Gowthaman S¹, Nasvi MCM^2,

Reliable prediction of settlement behaviour of axially loaded piles is one of the major concerns in geotechnical engineering. Therefore, this paper focuses on the finite element solutions of load-settlement behaviour of a single pile and pile group using PLAXIS numerical package. Three different types of analysis were incorporated: a linear elastic analysis, a complete nonlinear analysis and a combined analysis. The pile case history with settlement measurements made during field pile load test was considered to validate the single pile load-settlement simulation, and the same load test result was extended to simulate the load-settlement behaviour of pile group using RATZ analytical approach. The single pile analysis results suggest that realistic load-settlement predictions can be drawn by considering complete soil as Mohr-Coulomb model at lower working loads, and incorporation of an interface zone thickness of two times pile diameter using Hardening-Soil model is required to simulate the load-settlement behaviour at higher working loads. The group pile analysis results provide a better load-settlement prediction when incorporating an interface zone thickness of pile dimeter from the pile shat using Hardening-Soil model while leaving the remaining soil as Linear-Elastic material.

Hardening-Soil, Interface zone, Linear-elastic, Mohr-Coulomb, nonlinear, RATZ approach