Research on Bearing Capacity of Secant Piled-Bucket Foundation in Saturated Clay

Abstract

The secant piled-bucket foundation (SPBF) is innovatively proposed to suit the large-capacity mainstream, which is optimized from a traditional foundation and consists of an upper pile cap and a lower bucket skirt. Compared with the pile foundation, the SPBF has great advantages and deserves further study. In this research, the bearing mode, bearing capacity and failure mode under various loads of SPBF in saturated clay have been fully studied. First, the small-scale model test in saturated clay is carried out to verify the finite element (FE) method; the deviation between the FE results and the test results under vertical load and horizontal–moment load is 10.65% and 10.25%, respectively. Next, the bearing mode of SPBF in engineering scales is investigated via FE method, the results indicating that the bearing mode of SPBF is similar to that of a prestressed tubular foundation. Finally, the bearing capacity and failure mode of SPBF are studied and the findings show that the vertical bearing capacity and horizontal–moment bearing capacity of SPBF is 96.53 MN and 1.62 MN, and the weak parts of SPBF are concrete of the pile cap and the anchor bolts, respectively. This paper provides support for design and further optimization in the future.