Soil–structure interaction in a combined pile–raft foundation – a case study

Abstract

The present work explains the use of a piled-raft foundation in a raw materials storage building in South Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu Province of Vietnam. The proposed foundation comprises an 81 m by 55·5 m raft that connects 581 precast hollow concrete piles 20 m long with 400 mm outer diameter. The proposal takes into consideration a specific in situ soil profile and a loading scenario. After the effectiveness of a single bay of the foundation had been checked, the entire foundation system was modelled using finite-element-based geotechnical software to enable a detailed soil–structure interaction analysis. Field pile load test data were used to validate the finite-element model. Various loading conditions, such as all compartments full to all compartments empty, were considered in the analysis. The results of the analyses indicate the importance of the raft in sharing 23–31% of the total vertical load. The results obtained – such as vertical settlement, differential settlement, tilt in the raft and axial load in the piles – were used in the final design. These results can also be used in similar practical applications.

Efficiency of Open and Infill Trenches in Mitigating Ground-Borne Vibrations

“…A 3-D finite element model (100 m x 50 m x 20 m) is developed in PLAXIS 3D with its dynamic module using 10 noded tetrahedral elements. The model dimensions are chosen in a manner so as to avoid any boundary effects (Kumar et al 2017, Kumar andChoudhury 2018). Viscous boundaries are applied along the edges so as to account for the semi-infinite extent of the soil and prevent undue reflection of the waves along the boundaries (Kumar et al 2015(Kumar et al , 2016.…”

Experimental, numerical and field study investigating a heritage structure collapse after the 2015 Gorkha earthquake

“…All the components were activated simultaneously with the assumption that the temple would be constructed, following the 'bottom-up' method. Similar methodology was adopted by Kumar et al (2017). The unit weight of the lumped mass was estimated using the schematic diagram of the temple received from ICOMOS Nepal.…”

Pile groups under axial loading: an appraisal of simplified non-linear prediction models

“…Pile-soil-raft interaction According to Comodromos et al (2016), the resistance of a piled raft can be partitioned into three stages depending on the group settlement normalized by the pile diameter, Sng: 1. 0% < Sng < 1.5%: the resistance of both the piles and the raft are linear and the resistance contribution from the raft is insignificant and therefore commonly ignored (Mandolini and Viggiani 1997;Xu and Zhang 2007;Kumar et al 2017); 2. 1.5% < Sng < 4%: the piles exhibit up to ~90% of their limit capacity;…”