scholarly journals Flexible Pile Group Interaction Factors under Arbitrary Lateral Loading in Sand

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 800
Author(s):  
Miloš Marjanović ◽  
Mirjana Vukićević ◽  
Diethard König

Marine and harbor structures, wind turbines, bridges, offshore platforms, industrial chimneys, retaining structures etc. can be subjected to significant lateral loads from various sources. Appropriate assessment of the foundations capacity of these structures is thus necessary, especially when these structures are supported by pile groups. The pile group interaction effects under lateral loading have been investigated intensively in past decades, and the most of the conducted studies have considered lateral loading that acts along one of the two orthogonal directions, parallel to the edge of pile group. However, because of the stochastic nature of its source, the horizontal loading on the pile group may have arbitrary direction. The number of studies dealing with the pile groups under arbitrary loading is very limited. The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of the arbitrary lateral loading on the pile group response, in order to improve (extend) the current design approach for laterally loaded pile groups. Free head, flexible bored piles in sand were analyzed through the extensive numerical study. The main hypothesis of the research is that some critical pile group configurations, loading directions, and soil conditions exist, which can lead to the unsafe structural design. Critical pile positions inside the commonly used pile group configurations are identified with respect to loading directions. The influence of different soil conditions was discussed.

1986 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 441-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bahaa El Sharnouby ◽  
Milos Novak

Flexibility coefficients of single piles and interaction factors established for groups of two piles are presented to facilitate analysis of arbitrary pile groups exposed to static horizontal loads. Such an analysis may yield pile group flexibility, stiffness, deflection, and distribution of loads on individual piles. The data given are complete in that they include horizontal translation, rotation in the vertical plane, and cross effects between the two, making it possible to establish complete stiffness and flexibility matrices of pile groups provided with either rigid caps or arbitrarily flexible caps. Homogeneous, parabolic, and linear (Gibson's) soil profiles are considered and the piles may have a free length sticking above the ground surface. The methods of group evaluation based on superposition of interaction factors are reviewed and compared and numerical examples are given. Key words: piles, pile groups, lateral loads, flexibility, stiffness, load distribution.


Author(s):  
Michael C. McVay ◽  
Limin Zhang ◽  
Sangjoon Han ◽  
Peter Lai

A series of lateral load tests were performed on 3×3 and 4×4 pile groups in loose and medium-dense sands in the centrifuge with their caps located at variable heights to the ground surface. Four cases were considered: Case 1, pile caps located above the ground surface; Case 2, bottom of pile cap in contact with the ground surface; Case 3, top of pile cap at the ground surface elevation; and Case 4, top of pile cap buried one cap thickness below ground surface. All tests with the exception of Case 1 of the 4×4 group had their pile tips located at the same elevation. A special device, which was capable of both driving the piles and raining sand on the group in flight, had to be constructed to perform the tests without stopping the centrifuge (spinning at 45 g). The tests revealed that lowering the pile cap elevation increased the lateral resistance of the pile group anywhere from 50 to 250 percent. The experimental results were subsequently modeled with the bridge foundation-superstructure finite element program FLPIER, which did a good job of predicting all the cases for different load levels without the need for soil–pile cap interaction springs (i.e., p-y springs attached to the cap). The analyses suggest that the increase in lateral resistance with lower cap elevations may be due to the lower center of rotation of the pile group. However, it should be noted that this study was for pile caps embedded in loose sand and not dense sands or at significant depths. The experiments also revealed a slight effect for the case of the pile cap embedded in sand with a footprint wider than the pile row. In that case the size of the passive soil wedge in front of the pile group, and consequently the group’s lateral resistance, increased.


2002 ◽  
Vol 39 (6) ◽  
pp. 1358-1383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasser E Mostafa ◽  
M Hesham El Naggar

Pile foundations supporting bridge piers, offshore platforms, and marine structures are required to resist not only static loading but also lateral dynamic loading. The static p–y curves are widely used to relate pile deflections to nonlinear soil reactions. The p-multiplier concept is used to account for the group effect by relating the load transfer curves of a pile in a group to the load transfer curves of a single pile. Some studies have examined the validity of the p-multiplier concept for the static and cyclic loading cases. However, the concept of the p-multiplier has not yet been considered for the dynamic loading case, and hence it is undertaken in the current study. An analysis of the dynamic lateral response of pile groups is described. The proposed analysis incorporates the static p–y curve approach and the plane strain assumptions to represent the soil reactions within the framework of a Winkler model. The model accounts for the nonlinear behaviour of the soil, the energy dissipation through the soil, and the pile group effect. The model was validated by analyzing the response of pile groups subjected to lateral Statnamic loading and comparing the results with field measured values. An intensive parametric study was performed employing the proposed analysis, and the results were used to establish dynamic soil reactions for single piles and pile groups for different types of sand and clay under harmonic loading with varying frequencies applied at the pile head. "Dynamic" p-multipliers were established to relate the dynamic load transfer curves of a pile in a group to the dynamic load transfer curves for a single pile. The dynamic p-multipliers were found to vary with the spacing between piles, soil type, peak amplitude of loading, and the angle between the line connecting any two piles and the direction of loading. The study indicated the effect of pile material and geometry, pile installation method, and pile head conditions on the p-multipliers. The calculated p-multipliers compared well with p-multipliers back-calculated from full scale field tests.Key words: lateral, transient loading, nonlinear, pile–soil–pile interaction, p–y curves, Statnamic.


