Behavior of single pile and pile groups in consolidating clay

Abstract

As the pile group is commonly in use but the effect of consolidation times on the distribution of negative skin friction and drag force along the shaft of each pile in pile groups is still not well defined and studied. This paper presents the three-dimensional (3D) numerical analysis to study the behavior of a single pile and piles group consist of 3x3 piles embedded in a consolidated clay. Three-dimensional numerical simulation is carried out using Abaqus, a finite element software. Single circular piles and 3×3 circular piles in rectangular piles group with a spacing of 2.5D has chosen, where D is the diameter of circular pile. Based on the analyses, it is found that the location of the neutral plane is significantly influenced by the consolidation times. Results of this study showed that the maximum negative skin friction at 90 % degree of consolidations developed along the shaft of corner, side, and central pile compared with a single pile are 69%, 61%, and 45%, respectively.