Lateral loading of a pile using strain wedge model and its application under scouring

The scour hole around a pile will reduce the capacity of a laterally loaded pile. The strain wedge model is capable to derive a p–y curve for the analysis of a lateral loaded pile on a nonlinear Winkler foundation. To improve and extend the ability of the strain wedge method, a modified strain wedge (MSW) method is developed, in which a nonlinear lateral deflection of the pile is assumed to describe the varied soil strain distribution in the passive wedge. And then by treating the soil weight involved in the strain wedge as a vertical load at the bottom of the scour hole, an equivalent wedge depth is obtained to consider the effect of scour hole dimensions on the response of laterally loaded piles in sand. The validity of the MSW model is proved by comparisons with a centrifuge test without scour. And its applicability in the problem of a pile with scour is performed by a comparison with a model test and a FE analysis. The analysis shows the pile displacement at the pile head with scour can be obtained by multiplying the corresponding deflection without scour with an amplification factor related to scour depth at large load level.     

A numerical investigation of influence of low-plasticity fines in sand on lateral response of piles

Abstract

Experimental evidence suggests that sands containing non-plastic or low-plasticity fines may show either decreasing or increasing shear strength with increasing fines content in certain situations. Accordingly, the presence of low-plasticity fines can significantly affect the ultimate lateral soil resistance; thus low-plasticity fines can affect the lateral response of piles. In this study, a quantitative method is proposed for determining the effect of low-plasticity fines in sand on the lateral response of piles in sand by combining a strain wedge model and a unified critical state compatible (UCSC) framework. An equivalent granular state parameter is employed in the UCSC framework to define the soil state uniquely in the strain wedge. The proposed quantitative method is incorporated in a finite element program. A series of numerical analyses are performed on a laterally loaded pile embedded in various relative densities of the base (clean) sand, to which various quantities of low-plasticity fines are added. The effect of low-plasticity fines on the lateral response is investigated. Furthermore, the effect of the low-plasticity fines on the response of the strain wedge is discussed.     

Centrifuge modelling of lateral loading behaviour of a “semi-rigid” Mono-pile in soft clay

Abstract

Mono-pile foundations have been widely used for offshore wind turbines principally due to their convenient construction and cost-effective nature. So far, little attention has been paid to large diameter “semi-rigid” piles that have distinct behaviours from flexible or ideally rigid piles. This paper presents a series of centrifuge model tests to study the deforming and bearing characteristics of a 5.9 dia. semi-rigid pile under lateral loadings in kaolin clay. For monotonic loading, a modified p–y curve analysis model considering rotational soil flow near the rotation centre of pile was proposed, highlighting the limitation of classic plane-strain based plasticity models to evaluate the ultimate lateral pile-soil resistance. For cyclic loading, a strong correlation between the degree of soil degradation and cyclic load amplitude was identified. Besides, a degradation factor model, accounting for various cyclic stress levels and soil depths, was proposed, which can be used to assess the accumulative displacement of semi-rigid piles under cyclic loadings in soft clay.     

Mechanical Behavior of Light-Weight Soil Under Consolidated Drained Shear Condition

To reveal the influence of material composition on mechanical properties of light-weight soil, stress-strain -volumetric strain characteristics and Poisson's ratio of mixed soil were researched by consolidated drained shear tests. The results show that light-weight soil is a kind of structural soil, so its mechanical properties are affected by mixed ratio and confining pressure, and mixed soil possesses structural yield stress. When confining pressure is less than the structural yield stress, strain softening occurs; when confining pressure is more than the structural yield stress, strain hardening is observed. There are two kinds of volume change behavior: shear contraction and shear dilatancy. Shear dilatancy usually leads to strain softening, but there isn't an assured causal relationship between them. Poisson's ratio of mixed soil is a variational state parameter with the change of stress state, it decreases with increased confining pressure, and it increases with increased stress level. When axial strain is near 5%, Poisson’ ratio is gradually close to a steady value. The main range of Poisson's ratio is 0.25～0.50 when confining pressure changes from 50 to 300 kPa. When unconfined compressive strength of mixed soil is less than 328 kPa, its stress-strain-volumetric strain characteristics can be predicted very well by Duncan-Chang model (E-B model). However, when the range of unconfined compressive strength is [328 kPa, 566 kPa], the model can't predict stress-strain characteristics accurately when confining pressure is under 200 kPa, and it also can't predict the strong shear dilatancy phenomenon of mixed soil under low confining pressure.     

