Negative skin friction (NSF) is considered one of the most popular problems in the design of piled foundations in consolidating soils. NSF develops on piles when the settlement of the surrounding soils is greater than that of the piles. When the relative shear displacement  increased than limiting value the slip at soil-pile interface is induced. As a result an additional compression force on the pile called drag-load  and an extra pile displacement called down-drag (W). Both NSF and down-drag (W) are time dependent. However, the mechanism of NSF mobilization on pile is still not well understood and often several pile design codes provide different recommendations to calculate NSF. At the meantime, codes dealing with down-drag calculations are scarce. In the present study, the behavior of single piles embedded in consolidating clay is analyzed by three dimensional finite element model using (ABAQAUS, 6.14). In this model, clay was simulated using Cam Clay model (CCM) to represent the soil strength while the friction at soil-pile interface and sand was represented by Mohr-Coulomb model (MCM). The pile was described by a 3D linear elastic model. In the analysis, one dimensional consolidation theory was coupled with the NSF developed along the pile. The analysis revealed drag-load, down-drag, soil settlement and excess pore water pressure at different degrees of consolidation (U). An extensive parametric study was carried out to investigate the effect of spatial parameters on drag-load and down-drag (W). The numerical results indicated that; when designing a pile foundation in consolidating soil it is crucial to take into account the pile-soil-fluid water interaction to achieve the actual performance of pile-soil system and to avoid overestimating drag-load on piles.