Simplified Calculation Method and 3D Numerical Analysis for Pile Group Under Uplift Loading

Pile foundations of ports, mooring systems for ocean surface or submerged platforms are subjected to amount of uplift loading, and prediction of the uplift capacity is one of the most important subjects in structure designs. The paper pertains to the development of a simplified theoretical method on prediction of the uplift capacity of pile group embedded in clay assuming a composite failure surface (inverted and truncated circular pyramidal and cylindrical surface). Various pile and soil parameters such as the arrangement of pile group, pile spacing, length, diameter of the pile and the soil properties such as unit weight, angle of internal friction and the pile-soil interface friction angle, which have direct influence on the uplift capacity of the pile group, are incorporated in the analysis. A 3D numerical model is built by FLAC3D to analyze the pile group under uplift loading for comparison, and various effect factors, such as length to diameter ratio, pile spacing and pile numbers are considered. The predicted values of uplift capacity and failure surface of pile group with different length to diameter ratio, pile spacing and soil properties are their compared with numerical analysis results and field test results. The predictions are found to he in good agreement with numerical analysis and measured values, which validate the correctness of the developed method. It is also found that the uplift capacity is significantly influenced by the pile-soil friction coefficient, soil shear strength, etc.