Study of dilatancy behaviors of calcareous soils in a triaxial test

Abstract

In this article, the dilatancy of calcareous soil is studied systematically based on triaxial consolidation drainage shear tests, and the difference in dilatancy between calcareous soil and siliceous soil is also investigated. It was found that: ① Calcareous soil experience obvious dilated deformation. Dilatancy tendency increases with increasing related density and decreases with increasing confining pressure. ② The volumetric strain rate initially increases from negative to positive. After it reaches a maximum, there is a small decrease in the volumetric strain rate, but it is still greater than zero, and the stress-strain curves are of softening type. ③ For the same condition, the dilatancy deformation of calcareous sand begins later than that of siliceous sand, and the volume compression before dilatancy is also larger for calcareous sand. ④ The critical state alone cannot accurately describe the entire deformation process of soil, and it is proposed that the phase transformation state be added to the standard method used to assess soil dilatation and contraction. ⑤ Based on the statistical analysis of experimental data, mathematical relationships were established between void ratio, relative density, and effective confining pressure of phase transformation state and critical state, respectively.

• Highlights

• Reports results from a well-designed experiment that includes a good amount of samples and data.

• Effects of relative density and effective confining pressure on deformation mode and mechanical properties of calcareous sand are evaluated.

• The difference in dilatancy between calcareous sand and siliceous sand was compared

• The phase-transformation state and critical state were compared with the axial strain, volumetric strain and deviatoric stress.

• Using phase-transformation void ratio and critical void ratio to describe the whole deformation process of calcareous sand is proposed.

• The mathematical expressions of phase-transformation void ratio and critical void ration were given, respectively.

     

Response of offshore piles embedded in cemented and noncemented calcareous sediments

Abstract

A nonlinear pile‐soil interface model incorporated in a boundary element analysis is presented to simulate both the static and cyclic behavior of piles embedded in cemented and noncemented calcareous sediments. Based on the soil parameters derived from model test data, theoretical predictions are made for a few field tests. Finally, theoretical solutions are obtained for a full‐scale hypothetical pile embedded in homogeneous and layered calcareous sediments.     

Shaft capacity of pre-bored grouted planted nodular pile under various overburden pressures in dense sand

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a series of model tests performed to study the shaft capacity of pre-bored grouted planted nodular (PGPN) pile in dense sand. The influence of the vertical overburden pressure on the shaft capacity of the PGPN pile is also investigated based on the test results. The test piles were equipped with strain gauges to measure the axial loads during the loading process, moreover, a foam plate was buried beneath pile tip to eliminate the influence of tip resistance on the shaft capacity. Some conclusions can be drawn based on the test results: the peak skin friction of PGPN pile increases with the increase of vertical overburden pressure applied on the foundation soil, while the rate of increase decreases with the increasing overburden pressure; the surface of the pile–soil interface of PGPN pile is relatively rough, and significant dilatant increase in lateral stress occurs during the loading process.     

Evaluation of liquefaction potential of marine sandy soil with piles considering nonlinear seismic soil–pile interaction; A simple predictive model

Abstract

An elastoplastic, dynamic, finite-difference method was applied to study the effects of nonlinear seismic soil–pile interaction on the liquefaction potential of marine sand with piles. The developed model was well validated using the centrifuge test. The results showed that acceleration, bending moment, and excess pore water pressure complied well with centrifuge test results. The effect of different affecting parameters on liquefaction potential was investigated using parametric study. Using a sensitivity analysis, the pile embedment parameter was shown to be the most influential parameter. Finally, applying the evolutionary polynomial regression technique, a new model for predicting the liquefaction potential was presented.     

Role of piles in mitigating the movement of pipes in soft grounds during embankment loading

Abstract

Pipes buried in soft ground can be damaged due to the vertical and lateral movement of the ground during the construction of the embankment. To investigate such a movement of the soft ground, full-scale tests using embankment piles and stabilizing piles were conducted for 70?days. A pile-supported embankment has been used to reduce the deformation of soft ground by transferring the embankment load through piles to the firm layer below the soft ground, whereas stabilizing piles have been employed to resist the lateral earth pressure that is induced in soft ground by embankment loads. The Coupling Area (CA), which was defined as the quantitative index to determine the resistance effect of both settlement and lateral flow of the soft ground when the embankment was reinforced, is adapted. The analysis results of the CA indicate that the piled embankment was more effective for preventing the damage to buried pipe installed near the embankment, while the stabilizing piles had almost the same effect as the piled embankment when the pipe was buried far away from the embankment.     

A Normalized Stress-Strain Model for Soft Clays

-A nonlinear model for the stress-strain behaviour of normally consolidated clays is presented based on the experimental results. It is indicated that the volume strain under pure shear is a power function of stress ratio and the normalized stress-strain curve is a standard hyperbola. According to the model, the coefficient of pore pressure induced by shear stress and the critical stress ratio which governs the influence of the negative dilatancy are suggested. It is shown by some triaxial tests that the proposed model can be used to study the negative dilatancy and to describe the stress-strain-pore pressure adequately for soft clays.     

Experimental simple shear study of composite soil with cemented soil core

Abstract

Cement soil mixing piles are an effective treatment method for marine soft clay. To investigate the static and dynamic characteristics of the composite soil with cemented soil core, a series of experiments are carried out by using the cyclic simple shear test. The result shows that, the static shear strain showed strain hardening, cemented soil core can improve static shear strength of composite soil, vertical stress can enlarge reinforcement of cemented soil core. The tendency of strain development of composite soil with different area replacement ratios under cyclic loading is the same as that of pure clay, existing critical cyclic stress ratios corresponding to different area replacement ratios. In addition, improving area replacement ratio can increase cyclic strength. At same time, adding of cemented soil core does not change shape of hysteresis curve compared with it for clay either. Moreover, cemented soil core can also obstruct stiffness softening. Through regression analysis of the experimental data, relationship between cyclic number and soil softening index is proved to be linear. The results can give a reference for the dynamic characters of the marine soft clay foundation with cement soil mixing piles.     

Numerical simulation of the nonlinear wave-induced dynamic response of anisotropic poro-elastoplastic seabed

Abstract

In this paper, a 2D poro-elastoplastic model for wave-induced dynamic response in an anisotropic seabed is derived analytically. The seabed is treated as a porous medium and characterized by Biot’s consolidation equations. The soil plasticity and wave non-linearity are included in the model and both the pore fluid and the soil skeleton are assumed to be compressible. The nonlinear ocean waves are respectively considered as progressive and standing waves. The previous experimental data is used to validate the proposed model. Numerical results demonstrate that the influence of nonlinear wave components should not be ignored without committing substantial error. A significant difference between progressive and standing waves is also observed for the development of residual pore pressure, as well as the distribution of liquefied zone. A detailed parametric investigation reveals that the nonlinear wave-induced seabed response is also affected significantly by cross-anisotropic soil parameters.     

