Experimental Study on Bearing Characteristics and Soil Deformation of Necking Pile with Cap Using Transparent Soils Technology

This paper will employ the transparent soil experiment technology to explore the influences of shallow necking on the vertical bearing capacity of single pile with cap. Model experiment is carried out on one intact pile and nine shallow necking piles. The load-settlement curves of all piles are obtained, which are used to study bearing characteristics of piles. The displacement fields of soil around piles are employed to investigate the reasons for the loss of vertical bearing capacity of piles with shallow necking. The vertical bearing capacity is greatly reduced which is caused by shallow necking. When the axial dimension of necking is the same, the larger the radial size is, the greater the loss of vertical bearing capacity is. When the radial dimension of necking is the same, the greater the axial size is, the greater the loss of vertical bearing capacity is. The soil near the pile shaft and under the pile cap produces a large area of vertical downward deformation, which causes the relative displacement between the pile shaft and the soil to greatly reduce. Therefore, it is easy that the necking piles with caps develop negative friction, which causes the vertical bearing capacity of piles to reduce. When the radial dimension of the shallow necking is 80% of pile diameter, the pile is easy to be damaged.