Numerical Analysis of Pile–Soil Interaction under Axial and Lateral Loads

Abstract

In this paper, the analysis of a numerical study of pile-soil interaction subjected to axial and lateral loads is presented. An analysis of the composite pile-soil system was performed using the finite difference (FD) software LPILE. Two three dimensional, finite element (FE) models of pile-soil interaction have been developed using Abaqus/Cae and SAP2000 to study the effect of lateral loading on pile embedded in clay. A lateral displacement of 2 cm was applied to the top of the pile, which is embedded into the concrete pile cap, while maintaining a zero slope in a guided fixation. A comparison between the bending moments and lateral displacements along the depth of the pile obtained from the FD solutions and FE was performed. A parametric study was conducted to study the effect of crucial design parameters such as the soil's modulus of elasticity, radius of the soil surrounding the pile in Abaqus/Cae, and the number of springs in SAP2000. A close correlation is found between the results obtained by the FE models and the FD solution. The results indicated that increasing the amount of clay surrounding the piles reduces the induced bending moments and lateral displacements in the piles and hence increases its capacity to resist lateral loading.

A Contact Model Coupling Friction and Adhesion: Application to Pile/Soil Interface

“…An axisymmetric model has been admitted since the piles treated are cylindrical with a circular cross-section and axially loaded (the axis of symmetry, coinciding with the pile axis) [50], [54], [55]. The limits of the investigated domain are fixed more than 3.5 times the pile length (Lp), in the vertical direction and at least 2 times the pile length in the horizontal direction (Fig.…”

“…At the neighborhood of the pile-soil interface, the mesh has been refined to avoid the influence of stress concentration on the pile response (Fig. 3) [54], [55].…”

Pile Apparent Fixity Length Estimation for the Jacket-type Offshore Wind Turbines under Lateral Loads Applicable to Fatigue Analysis

“…Moreover, they showed that influence of the soilstructure interaction on the response of the jacket foundation predicts that the flexible foundation model is necessary to estimate loads of the offshore wind turbine structure accurately. Khodair and Abdel-Mohti [7] studied soil-pile interaction for a composite pile using FEM and Finite Difference (FD) method. They used Abaqus and SAP2000 for FEM and LPILE for the FD method.…”

On the Validation of a Numerical Model for the Analysis of Soil-Structure Interaction Problems

“…Thus, several studies have been advocated to the study of soil-pile interaction problems under lateral and axial loads by using simplifying or complex approaches (Taiebat and Carter, 2001, Gu et al, 2016,Khoadir and Mohti, 2014, Chatterjee et al, 2015. Other research groups have focused on the development of simplified expressions for evaluating pile displacements and bending moments along the pile axis (Khodair and Mohti, 2014) by using the subgrade reaction approach (Valsamis 2008, Valsamis et al 2012, Chaloulos et al 2013b. In this approach, the pile is treated as an elastic laterally loaded beam and the soil is idealized as a series of springs.…”

“…In this approach, the pile is treated as an elastic laterally loaded beam and the soil is idealized as a series of springs. Nevertheless, the nature of pile-soil interaction is three-dimensional and to complicate further the soil is a nonlinear and anisotropic medium (Khodair and Mohti, 2014). It is common practice to use deep foundations in areas where liquefaction may occur in surface layers.…”