STUDY ABOUT THE EFFECTS OF PILE SPACING ON THE PERFORMANCE OF PILE GROUP UNDER COMPOSITE LOADS, ADJACENT STRUCTURE LOADS, AND BENDING MOMENT IN SAND
Pile group is a particular type of deep foundations which is designed and installed as the ultimatesolution to foundation construction, load transition to the resistant subsurface layers, providing lateralresistance, and overcoming the poor performance of surface soils. Pile design should be done withrespect to structural consideration, the load-carrying capacity of the surface and surrounding soil,settlement, and constructional, technical and environmental problems. Piles are mostly and widelyutilized in coastal and offshore structures, and sustain vertical and lateral loads. Considering theimposed loads on structure, the effect of these loads on the pile behavior should be analyzed with anappropriate method. In this study, a 4x4 pile group with piles of 100-cm diameter and center-to-centerspacing of 2, 3, 4 times the diameter is modeled using the Plaxis 3D foundation program, which usesthe finite element method, and the Mohr-Coulomb model, and the behavior of piles subjected toloading, driven in sand, are investigated. Taking the achieved results, the mechanism of the pile groupbehavior under composite loads, adjacent structure loads, and bending moment are calculated, anddisplacement in the x-direction, y-direction and along the length, the bending moment and the axialforce for each pile within a distance of 2, 3, 4 times the diameter are attained.