Radial consolidation of pore pressure induced by pile installation

Abstract

The soil surrounding a driven pile is subjected to varying degrees of soil disturbance during the installation, and experiences a complex combination of loading, unloading and reloading in the course of the life cycle of the pile. No current numerical or analytical method is capable of accurately modeling the entirety of the complex deformations and stress changes occurring in real soil during pile installation and subsequent consolidation.

The report contains a plan for numerical simulation of the installation and consolidation of a driven pile using the Cavity Expansion Method and the Modified Cam Clay material model. The analysis is designed to include the change in material properties and additional excess pore pressure caused by large strains and partial remoulding of the soil following pile installation.

The main objective of this master's thesis has been to enhance the modeling of the consolidation process by:

1) Superposing the excess pore pressure caused by soil remoulding with the pore pressure resulting from cavity expansion. 2) Applying representative sets of material parameters for radial zones with decreasing degrees of soil disturbance.

No calculation results are included in the report.

An overview of effects contributing to pile setup are given, and the observed trends of overconsolidation ratio and plasticity index on soil behaviour is noted throughout the theoretical part.