Modeling Foundations in RS

3
Deep foundaton piles are commonly used to increase foundaton stability and to increase the bearing
capacity of structural systems. The design and analysis of these piles may be done using a fnite element
program, and as numerical modeling becomes more common in geotechnical engineering and design, it
becomes increasingly important to understand the accuracy, and limitatons, of numerical modeling tools.
Piled Raft Modeling in RS
3
This artcle looks at a number of piled raf models in RS
3
and consists of the
following three sectons, Vertcally Loaded Pile in Clay, Piled Raf Foundaton in
Sand and Piled Raf Foundaton in Multple Material Strata.
Model geometry and mesh for
vertcally loaded pile in clay
Piled raf foundaton in sand Piled raf foundaton in multple
material strata
Vertically Loaded Pile in Clay
The model in this frst secton is based on a paper
recently presented at the DFI Conference 2013,
which discusses a verifcaton study for RS
3
of a
pile in clayey soil. The verifcaton was based on
a feld study by Han and Ye (2006). In additon, a
parametric analysis was carried out to examine
the infuence of diferent input parameters on the
numerical results. The efects of interface stf-
ness, skin resistance, and soil modulus parameters
on load-displacement and axial force response are
investgated.
Model Details
The in-situ soil profle consisted of three horizon-
tal layers; propertes for each layer are summa-
rized in Table 1.
A plastc Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion was used,
and residual values were equal to inital values.
The pile propertes are summarized in Table 2. The
base normal stfness and unit weight are assumed
values.
Table 1: Soil Material Propertes
Table 2: Pile strength and Stfness parameters
Multlinear Skin Fricton was defned by a functon
of maximum skin tracton with depth. The skin
tracton plot, shown in Figure 1, was derived from
the undrained shear strength plot by assuming
that skin resistance is proportonal to undrained
shear strength.
In order to avoid boundary conditon efects, as
well as minimize computaton tme, a number of
inital analyses were carried out to determine the
appropriate model size. A square 10x10m model,
14.6m deep, was chosen afer the preliminary
analyses.
The model geometry and mesh are shown in Figure 2.
A total of 3,417 nodes and 20,198 four-noded tetrahe-
dral elements were used. The mesh was customized
to be denser near the pile. For the pile itself, a non-
conforming, embedded element was used. This element
introduces
nodes at points
of intersecton
between the
pile element
and tetrahedral
elements.
Figure 1: Multlinear skin tracton functon
Figure 2: Base model geometry and fnite element mesh
The vertcal pile load was applied at a rate
of 10kN/h. In terms of groundwater con-
ditons, initally the water table was set
at the pile head. The ground surface was
treated as a free drainage surface in the
analysis, and a fully coupled stress and
pore pressure analysis was carried out.
Model Verication
The base model accuracy was established
by comparing both the load-displacement
and axial force responses. Figure 3 compares the
pile load-displacement response from the feld
study and fnite element model.
In both the feld study and numerical analysis,
plunging occurs at 135kN (in the analysis, non-
convergence indicated failure), verifying the load-
displacement results obtained by RS
3
.
The axial force response was also used to verify
the base model. Strains measured in the feld
were converted to axial force and compared to
RS
3
results. Figure 4 provides the verifcaton of
the base model for axial force response.
Figure 4: Comparison
of axial force response
for base model
Figure 3:
Comparison of
load-displace-
ment response
for base model
Parametric Analysis
Interface stfness, skin resistance, and material
property parameters are examined. All parametric
analysis results were compared to the base model
analysis results only.
A selecton of results from the parametric analyses
are summarized in Figures 5 and 6. The main con-
clusions of these analyses were the following:
s Both linear and C-Phi skin re-
sistance methods signifcantly
decrease pile capacity in the
cases analyzed
s An increase in the soil modulus
decreases downward displace-
ment prior to failure and in-
creases axial force resistance
along the pile
s A decrease in modulus increases
displacement and decreases
axial resistance
For the full set of conclusions, see the paper
published in the DFI (2013).
Figure 5: Efect of linear skin resistance on load-displacement response
Figure 6: Efect of c-phi skin resistance method on load-displacement response
Piled Raft Foundation in Sand
The previous secton presented the
results of a fnite element parametric
analysis of a single vertcally loaded pile.
