Evaluation of Maintained Load Test (MLT) and Pile Driving Analyzer (PDA) in Measuring Bearing Capacity of Driven Reinforced Concrete Piles

Results of several full scale RC (reinforced concrete) pile load tests were studied and analyzed to create a comparison between the MLT (maintained load test) and PDA (pile driving analyzer) methods. The ultimate pile capacities derived from analysis of PDA were consistently higher than results from the MLT. A coefficient of 0.9 or a 10% reduction is suggested to be applied to values derived from PDA. It is also observed that the longer the time interval, the greater the shaft friction contribution is towards the pile capacity.