Optimum design methodologies for pile foundations in London

•Optimized designs of pile foundations in accordance to design codes (EC7 & DIN 4014).•Real-world cases in London, aiming to assess the efficiency of proposed formulation.•Benefit in terms of construction cost varies 7% to 33% compared to original solutions.

Given the importance of pile foundations in geotechnical engineering for supporting high-significance structures such as bridges, high-rise buildings, power plant stations, offshore platforms and museums, it becomes a necessity to find the best pile foundation design in terms of performance and economy. The number of piles required might exceed several hundreds or even thousands while the pile foundation cost might exceed 20% of the construction cost of the superstructure. In this work the problem of finding optimized designs of pile foundations is examined and is performed in accordance to two design code recommendations, namely Eurocode 7 and DIN 4014. The proposed structural optimization procedure is implemented in two real-world cases both located in London, UK in order to assess the efficiency of the proposed design formulation.