Axisymmetric finite element analysis of pile loading tests

In this paper a typical soil–structure interaction problem is considered, the case of a vertical pile installed in sand and submitted to an axial compression loading. Results from two full scale pile tests are analysed and the tests are reproduced by numerical simulations via finite elements method (FEM). The choice of the mechanical parameters for the soil and the sand–pile interface and the modelling approach are first described. A new numerical strategy is outlined to account for pile installation effects due to jacking and driving via FEM. The proposed approach is based on the application of existing empirical correlations available for the quantification of residual radial and shear stresses along the pile shaft as well as residual pressures around the pile base after the installation. This approach is proposed as an alternative to more complex methods based on the numerical modelling of the pile penetration problem. The role of the constitutive modelling of the interface is also discussed. Finally, comparative analyses of pile loading tests using FEM are provided and the comparisons between numerical and experimental results are presented and discussed.     

The P-y Response of Laterally Loaded Flexible Piles in Residual Soil

This paper describes the main features related to lateral displacements with depth after successive lateral loading–unloading cycles applied to the top of reinforced-concrete flexible bored piles embedded in naturally bonded residual soil. The bored piles under study have a cylindrical shape, with 0.40-m in diameter and 8.0-m in length. Both bored piles types (P1 and P2) include an embedded steel pipe section in their center as longitudinal steel reinforcements: pile type P1 has another 16 steel rods as steel reinforcement to concrete while pile type P2 has no further steel reinforcement. Pile type P1 has three times as much stiffness (EI) and four and a half times the plastic moment (M_y) than pile type P2. A similar load–displacement performance was observed at initial loads as for small displacements of both piles. At this initial loading stage, the response of the reinforced concrete piles is a function of the soil characteristics and of a linear elastic pile deformation. During this stage, piles can even be understood as probes for evaluating soil reactions. For larger horizontal displacements, after the concrete section starts undergoing large deformations, approaching the ultimate bending moment, pile behavior and consequently the load–displacement relation starts to diverge for both piles. For pile P1 the values of relevant lateral displacements are extended to about 2.5-m in depth, while for pile P2 lateral displacements are mostly constrained to about 2.0-m in depth. Measurements of horizontal displacements of pile P1 against depth recorded with a slope indicator show that, after unloading, lateral loads at distinct stages (small and near failure loads), exhibits a much higher elastic phase of the system response. An analytical fitting model of soil reaction is proposed based on the measured displacements from slope indicator. The integration of a continuous model proposed for the soil reaction agrees fairly well with the measured displacements up to moments close to plastic limit. Results of load–displacement show that the stiffer pile (P1) was able to mobilize twice as much lateral load compared to pile P2 for a service limit displacement of about 20 mm. The paper shows results that enable the isolation of the structural variable through real scale pile load tests, thus granting understanding of its importance and enabling its quantitative visualization in examples of piles embedded in residual soil sites.

     

Pseudostatic Seismic Response Analysis of a Pile Group in a Soil Slope

This paper presents a simple approximate pseudostatic method for estimating the maximum internal forces and horizontal displacements of a pile group located in a soil slope. The method is extension of an existing similar method developed by the authors for the case of a horizontal ground surface. The method employed for horizontal ground case involves two main steps: first, the free-field soil movements caused by the earthquake are computed; Then, the response of the pile group is analyzed based on the maximum free-field soil movements as static movements, as well as a static loading at the pile head, which depends on the computed spectral acceleration of the structure being supported. This newly developed methodology takes into account the effects of group interaction and soil yielding. Simple modifications are applied to take into account the effect of slope on seismic deformations of the pile group, making use of the Newmark sliding block method. The applicability of the approach and the developed program is verified by comparisons made with both experimental shaking table tests and the results of a more refined analysis of a pile-supported wharf. It is demonstrated that the proposed method yields reasonable estimates of the pile maximum moment and horizontal displacement for many practical cases, despite its relative simplicity. The simplifying assumptions and the limitations as well as reliability of the methodology are discussed, and some practical conclusions on the performance of the proposed approach are suggested.     

