Interaction factor for large pile groups

Abstract

The adoption of the superposition principle for pile group may not be of sufficient accuracy when applied to a very large pile group. To solve the inherent defect, this paper has proposed a linear approximate method considering the interaction effect for both small and large pile groups in layered soil. In this method, a new theory for understanding the ‘pile group reinforcing effect’ for pile group is proposed to eliminate the error generated by the superposition principle. The result shows that the two-pile interaction factor and the efficiency of a large pile group are both significantly decreased by this ‘pile group reinforcing effect’.