Field Study on the Behavior of Destructive and Non-Destructive Piles Under Compression

This paper presents a series of full-scale load tests on long bored piles instrumented with strain gauges along the shafts, including eight field tests of piles loaded to failure and one non-destructive pile load test. The load-displacement response, skin friction, end resistance, and the threshold of the pile-soil relative displacement for fully mobilizing skin resistance were discussed. A simple softening model was proposed to describe the degradation behavior of the skin friction along the pile-soil interface and the load-displacement relationship developed at the pile base. It is found that the shaft resistance degradation investigated in the non-destructive load test only occurs at a shallow depth, and the skin friction of deeper soil is not fully developed. However, unlike the results of the non-destructive load tests, the softening is accompanied by a reduction in skin friction and observed to be along the whole pile depth. The thresholds of pile-soil relative displacement for fully mobilizing skin resistances in different soils have been found to be in the range 0.6% to 2.4% of the pile diameter. Moreover, in practical applications, a bilinear model is assumed to be feasible in analyzing the load-settlement relationship developed at the end of non-destructive pile, whereas the load transmission curve of the soils below the pile base corresponds to a softening model in the field tests of piles loaded to failure.     

Field and Theoretical Study of the Response of Super-Long Bored Pile Subjected to Compressive Load

In this article, two full-scale pile loading tests were conducted to observe the field performance of the super-long bored piles, and a simplified approach for nonlinear analysis of the load-displacement behavior of a single pile was presented. The field tests on piles indicates that, under the maximum test load, more than 70% of the pile top settlement is caused by the compression of pile shaft. For practical purposes, the pile top settlement can be reduced through improving the pile shaft strength. When the load reaches the maximum test load, the proportion of the load carried by the pile tip is approximately 30%. The super-long pile is functioning as an end-bearing friction pile. The skin friction at shallow depth is fully mobilized and decreases from a peak value with increasing load. However, the skin friction of deeper soil is not fully developed due to less relative displacement. Furthermore, a BoxLucas1 model is used to capture the relationship between unit skin friction and pile-soil relative displacement, whereas a hyperbolic model is used to describe the relationship between toe stress and pile base displacement. Based on the BoxLucas1 model and the hyperbolic model, a load transfer method is used to clarify the response of a single pile, and a computational flow chart is developed. The efficiency and accuracy of the present method is verified using the field tests on piles. The proposed simple analytical approach is economical and efficient, resulting in savings in time and cost.     

Improving force resultant model for anchors in clays from large deformation finite element analysis

Abstract

This paper presents an improved plasticity force-resultant model for anchors deeply embedded in clays, developed from large deformation finite element analyses. The current available force-resultant models for anchors are mainly developed from small strain finite element analysis while experimental approach has not been used due to technical challenges. The advantage of large deformation finite element analysis is that it provides much more data points to fit the yield surface than small strain finite element analysis, in addition to avoiding excess mesh distortion problems. Furthermore, the flow rule or normality can be effectively checked in the large deformation finite element analysis and further used to improve the fitting quality. After validated against retrospective simulations, the better performance of the developed plasticity force-resultant model is demonstrated by comparing with available experimental observations from centrifuge test.     

Model tests on open-ended concrete pipe piles jacked in sand

Abstract

An experimental study of the performance of concrete pipe piles during installation under different penetration speeds and static load tests on the piles in sand is presented. The applied jacking force, the amount of pile penetration, length of soil plug formed and ultimate bearing capacity were measured during the model tests. The results showed that the concrete pipe piles were partially plugged and the behavior of the soil plug was significantly affected by the penetration speed. The lower the penetration speed, the larger the soil plug formed which in turn leads to a greater ultimate bearing capacity. The size of soil plug can be evaluated by the m value defined as the ratio of the volume of the soil plug to that of the penetrated pile wall. The relationship between the m value and the penetration speeds can be used to estimate the amount of soil plug and the depth of penetration for an open-ended concrete pipe pile jacked into sand.     

Degradation of lateral bearing capacity of piles in soft clay subjected to cyclic lateral loading

Abstract

In this article, the degradation of the lateral bearing capacity of piles in soft clay subjected to cyclic lateral loading is studied numerically. A modified kinematic hardening constitutive model is employed to simulate the degradation of soft clay after cyclic loading. The modified model is verified by comparing the numerical simulation results with the results of centrifuge model tests. Furthermore, the modified model is applied to numerical simulations for evaluating the lateral bearing capacity of piles in soft clay subjected to cyclic lateral loading. The degradation of the lateral bearing capacity of piles in soft clay after different cyclic displacement levels and different numbers of cycles is investigated. The study reveals that the modified kinematic hardening constitutive model can effectively estimate the cyclic degradation behavior of piles in soft clay subjected to cyclic lateral loading. The degradation of the ultimate lateral bearing capacity progresses slowly with increasing cyclic displacement level for fewer cycles, and the degradation develops significantly at higher levels of cyclic displacement after applying a larger number of cycles.     

