Modeling Test and Numerical Simulation of Vertical Bearing Performance for Rigid-Flexible Composite Pouch Piles with Expanded Bottom (RFCPPEB)

Rigid-flexible composite pouch piles with expanded bottom (RFCPPEB) are generally considered as new symmetrical piles in practical engineering, but their bearing characteristics and design method are still not completely understood. The objective of this study is to investigate the vertical bearing performance and the optimal design scheme of RFCPPEB. Hence, laboratory modeling tests for this symmetric structure and an ABAQUS three-dimensional (3D) numerical simulation analysis were used to study the vertical bearing characteristics on bottom-expanded piles and rigid-flexible composite piles with expanded bottom. The vertical bearing capacity, shaft resistance, pile tip resistance distribution rule, and load sharing ratio of RFCPPEB were analyzed and verified using different bottom expansion dimensions and cemented soil thicknesses. The results revealed that the optimal bottom expansion ratio of rigid bottom-expanded piles was 1.8 when the ratio of pile body to bottom-expanded pile head was 9:1. When the bottom expansion ratio (D/d) was increased, the bearing capacity of bottom-expanded piles was significantly increased at D/d = 1.4 and D/d = 1.8 compared to that of D/d = 1.0, reaching 1.67 and 2.29 times, respectively, while for D/d = 1.6 and D/d = 2.0, the ultimate bearing capacity remained unchanged. Besides, shaft resistance played an important role in the bearing process of the rigid bottom-expanded piles and RFCPPEB. When the shaft resistance was increased, the ultimate bearing capacity of the pile foundation was significantly improved. The shaft resistance of RFCPPEB was increased with increasing cemented soil thickness. The increases in the shaft resistance and thickness of the cemented soil showed a nonlinear growth, and the maximum shaft resistance was approximately 75 cm from the pile top. When the diameter of the expanded head was 1.8 times the diameter of the pipe pile and slightly larger than the thickness of the cemented soil (0.5 times the diameter of the pipe pile), the optimal amount of concrete 425.5 kN/m3 required for per unit volume around piles was obtained, with the RFCPPEB ultimate bearing capacity of 7.5 kN. For RFCPPEB, the soil pressure at the pile tip was directly proportional to the pile top load under small load and was decreased in the form of a half quadric curve under large load. It reached the most reasonable position where the slope of the quadric curve was the largest when the thickness of the cemented soil was larger than 0.5 times the diameter of the pipe pile.

Numerical Modelling of Various Aspects of Pipe Pile Static Load Test

Due to the development of dedicated software and the computing capabilities of modern computers, the application of numerical methods to analyse more complex geotechnical problems is becoming increasingly common. However, there are still some areas which, due to the lack of unambiguous solutions, require a more thorough examination, e.g., the numerical simulations of displacement pile behaviour in soil. Difficulties in obtaining the convergence of simulations with the results of static load tests are mainly caused by problems with proper modelling of the pile installation process. Based on the numerical models developed so far, a new process of static load test modelling has been proposed, which includes the influence of pile installation on the soil in its vicinity and modelling of contact between steel pile and the soil. Although the presented method is not new, this is relevant and important for practitioners that may want to improve the design of displacement piles. The results of the numerical calculations were verified by comparing them with the results of pipe pile field tests carried out in a natural scale on the test field in Southern Poland.

Theoretical and Numerical Analysis of Soil-Pipe Pile Horizontal Vibration Based on the Fractional Derivative Viscoelastic Model

To describe the mechanical properties of the system of pipe pile-soil reasonably and accurately, the constitutive relations of the soil around pile and pile core soil are characterized by the fractional derivative viscoelastic model. We assume that the radial and circumferential displacements of the soil around the pile and pile core soil are the functions of r, θ, and z. The horizontal dynamic control equations of soil layers are derived by using the fractional derivative viscoelastic model. Considering the fractional derivative properties, soil layer boundary condition, and contact condition of pile and soil, the potential function decomposition method is used to solve the radial and circumferential displacements of the soil layer. Then, the force of unit thickness soil layer on the pipe pile and the impedance factor of the soil layer are obtained. The horizontal dynamic equations of pipe pile are established considering the effect of soil layers. The horizontal dynamic impedance and horizontal-swaying dynamic resistance at the pile top are obtained by combining the pipe pile-soil boundary conditions and the orthogonal operation of trigonometric function. Numerical solutions are used to analyze the influence of pile and soil parameters on the soil impedance factor and horizontal dynamic impedance at pile top. The results show that the horizontal impedance factors of the soil layer and horizontal dynamic impedance of pipe pile by using the fractional derivative viscoelastic model can be degraded to those of the classical viscoelastic model and the elastic model. For the fractional derivative viscoelastic model of soil layer, the influence of soil around pile on the dynamic impedance is greater than that of pile core soil. The model parameter TOa, the inner radius of pipe pile, and the pile length have obvious effects on the horizontal impedance of the soil layer and pipe pile, while the influence of the pile core soil on the pile impedance is smaller.