Studies on the behaviour of screw piles by the finite element method

Abstract

A circular pile with helical blades is an old type of foundation, which has staged a comeback recently and is being used in a variety of situations. Most of the research on helical screw piles has been experimental or theoretical with the help of simplifying assumptions. The method of design adopted so far treats this pile as an annular plate, disregarding the intricacies of the geometry of the helix. It is only the versatility of the finite element method that can take into account the actual geometry of a spatial structure such as the helical blade at a microlevel. This is perhaps the first attempt at such an analysis to study the response of the helical screw pile within the elastic and nonlinear ranges. While the pile is linearly elastic, soil is considered both as a linear elastic medium and as an elastic–plastic medium following the Drucker–Prager constitutive model. Cases of smooth contact and frictional contact between soil and screw pile are also considered. Screw piles are studied under compressive, tensile, and lateral loading conditions. Moreover, their performance is compared with that of prismatic piles. A parametric study has also been attempted on some key geometrical features of the screw pile.