A modulus‐multiplier approach for non‐linear analysis of laterally loaded pile groups

A modulus‐multiplier approach, which applies a reduction factor to the modulus of single pile p–y curves to account for the group effect, is presented for analysing the response of each individual pile in a laterally loaded pile group with any geometric arrangement based on non‐linear pile–soil–pile interaction. The pile–soil–pile interaction is conducted using a 3D non‐linear finite element approach. The interaction effect between piles under various loading directions is investigated in this paper. Group effects can be neglected at a pile spacing of 9 times the pile diameter for piles along the direction of the lateral load and at a pile spacing of 6 times the pile diameter for piles normal to the direction of loading. The modulus multipliers for a pair of piles are developed as a function of pile spacing for departure angle of 0, 90, and 180sup>/sup> with respect to the loading direction. The procedure proposed for computing the response of any individual pile within a pile group is verified using two well‐documented full‐scale pile load tests. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Single piles under horizontal loads in sand: determination of <Emphasis Type="Italic">P</Emphasis>–<Emphasis Type="Italic">Y</Emphasis> curves from the prebored pressuremeter test

Lateral load-deflection behaviour of single piles is often analysed in practice on the basis of methods of load-transfer P–Y curves. The paper is aimed at presenting the results of the interpretation of five full-scale horizontal loading tests of single instrumented piles in two sandy soils, in order to define the parameters of P–Y curves, namely the initial lateral reaction modulus and the lateral soil resistance, in correlation with the pressuremeter test parameters. P–Y curve parameters were found varying as a power of lateral pile/soil stiffness, on the basis of which hyperbolic P–Y curves in sand were proposed. The predictive capabilities of the proposed P–Y curves were assessed by predicting the soil/pile response in full-scale tests as well as in centrifuge tests and a very good agreement was found between the computed deflections and bending moments, and the measured ones. Small-sized database of full-scale pile loading tests in sand was built and a comparative study of some commonly used P–Y curve methods was undertaken. Moreover, it was shown that the load-deflection curves of these test piles may be normalised in a practical form for an approximate evaluation of pile deflection in a preliminary stage of pile design. At last, a parametric study undertaken on the basis of the proposed P–Y curves showed the significant influence of the lateral pile/soil stiffness on the non-linear load-deflection response.     

现浇薄壁管桩水平受力特性试验研究

现浇薄壁管桩（Cast-in-place Concrete Thin-wall Pipe Pile, 简称PCC桩）作为一种新型桩基础,已在很多地基处理工程中得到应用,但有关其水平承载性的研究还很少。通过现场试验,对水平荷载下PCC桩的水平承载性、泥面处桩荷载-位移关系、桩周土压力变化以及桩侧地基水平抗力系数的比例系数m与位移关系等特性进行初步分析,同时对单向多循环加载和慢速维持荷载两种加载方式对桩受力特性的影响进行比较。试验表明,PCC桩有较好的水平承载性,在水平荷载下,PCC桩的受力主要集中在桩的上部;与慢速维持荷载法相比,单向多循环法对桩的水平承载性以及桩土作用的非线性影响较大。     

Pseudostatic approach for seismic analysis of pile group

This paper evaluates a simple approximate pseudostatic method for estimating the maximum internal forces and horizontal displacements of pile group subjected to lateral seismic excitation. The method involves two main steps: (1) computation of the free-field soil movements caused by the earthquake, and (2) the analysis of the response of the pile group based on the maximum free-field soil movements (considered as static movements) as well as a static loading at the pile head, which depends on the computed spectral acceleration of the structure being supported. The methodology takes into account the effects of group interaction and soil yielding at pile–soil interface. The applicability of this approach has been validated by a similar approach for single piles and then verified by both experimental centrifuge models of pile-supported structures and field measurements of Ohba-Ohashi Bridge in Japan. It is demonstrated that the proposed method yields reasonable estimates of the pile maximum moment, shear, and horizontal displacement for many practical cases despite of its simplicity. Limitations and reliability of the methodology are discussed and some practical conclusions on the performance of the proposed approach are presented.     

刚-柔性桩复合地基试验研究

阐述了深厚软土地基中刚-柔性长短桩复合地基的设计思想。针对椒江地区土体的工程特性和拟建建筑物的特点,通过大型现场试验,介绍了其在某国家康居示范工程中的应用,并分析了此类复合地基的主要工程性状,研究了桩土应力比以及荷载分担比的发展规律。试验表明,此类复合地基能使刚性桩、柔性桩以及土体协调变形,合理发挥它们各自的承载能力,为以后的设计和推广应用提供了依据。     

