CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 INTRODUCTION
The commonest function of piles is to transfer a load that cannot be adequately supported at shallow depths to a depth where adequate support becomes available. When a pile passes through poor material and its tip penetrates a small distance into a stratum of good bearing capacity, it is called a bearing pile. When piles are installed in a deep stratum of limited supporting ability and these piles develop their carrying capacity by friction on the sides of the pile, they are called friction piles. Many times, the loadcarrying capacity of piles results from a combination of point resistance and skin friction. Piles are often used in group to support foundations of verity of structures such as water front structures, chimneys, bridge piers and retaining wall. In many situation they are required to resist large magnitude of vertical and lateral loads. In order to carry out rational design of pile foundations it is not only necessary to assess the ultimate capacity of pile groups but also evaluate the displacements of pile group under also necessary to know the stress resultant such as axial load, transverse shear and the bending moment in the pile section in order to carry out structural design of pile.

1.2 INDIVIDUAL PILE BEHAVIOUR

The behaviour of pile group depends on behaviour of individual piles to axial and lateral loading and to lesser extent on torsional loading. There are several procedures 1

employed for evaluating the ultimate bearing capacity of piles under axial loads. The efficiency at these procedures to a given situation depends on the soil strata encountered, the type of pile and the method of installation. The displacements of pile under axial loads are evaluated either by using and elastic continuum approach (Poulos-(1968) and Randolph and Wroth (1978)) or by using a Winkler type of side support commonly known as t-z model (Coyle and Reese (1966)). For the piles subjected to lateral loads Poulos (1971) has given equations for displacements and rotations of pile head for a wide range of cases assuming continuum model. Using finite element model a semi analytical approach based on harmonic representation of displacement in the circumferential direction, Chandrasekaran et al (1984) have given dimension loss parameters for analysis of laterally loaded pile. Randolph (1931) also has given expressions for evaluating pile displacements. The p-y curve approach based on Winkler's model was proposed originally by McClelland and Focht(1958) has been developed further by Reese and his associates is commonly used for analysis of laterally loaded piles. Randolph (MIT) has given expressions for analysis of piles subjected to torsion, using polar coordinates and continuum model.

1.3 ASPECTS TO BE CONSIDERED FOR PILE GROUP ANALYSIS

For the pile group analysis the displacements of the pile heads must be compatible to that of super structure, in case of a rigid cap, the displacements of pile heads must be in confirmity with the rigid body displacements of the cap. When the piles are spaced closer than approximately 7 to 8 times pile diameter interaction of pile to pile through soil plays an important role. When the piles have long unsupported length then beam column action could play an important role.

1.4 DEVELOPMENT IN COMPUTER ANALYSIS OF PILE GROUPS

There are a number of computer programs - available for the analysis of pile groups. However, each program has certain drawbacks for example Poulos (1979) uses a 2

homogeneous elastic continuum model for the analysis, this program can not consider inhomogeneity present in the soil mass and the linear response of piles under loading. None of the programs that are available can take into account the effect of beam column action in the behaviour of pile groups. It may be mentioned that the development of computer programming for pile group analysis is going through stages of development and it may take a few years before most of aspects can get incorporated into the program. It may also be mentioned that important feedback from experimental results relating to pile- soil- pile interaction are awaited.

1.5 AIM AND SCOPE OF WORK

Present dissertation deals with the group of piles connected by a rigid cap. The axial load analysis is carried out using t-z approach with non linear behaviour and p-y approach with non linear behaviour is employed in the lateral load analysis. The method based on displacement formulation has been chosen and unification is achieved by following this procedure for axial, lateral and group analysis. The program is used to study, the effects of beam column action in the analysis of pile group with vertical piles and pile group having raker piles.