An elastostatic FEM/BEM analysis of vertically loaded raft and piled raft foundation

In this paper, a static analysis of vertically loaded raft and piled raft foundations in smooth and continuous contact with the supporting soil is presented. In this approach the finite element method (FEM) and the boundary element method (BEM) are coupled: the bending plate is assumed to have linear elastic properties and is modelled by FEM while the soil is considered as an elastic half-space in the BEM. The pile is represented by a single element and the shear force along the shaft is interpolated by a quadratic function. The plate-soil interface is divided into triangular boundary elements (soil) also called cells and finite elements (plate) and the subgrade reaction is linearly interpolated across each cell. The subgrade tractions are eliminated from the FEM and BEM algebraic systems of equations, resulting in the governing system of equations for plate-pile-soil interaction problems. Numerical results are presented and they are close to those resulting from much more elaborate analyses. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.