Issue |
MATEC Web Conf.
Volume 337, 2021
PanAm-Unsat 2021: 3rd Pan-American Conference on Unsaturated Soils
|
|
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Article Number | 03012 | |
Number of page(s) | 8 | |
Section | Slopes, Embankments, Roads, and Foundations | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/202133703012 | |
Published online | 26 April 2021 |
A numerical technique for modeling the behavior of single piles in unsaturated soils
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
* Corresponding author: saivanapalli@uottawa.ca
Pile foundations are widely used in both saturated and unsaturated soils. In certain scenarios, these foundations are subjected to combined vertical and lateral loads. Conventionally, saturated soil mechanics principles are routinely used for the design of pile foundations in unsaturated soils. Such approaches contribute to unreliable estimates of the behavior of piles due to ignoring the influence of matric suction. In this paper, a comprehensive numerical technique is proposed for simulating the behavior of single piles subjected to combined vertical and lateral loads in unsaturated soils by taking account of the nonlinear behavior of shear strength and the elastic modulus of unsaturated soils. This is achieved through a subroutine that was developed for use in the ABAQUS software. The proposed numerical method provided reliable prediction of the vertical load-displacement behavior of a published model pile tested in saturated and unsaturated sands. In addition, 3D finite element analysis was extended to simulate the influence of variations in ground water table (GWT) on the vertical bearing capacity and the influence of vertical loads on lateral response of piles. The proposed numerical technique is a promising tool for implementing the state-of-the-art understanding of the mechanics of unsaturated soils into conventional engineering practice.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2021
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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