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Numerical analysis of the boundary effect in model tests for single pile under lateral load

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Abstract

Model tests of pile foundations have been widely used to assess tlateral bearing capacities. The difference between the measured and the real lateral bearing capacity of pile foundation may exist due to the boundary effect, and this issue has not been studied thoroughly in the past. This paper, therefore, describes an extensive investigation of the boundary effect of a model container on the lateral bearing capacity of a circular pile foundation in uniform clay through finite element (FE) analysis. Prior to parametric study, the FE model was validated by comparing with the centrifuge test results and good agreement was obtained. Based on the parametric study, including various container sizes and soil properties, it can be concluded that the boundary effect on circular pile lateral bearing capacity can be significantly eliminated when the distance of container boundary to the pile center is larger than 15 times the pile diameter. A formula was proposed, based on FE results, to predict the difference of lateral bearing capacity of a circular pile in uniform clay induced by the boundary effect.

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Abbreviations

D :

Diameter of pile

D i :

Inner diameter of pipe pile

E s :

Young’s modulus of clay

E p :

Young’s modulus of pile

F f :

Horizontal resistance of single pile at finite boundary

F inf :

Horizontal resistance of single pile at infinite boundary

H BD :

Width of the model test soil container

H dis/D :

The ratio of horizontal displacement to diameter of pile

K 0 :

Horizontal earth pressure coefficient

L :

Length of pile

R :

Pile radius

R i :

Inner radius of Pipe pile

s u :

Undrained shear strength of clay

V BD :

Depth of the model test soil container

γ′ c :

Effective unit weight of clay

α:

Interface friction coefficient

ν :

Poisson’s ratio of clay

ν p :

Poisson’s ratio of pile

φ :

Friction angle of clay

ψ :

Dilation angle of clay

η b :

Boundary effect coefficient, = F f/F inf

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Acknowledgements

The research presented here was undertaken with the support from the China funding Science and Technology Project of POWERCHINA Huadong Engineering Corporation Limited (SD2013-10), the Water Resource Science and Technology Innovation Program of Guangdong Province (2015-17), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (D2171820). This support is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, Nanjing Tech. University, 200 North Zhongshan Rd., Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China

    Jinmei Dong & Fan Chen

  2. State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Building Science, School of Civil Engineering and Transportation, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China

    Jinmei Dong & Xiaowen Zhou

  3. Nanjing Municipal Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China

    Fan Chen

  4. State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Building Science, School of Civil and Transportation Engineering, South China University of Technology, 381 Wushan Road, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Mi Zhou

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  1. Jinmei Dong
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  2. Fan Chen
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  4. Xiaowen Zhou
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Correspondence to Mi Zhou.

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Dong, J., Chen, F., Zhou, M. et al. Numerical analysis of the boundary effect in model tests for single pile under lateral load. Bull Eng Geol Environ 77, 1057–1068 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-017-1182-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-017-1182-5

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