Centrifuge Model Study of High Strength Piles Composite Foundation Settlement & Instability under Embankment in Different Kind Soils by Different Pile Spacing

Abstract

A series of centrifuge model tests has been conduced to examine the behavior of high strength piles composite foundation stability under railway embankment in silt or clay or sand different kind of soils. The high strength composite foundation has a symmetrical plan layout consisting of 3×4, 4×6, and 5×8 piles with a center-to-center spacing of 6 or 4 or 3 times pile width. The piles are under the same height of railway embankment, with the same length, and on the same lying soil layer. The high strength composite foundation stability test results are expressed in terms of soils kinds-pile displacement response of the composite foundation, embankment load experienced by soil between piles and piles in the composite foundation, and bending moment profile along individual pile. It is established that the high strength composite foundation stability efficiency reduces significantly with decreasing of the strength of soil between piles in composite foundation. The tests reveal the shadowing effect phenomenon in which the marginal piles experienced larger laterally and bending moment than that of the central piles. The shadowing effect is most significant for the lead row piles and considerably less significant for subsequent rows of middle piles. The approach adopted by many researchers of taking the average performance of piles in the same row is found to be inappropriate for the middle rows, of piles for composite foundation as the outer piles in the row carrying significantly more laterally load and experience considerably higher bending moment than those of the inner piles.