File: NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF VERTICALLY LOADED PILES
Full scale vertical loaded pile tests have been carried out on 1.2m diameter bored cast in-situ piles in residual soils. This paper presents a FEM model for simulating these field vertical load tests on large diameter piles embedded in residual soils using PLAXIS 2D. The simulation is carried out for a single pile with vertical load at pile top, so as to evaluate the settlement of the pile in residual soils. The soil stratum is idealized by 15 noded triangular elements with elastic-plastic Mohr Coulomb model and the pile behaviour is assumed to be linear-elasitc. Interface elements have been used to model the interface between the pile and the soil models. The vertical load versus settlement plots on single pile is obtained from field tests and are compared with the finite element simulation results using PLAXIS 2D, showing reasonable agreement. Sensitivity analyses have been carried out for selecting the appropriate mesh size and its gradation and also appropriate constitutive relationships.
