meyerhoff/Hansen method. Table 1 below presents assumed soil properties, Table 2 summarizes the soil stratigraphy, while Table 3 describes assumed helical pile properties.
Table 1: Soil properties

Table 2: Stratigraphy (Boreholes)

Table 3: Helical pile properties


Soil Properties and Model in HelixPile

Pile Section Properties and Helix Configuration
B. Ultimate bearing capacity calculations – Individual plate method
B1. Manual calculations
The general bearing capacity equation is:

All helical piles are below water elevation, so γ = 120 - 57.6 = 62.4 pcf
Calculations for each plate and for the tip:
Plate 3


Plate 2

Plate 1

Tip

Table 4: Bearing capacity for each plate/method

B2. Verification using HelixPile Software
The following Figures present the software calculated Capacities with each method:

Figure: The plate results in HelixPile – Vesic method.

Figure: The plate results in HelixPile – Meyerhoff/Hansen method.
The following table summarizes the hand calculations and the software calculated capacities with all methods:
Table 5: Individual Plate Method - Results Comparison

Book A free web presentation:





