Abstract: Tests on shear capacity of the pre-stress high-strength concrete (PHC) AB400(80) pipe piles were carried out, without axial force and under an axial forces of 1 300 kN, respectively. The loading devices and testing method were introduced first in this paper. The cracking and ultimate shear capacities of PHC-AB 400(80) were obtained with and without the axial forces. The failure process during shearing was studied based on the observation of crack development and an analysis of the maximum principal stress and its angle of concrete in the shear span section. Comparison between the values of shear capacity calculated according to the Standard of Pre-stressed Concrete Pipe Pile and from the test results shows that the former is about 58% of the later. The role of stirrup should be taken into account in the formula for calculating the shear capacity of PHC pipe piles.

Key words:  PHC pipe pile, axial pressure, failure process, full scale test, shear capacity