Use of Lade's Single Surface Work-Hardening Model to Investigate Mechanical Behavior of Decomposed Soils

In this study, it was attempted to assess soil parameters necessary for Lade's single surface work-hardening model that reviewed the physical and mechanical properties of granite soil located in Korea based on the results of triaxial compression tests. In addition, finite element analyses coupled with the determined soil parameters as inputs were conducted based on Lade's single surface work-hardening model and the results were compared with element test results. It could be seen that, in predicting undrained mechanical behavior, the single surface model was reproducing the stress-strain relation obtained through element tests at high accuracy. It is worthwhile to inform that these differences in the initial loading stage and the impossibility to predict swelling behavior are caused by the fact that there is no prediction model for changes in shear properties, especially in dilatancy properties due to particle crushing occurring while element tests are conducted. Hence, it is concluded that, to expand the applicability of Lade's single surface work-hardening constitutive model to practical problems, the model should be modified in relation to the dilatancy of soils.     

Behavior of Pile Group with Elevated Cap Subjected to Cyclic Lateral Loads

The pile group with elevated cap is widely used as foundation of offshore structures such as turbines, power transmission towers and bridge piers, and understanding its behavior under cyclic lateral loads induced by waves, tide water and winds, is of great importance to designing. A large-scale model test on 3×3 pile group with elevated cap subjected to cyclic lateral loads was performed in saturated silts. The preparation and implementation of the test is presented. Steel pipes with the outer diameter of 114 mm, thickness of 4.5 mm, and length of 6 m were employed as model piles. The pile group was cyclic loaded in a multi-stage sequence with the lateral displacement controlled. In addition, a single pile test was also conducted at the same site for comparison. The displacement of the pile cap, the internal forces of individual piles, and the horizontal stiffness of the pile group are presented and discussed in detail. The results indicate that the lateral cyclic loads have a greater impact on pile group than that on a single pile, and give rise to the significant plastic strain in the soil around piles. The lateral loads carried by each row of piles within the group would be redistributed with loading cycles. The lateral stiffness of the pile group decreases gradually with cycles and broadly presents three different degradation patterns in the test. Significant axial forces were measured out in some piles within the group, owing to the strong restraint provided by the cap, and finally lead to a large settlement of the pile group. These findings can be referred for foundation designing of offshore structures.     

A method analyzing deformation of anchor foundations in soft clay under static and cyclic loads

The paper presents a constitutive model to describe undrained cyclic stress-strain responses of soft clays based on the equivalent visco-elastic and creep theories. The hysteretic and nonlinear stress-strain responses of soft clays are described using the equivalent visco-elastic relationship and variations of the cyclic modulus and the damping ratio with the octahedral shear strain, respectively in the model. The cyclic accumulative strain is described using the Mises creeping potential function and the associated flow rule. The method determining the model parameters is given by static and cyclic triaxial tests. The finite element method to analyze deformation of anchor foundation in soft clay under static and cyclic loads is developed based on the model. For the method, a cyclic loading time history is divided into a series of incremental loading sub-processes which include one load cycle at least. The cyclic stress-strain responses of soil elements at any time are not tracked in detail and determined by the equivalent visco-elastic calculations for every loading sub-process. The accumulative deformation of anchor foundations is calculated using the initial strain algorithm. The method has been implemented in ABAQUS Software by developing interface programs. Model tests of the suction anchors are conducted and predicted using the method. Comparisons of predicted and model test results show that the method can be used to evaluate cyclic stability and reveal the failure process and mechanism of anchor foundations by analyzing deformation time-histories.