水平循环荷载下桩基变形特性的离心模型试验研究

波浪、船舶等长期水平循环荷载作用下,桩基将不可避免地产生附加应力和变形。针对饱和黏土地层,开展离心模型试验研究了船舶系泊水平荷载作用下单桩和群桩的变形特性。发现水平循环加-卸载诱发了桩周土体的塑性变形,进而导致桩身产生了不可恢复的水平位移和弯曲变形。随着循环荷载的增加,单桩和群桩的桩顶最大水平位移和残余水平位移均同时增加,但残余水平位移明显小于最大水平位移。单桩的桩顶残余水平位移与最大位移比值介于0.17～0.22;群桩的桩顶残余水平位移与最大水平位移比值介于0.30～0.84。水平循环加-卸载作用下,桩身残余弯曲应变明显小于最大弯曲应变。单桩的残余弯曲应变与最大弯曲应变比值介于0.13～0.50;群桩的桩身残余弯曲应变与最大弯曲应变比值介于0.23～0.82。群桩前桩的残余和最大弯曲应变明显大于后桩,前桩与后桩的最大弯曲应变、残余应变比值分别高达3.2和3.1。因此,前桩要采取合理的加固和保护措施,以确保桩基长期服役的安全性。     

Flexural Analysis in Dynamic Pinned Head Pile Testing

A Laplace transform is used to solve the problem of the steady state and transient response of a pinned head pile embedded into a viscoelastic Winkler soil medium. The pile is modeled as an Euler–Bernoulli beam while the soil medium is modeled using a Winkler subgrade approach. Two analytical solutions are developed to specifically address both steady state and transient loads encountered during dynamic pile testing. After choosing a proper contour integration in the complex plane, inverse integration is evaluated. The steady state solutions are associated to the residues of the integration around the poles while the transient solutions are associated to the integration paths along the contour integration. The derived solutions are applied to a case history for which results of dynamic pile tests are available. Dynamic pile flexion is generated by delivering eccentric impact using a dynamic loading test module. Validity of the proposed solution is discussed basing on geotechnical campaign and recorded pile head bending moment and rotation rate.     

JPP桩不同组合水平承载性能模型试验研究

高喷插芯组合桩（简称JPP桩）是一种新型复合材料桩,实现了刚性桩的效果、柔性桩的成本,在基坑支护等工程中得到应用,但其水平承载性能的研究落后于工程实践。为了研究不同组合形式的JPP桩水平承载特性,利用自主研制的桩基模型试验加载系统进行了4种不同组合形式下JPP桩水平载荷试验,研究结果表明：分段组合II的水平承载能力最高,上组合与分段组合I相近,下组合的水平承载能力最低,表明越多的分段组合呈现出整体承受水平荷载的能力。桩身最大弯矩出现在距离桩顶以下3~4倍芯桩桩径处,该部位相对薄弱,易发生破坏。地面下一定深度范围内的土体特性将直接影响着桩的水平承载能力。     

Testing and modeling the behavior of pre-bored grouting planted piles under compression and tension

A group of field tests and three-dimensional finite element simulation were used to investigate the behavior of the pre-bored grouting planted pile under compression and tension; moreover, a group of shear tests of the concrete–cemented soil interface was carried out to study the frictional capacity of the pile–cemented soil interface. The load–displacement response, shaft resistance and mobilized base load were discussed based on the measured and computed results. The measured and computed results show that the frictional capacity of the cemented soil–soil interface is better than the frictional capacity of the concrete–soil interface. The frictional capacity of the concrete–cemented soil interface is mainly controlled by the properties of the cemented soil, and the ultimate skin friction of the concrete–cemented soil interface is much larger than that of the cemented soil–soil interface. The frictional capacity of the soil layer close to the enlarged base is also promoted because of the compaction of the enlarged base. The enlarged cemented soil base can promote the behavior of the pile foundation under tension, and the enlarged cemented soil base undertakes approximately 26.3% of the total uplift load under the ultimate bearing capacity in this research.     

Centrifuge shaking table tests on 4 × 4 pile groups in liquefiable ground

A series of centrifuge shaking table model tests are conducted on 4?×?4 pile groups in liquefiable ground in this study, achieving horizontal–vertical bidirectional shaking in centrifuge tests on piles for the first time. The dynamic distribution of forces on piles within the pile groups is analysed, showing the internal piles to be subjected to greater bending moment compared with external piles, the mechanism of which is discussed. The roles of superstructure–pile inertial interaction and soil–pile kinematic interaction in the seismic response of the piles within the pile groups are investigated through cross-correlation analysis between pile bending moment, soil displacement, and structure acceleration time histories and by comparing the test results on pile groups with and without superstructures. Soil–pile kinematic interaction is shown to have a dominant effect on the seismic response of pile groups in liquefiable ground. Comparison of the pile response in two tests with and without vertical input ground motion shows that the vertical ground motion does not significantly influence the pile bending moment in liquefiable ground, as the dynamic vertical total stress increment is mainly carried by the excess pore water pressure. The influence of previous liquefaction history during a sequence of seismic events is also analysed, suggesting that liquefaction history could in certain cases lead to an increase in liquefaction susceptibility of sand and also an increase in dynamic forces on the piles.     

