Under reamed piles are bored cast-in-situ concrete piles having one or more number of bulbs formed by enlarging the pile stem. These piles are best suited in soils where considerable ground movements occur due to seasonal variations, filled up grounds or in soft soil strata. Provision of under reamed bulbs has the advantage of increasing the bearing and uplift capacities. It also provides better anchorage at greater depths. These piles are efficiently used in machine foundations, over bridges, electrical transmission tower foundation sand water tanks. Indian Standard IS 2911 (Part III) - 1980 covers the design and construction of under reamed piles having one or more bulbs. According to the code the diameter of under reamed bulbs may vary from 2 to 3 times the stem diameter depending upon the feasibility of construction and design requirements. The code suggests a spacing of 1.25 to 1.5 times the bulb diameter for the bulbs. An angle of 45 0 with horizontal is recommended for all under reamed bulbs. This code also gives Mathematical expressions for calculating the bearing and uplift capacities.

From the review of the studies pertaining to under reamed piles, it can be seen that ultimate bearing capacity of piles increases considerably on provision of under- reamed bulbs (Neumann and P&g, 1955, Subash Chandra and Kheppar, 1964, Patnakar, 1970 etc.). Pile load capacity was found to vary with the number of bulbs and with the spacing ratio S / or S/d adopted (where S = distance between the piles, = diameter of under reamed bulbs and d = diameter of piles). Table summarizes the various recommendations made for the selection of S / and S/d for the optimum pile load capacity. It can be seen that some of these recommendations differ from those given in IS 2911 (Part III), 1980.