In this secton, 3D modeling of a piled
raf foundaton is discussed, highlightng
the foundaton analysis capabilites of
RS
3
. The model and material propertes
are adapted from Ryltenius (2011).
Shown is a brief parametric investga-
ton on the efect of pile spacing. Three
diferent pile layouts were investgated,
and a raf foundaton with no piles was
also examined. The model geometry is illustrated in Figures 7 and 8. The
piled raf is seated on a layer of sof clay, with the water table located
three meters below the ground surface. A uniform load of 30kN/m
2
is
applied to the raf.
Figure 9 (see next page) illustrates the displacement profle along the
centre of the model for each pile layout. Figure 10 shows the efect of
pile spacing on the axial force in the piles (the corner pile in each model
was chosen for comparison purposes).
Figure 7: Raf foundaton geometry and
sample pile layout
Figure 8: Model geometry (in z-directon)
Displacement and axial force contours can also be examined to quickly see the efect that the pile layout has on the
results. Deformed displacement contours, on an XZ plane in the centre of each model are compared in Figure 11.
In creatng the models, changing the pile layout was
straightorward, since the pile patern vertcal and horizon-
tal spacing can be quickly changed in the Edit Pile Patern
On Ends dialog. The ease with which pile layouts can be
modifed makes running a number of parametric analyses
quite simple. In the same way, the pile length, orientaton,
and directon can be easily modifed for additonal analyses.
Figure 9: Efect of pile layout on z-displacement
Figure 10: Efect of pile layout on pile axial force
Figure 11: Comparison of displacement contours for
diferent pile layouts
Piled Raft Foundation in
Multiple Material Strata
In the previous set of parametric analyses, we
examined the efect of pile layout on the behav-
iour of a piled raf foundaton on a single material.
This problem looks at 8x8m un-piled and piled raf
foundatons on sandy soil. Figure 12 illustrates the
entre model, while Figure 13 shows the pile layout.
Figure 13:
Typical raf
confguraton Figure 12: 8x8m piled raf foundaton
The subsurface consists of fve diferent types of
soil and a statc water level of 3.5m below ground
surface. Rock is assumed to be 30m below ground
surface, which is considered as a rigid boundary
in this analysis. The soil profle is summarized in
Table 3.
The following four cases were examined:
Case 1 - 8m8m un-piled raf with varying
thickness: 0.25m, 0.4m, 0.8m, 1.5m, and
3m. The vertcal load intensity is 215kN/m
2
Case 2 - 15m15m un-piled raf with vary-
ing thickness: 0.25m, 0.4m, 0.8m, 1.5m, and
3m. The vertcal load intensity is 215kN/m
2
Case 3 - 8m8m piled raf with varying
thickness: 0.25m, 0.4m, 0.8m, 1.5m, and
3m. The vertcal load intensity is 215kN/m
2

and pile spacing is 3d.
Case 4 - Piled raf with varying pile spacing: 3d, 4d, 5d, 6d, and 7d. For each pile spacing the raf size changes
proportonally and the vertcal loading intensity of 215kN/m
2
, 430kN/m
2
, and 645kN/m
2
is applied.
Figure 14 highlights some of the results obtained for Case 3. Bending moments obtained with diferent raf
thicknesses are compared.
Table 3: Material layer elevatons
Figure 14: Bending moment of piled raf with diferent raf thicknesses
Figure 15 examines the bending moments ob-
tained with diferent pile layouts. Notce that the
pile layout has a much larger efect on the bending
moment than raf thickness.
References:
Han, J., Ye, S. (2006). A feld study on the
behavior of micropiles in clay under compres-
sion and tension. Canadian Geotechnical Journal,
43(1), 19-29.
Ryltenius, A. (2011) FEM Modelling of Piled Raf
Foundatons in Two and Three Dimensions. Mas-
ters Dissertaton. Geotechnical Engineering, Lund
University.
Sethna, E., Yacoub, T., Dang, K., and Curran, J.
(2013). Finite Element Parametric Analysis of
Vertcally Loaded Pile in Clay. Presented in DFI.
RS
3
Verifcaton: Piled Raf Foundaton in Sand
Figure 12: Bending moment of piled raf with uniform load of 215kN/m2