1992 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 702-710 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans H. Vaziri ◽  
Yingcai Han

Dynamic response of a pile group, comprising six full-size cast-in-place reinforced concrete piles, is investigated under varying levels of lateral harmonic excitation in two directions: along a plane composed of three piles (X-direction) and along a plane normal to it composed of two piles (Y-direction). The measured response is compared with the theoretical predictions using the dynamic interaction factors approach. To account for the nonlinear response of the pile group using the theoretical model, provisions are made for yielding of soil around the piles by introducing the boundary-zone concept. It is shown that the proposed theory adequately captures the measured response of the pile group under both linear (weak excitation) and nonlinear (strong excitation) conditions. The study performed indicates that although the rocking stiffness of the pile group is strongly influenced by the number of piles along the direction of excitation, the horizontal stiffness remains virtually unaffected. The results obtained show that the stiffness and damping ratio of the pile group reduce as the excitation intensity increases. It is also found that the pile–soil–pile interaction plays a major role in the overall dynamic response of the pile group; this effect is manifested by a reduction in the stiffness and an increase in the damping of the pile group. Key words : dynamics, vibration, piles, pile group, nonlinear vibration, full-scale tests, modelling, resonance, soil separation, soil yielding.


1990 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 813-822 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bahaa El Sharnouby ◽  
Milos Novak

Stiffness constants and flexibility coefficients of single piles and interaction factors are presented to facilitate the analysis of pile groups subjected to static vertical loads. A continuous transition from friction to end-bearing piles is accounted for. A new type of interaction factor, established from subgroups of five piles, is introduced for end-bearing piles. This interaction factor allows for the stiffening effect of the piles occurring between the two reference piles. This feature improves the accuracy of group analysis for end-bearing piles. Numerical results for axially loaded single piles and pile groups are presented for a wide range of pile and soil parameters. The results are applicable toboth rigid and flexible caps. Key words: piles, pile group, settlement, interaction


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4748
Author(s):  
Edwin Villagran ◽  
Carlos Bojacá ◽  
Mohammad Akrami

The use of covered structures is an alternative increasingly used by farmers to increase crop yields per unit area compared to open field production. In Latin American countries such as Colombia, productive areas are located in with predominantly hillside soil conditions. In the last two decades, farmers have introduced cover structures adapted to these soil conditions, structures for which the behavior of factors that directly affect plant growth and development, such as microclimate, are still unknown. Therefore, in this research work, a CFD-3D model successfully validated with experimental data of temperature and air velocity was implemented. The numerical model was used to determine the behavior of air flow patterns and temperature distribution inside a Colombian passive greenhouse during daytime hours. The results showed that the slope of the terrain affects the behavior of the air flow patterns, generating thermal gradients inside the greenhouse with values between 1.26 and 16.93 °C for the hours evaluated. It was also found that the highest indoor temperature values at the same time were located in the highest region of the terrain. Based on the results of this study, future researches on how to optimize the microclimatic conditions of this type of sustainable productive system can be carried out.


Author(s):  
Dingwen Zhang ◽  
Anhui Wang ◽  
Xuanming Ding

A series of shaking table model tests were performed to examine the effects of deep cement mixing (DCM) columns with different reinforcement depths on the seismic behavior of a pile group in liquefiable sand. Due to the DCM column reinforcement, the fundamental natural frequency of the model ground increases noticeably. The excess pore pressure of soils reduces with the increase of reinforcement depths of the DCM columns. Before liquefaction, the acceleration response of soils in the improved cases is obviously lower than that in the unimproved case, but the acceleration attenuation is greater after liquefaction in the unimproved case. Moreover, the lateral displacement of the superstructure, the settlement of the raft, and the bending moment of the piles in the improved cases are significantly reduced compared to those in the unimproved case, and the reduction ratios rise with the increase of reinforcement depth of the DCM columns. However, reinforcement by the DCM columns may result in the variation of the location of the maximum moment that occurs in the pile.


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