Analysis of kinematic seismic response of tapered piles

In the present work, a two-phase analysis is used to assess the lateral movement of a tapered pile due to kinematic seismic loading resulted from earthquakes. First, the free-field horizontal displacement of the ground due to earthquake is estimated using available theory of wave propagation. Second, these estimated soil movements are imposed on the taper pile in a closed-form solution to compute the pile response. The governing differential equation for an arbitrary pile segment is obtained, which includes the free-field horizontal movement estimated from the first phase. The equation is solved explicitly to obtain the horizontal deflection. Parametric studies show that tapered piles tend to be more flexible than uniform piles of the same volume and length under earthquake loading, which is soundly interesting.     

水平荷载下纵截面异形桩承载特性试验

针对纵截面异形桩（扩底桩和楔形桩）、等混凝土用量常规等直径桩的水平向承载特性进行对比模型试验研究,测得不同水平荷载等级下扩底桩和楔形桩的内力、变形、极限承载力和桩侧土压力分布等变化规律特性;初步探讨3种桩型的水平极限承载特性和桩侧土压力分布规律。考虑纵向截面异形效应,基于水平土抗力与水平位移（p-y）曲线法建立纵截面异形桩水平向承载特性理论计算方法,进一步分析弯矩分布规律,并开展影响因素分析。研究结果表明,在当前试验条件下,等混凝土用量楔形桩的水平向承载力比等直径桩的高,砂性土和黏性土中楔形桩水平向极限承载力约分别为等直径桩的1.25倍和1.33倍。相关研究成果可为今后类似土层下水平受荷纵截面异形桩的设计与计算提供参考依据。     

Seismic analysis of laterally loaded pile under influence of vertical loading using finite element method

An efficient analytical approach using the finite element (FE) method, is proposed to calculate the bending moment and deflection response of a single pile under the combined influence of lateral and axial compressive loading during an earthquake, in both saturated and dry homogenous soil, and in a typical layered soil. Applying a pseudo-static method, seismic loads are calculated using the maximum horizontal acceleration (MHA) obtained from a seismic ground response analysis and a lateral load coefficient (a) for both liquefying and non-liquefying soils. It is observed that for a pile having l/d ratio 40 and embedded in dry dense sand, the normalized moment and displacement increase when the input motion becomes more severe, as expected. Further increasing of a from 0.1 to 0.3 leads to increase in the normalized moment and displacement from 0.033 to 0.042, and 0.009 to 0.035, respectively. The validity of the proposed FE based solution for estimating seismic response of pile is also assessed through dynamic centrifuge test results.     

现浇X形混凝土桩沉桩挤土效应现场试验研究

挤土型桩的挤土效应一直是工程界研究和关注的热点问题之一。结合南京长江四桥北接线段现浇X形桩软基处理工程,首次开展现浇X形混凝土桩（简称X形桩）沉桩过程现场试验,测得不同X形横截面方向、不同距离及深度处的水平位移、侧向土压力以及孔隙水压力的分布规律,研究X形桩挤土效应规律。研究结果表明,最大水平位移发生在桩顶,距离5倍等效桩径处的土体水平位移可以忽略不计;随着桩中心距的增加,挤土压力和孔隙水压力逐渐减小,并且尖角方向的挤土压力大于凹弧方向的挤土压力。现场试验数据为X形桩的布置形式以及桩间距的选择提供有力的设计参考依据。     

Progressive failure analysis of shallow foundations on soils with strain-softening behaviour

This paper presents a finite element approach to analyse the response of shallow foundations on soils with strain-softening behaviour. In these soils, a progressive failure can occur owing to a reduction of strength with increasing the plastic strains induced by loading. The present approach allows this failure process to be properly simulated by using a non-local elasto-viscoplastic constitutive model in conjunction with a Mohr–Coulomb yield function in which the shear strength parameters are reduced with the accumulated deviatoric plastic strain. Another significant advantage of the method is that it requires few material parameters as input data, with most of these parameters that can be readily obtained from conventional geotechnical tests. To assess the reliability of the proposed approach, some comparisons with experimental results from physical model tests are shown. A fairly good agreement is found between simulated and observed results. Finally, the progressive failure process that occurs in a dense sand layer owing to loading is analysed in details, and the main aspects concerning the associated failure mechanism are highlighted.