Effect of consolidation on responses of a single pile subjected to lateral soil movement

Abstract

Given extensive research carried out to study pile response subjected to lateral soil movement in clay, the effect of consolidation on the pile–soil interaction is rarely considered and systematically investigated. For this reason, four centrifuge tests were conducted to simulate construction of embankment adjacent to existing single piles in soft clay, considering two typical drainage conditions (i.e., drained and undrained conditions) and two typical pile lengths (i.e., relatively long pile and short pile). The centrifuge tests were then back-analyzed by three-dimensional coupled-consolidation finite element analyses. Based on reasonable agreements between the two, numerical parametric studies were conducted to systematically investigate and quantify the influence of construction rate and pile length on pile response. It is revealed that by varying drainage conditions, the piles respond distinctively. When the embankment is completed within a relatively short period (cvt/d2 < 2, where cv, t, and d denote the coefficient of consolidation, construction period, and pile diameter, respectively), the pile located adjacent to it deforms laterally away from the embankment. Induced lateral pile deflection (δ) and bending moment reduce with construction period. On the contrary, embankment constructed within a relatively long period (cvt/d2 > 200) leads the pile to deform laterally towards the embankment, with δ and bending moment increases with construction period. By halving the length of pile embedded in the drained ground, the maximum induced bending moment (BMmax) was slightly reduced (by 23%). On the other hand, shortening the length of the pile in the undrained ground is much more effective in reducing BMmax, i.e., halving pile length resulting in 78% reduction in bending moment. A new calculation chart, which takes various drainage conditions and pile lengths into account, was developed for estimation of BMmax.