General elastic analysis of piles and pile groups

✍ Scribed by K. J. Xu; H. G. Poulos

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 698 KB
• Volume: 24
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0363-9061
• DOI: 10.1002/1096-9853(20001225)24:15<1109::aid-nag72>3.0.co;2-n

✦ Synopsis

This paper describes the development of a boundary element analysis for the behaviour of single piles and pile groups subjected to general three-dimensional loading and to vertical and lateral ground movements. Each pile is discretized into a series of cylindrical elements, each of which is divided into several subelements. Compatibility of vertical, lateral and rotational movements is imposed in order to obtain the necessary equations for the pile response. Via hierarchical structures, 12 non-zero sub-matrices in a global matrix are derived for the basic in#uence factors.

Solutions are presented for a series of cases involving single piles and pile groups. In each case, the solutions are compared with those from more simpli"ed existing pile analyses such as those developed by Randolph and by Poulos. It is shown that for direct loading e!ects (e.g. the settlement of piles due to vertical loading), the simpli"ed analyses work well. However, for &o!-line' response (such as the lateral movement due to vertical loading) the di!erences are greater, and it is believed that the present analysis gives more reliable estimates.