ABSTRACT

Traditional pile design in Germany was based on the global safety factor approach that uses a lumped factor applied notionally to either the ultimate strength or the applied load. This is deemed to account for all the uncertainties inherent in the design. This was the philosophy of the German DIN standards until recently. The general code for geotechnical design referring to the permissible loading of foundation soils was the DIN 1054:1976-11 issued in 1976. The standards for piles were the DIN 4014:1990-03 for bored piles, DIN 4026:1975-08 for driven piles and DIN 4128:198304 for grouted piles.