Abstract
There are several types of failure patterns such as those proposed by Terzaghi, Meyerhof and Vesic. But those have been proposed for the purpose of design calculation and are not based on close obsevation of real behavior. The objective of this paper is to visualize and to characterize the failure patterns of the ground under vertically loaded pile foundation using X-ray CT scanner. Here, a series of model loading tests with different conditions such as shape of pile tip, effect of loading process, soil density and loading speed were conducted and the model ground was scanned in each case. Finally, the bearing capacity mechanism due to vertically loaded pile was visualized and evaluated in three dimensions without any destruction for the first time and it is convinced that X-ray CT is one of powerful tool in geotechnical engineering.
