For marine piles, there are several options available for selection, namely H-piles, circular pipes and box piles.
However, only circular piles and box piles are suitable for marine application because of the following two reasons suggested by G. M. Cornfield (1968):
(i) Circular piles and box piles possess high column buckling strength. For marine structures like jetties, piles are well above seabed level and therefore the column buckling effect is significant when compared with other structures. Therefore, it is essential to use pile sections which have relatively high buckling strength in piers.