ABSTRACT
The single most important step for the use of the pressuremeter in design is the preparation of a quality pressuremeter borehole. The error in foundation behavior prediction induced by the design rules themselves is much less than the error that can be induced by using the results of poor quality pressuremeter tests. This chapter presents the evolution of the recommendations for the bearing capacity factor and the evolution of the recommendations for the ultimate friction. It discusses the parameters for determining the equivalent limit pressure for the point capacity which includes the bearing capacity factor for piles. The chapter provides a comparison between the predicted and measured ultimate loads for tension tests. Three methods exist to obtain the load transfer curve along the shaft of the pile and load transfer curve at the pile point from pressuremeter test results.
