Experimental Study on the Effect of Pile-End Soil on the Pile Load Transfer Law
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
1. What method is adopted to find the depth of each layer of the soil to justify Table 1.?
2. Epoxy glue and silica gel usage in strain gauge any references? Why cant other fixing materials?
3. Load variation between pile end soilless and conventional compressive pile seems to be differ in numbers/counts any specific reasons?
4. In abstract, few numerical results can be highlighted so that readers can know the outline of the paper.
5. More discussions can be added for figure 4.
6. References are insufficient for this paper, some more can be added.
Author Response
Dear Reviewers,
Please see the attachments. Thanks.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Major Comments:
- “pile-end soilless compressive pile” – what is meant by Soilless pile?
- Section 2.2: Given that the pile was cut and welded in four sections – In the authors’ opinion, would the welded joint create any difference in the skin friction of the steel pile? Please justify.
- Please explain the significance of the pile segment skin friction ratio? Is this new definition proposed by the authors? If not, please cite the reference.
- Based on the findings from this research, which are based on the performance of the steel pile, can the results be extrapolated for concrete piles? If so, please mention the factors that need to be considered. If not, the limitations of the study need to be specified.
- The scenarios for the strengthening effect and weakening effect need to be distinguished. How would a practising engineer distinguish between the two?
Minor Comments:
- Line numbers are missing.
- Formatting needs to be consistent. Line spacing is different in different sections.
- Sentences need to end with a full stop (.) and not a semi-colon (;).
Author Response
Dear Reviewers,
Please see the attachments. Thanks.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
