Numerical Analysis of Pile-Soil Interaction under Axial and Lateral Loads

In this paper, the analysis of a numerical study of pile-soil interaction subjected to axial and lateral loads is presented. An analysis of the composite pile-soil system was performed using the finite difference (FD) software LPILE. Two three dimensional, finite element (FE) models of pile-soil interaction have been developed using Abaqus/Cae and SAP2000 to study the effect of lateral loading on pile embedded in clay. A lateral displacement of 2 cm was applied to the top of the pile, which is embedded into the concrete pile cap, while maintaining a zero slope in a guided fixation. A comparison between the bending moments and lateral displacements along the depth of the pile obtained from the FD solutions and FE was performed. A parametric study was conducted to study the effect of crucial design parameters such as the soil's modulus of elasticity, radius of the soil surrounding the pile in Abaqus/Cae, and the number of springs in SAP2000. A close correlation is found between the results obtained by the FE models and the FD solution. The results indicated that increasing the amount of clay surrounding the piles reduces the induced bending moments and lateral displacements in the piles and hence increases its capacity to resist lateral loading.