FD Analysis on Piled Raft Foundation Settlements under Vertical Loads

A three-dimensional finite difference analysis has been developed to estimate the foundation settlements for vertically loaded piled raft foundations. Thin-plate theory was adopted to model the finite raft with boundary effects. Alternate spring models were used to model soil resistances under the raft while the resistances of pile were model by calculating the pile stiffness from wave equation analysis. The newly proposed analysis was examined with finite element solutions. It was found that variations of soil resistance underneath the raft and the pile-soil-pile interactions are the keys to the applicability of such analysis.