Physical Model Test and Theoretical Study on the Bearing Behavior of Pile in Expansive Soil Subjected to Water Infiltration
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 21, Issue 6
Abstract
A loading test device with infiltration function is developed to conduct model tests on the bearing behavior of single piles in expansive soil. The infiltration observation test and vertical static-load test before and after infiltration are carried out. Meanwhile, a two-phase nonlinear analysis approach is put forward to research the bearing characteristics of single piles in expansive soil by considering the influence of water infiltration. The method is divided into two phases: the infiltration phase and post-infiltration loading phase. In the infiltration stage, based on a load transfer function that can simultaneously describe the distribution of positive and negative frictional resistance, combining with the variation law of soil heave with depth, a nonlinear analysis method to calculate internal forces of single piles during water infiltration is proposed. Based on the infiltration stage, the formulas for calculating the bearing capacity of single piles in expansive soil after water infiltration are derived by taking into account the residual displacement of the pile–soil interface caused by soil heave, in the post-infiltration loading stage. The validity of the proposed approaches are confirmed through comparisons with the tests results. It is found that in medium-expansive soil, the relative displacements of pile top and surface increase rapidly with time, and then tend to be stable after about 14 days. Positive and negative frictional resistances occur along the pile shaft during water infiltration. Axial forces are tensile along the pile shaft, and the neutral point is found at one-half of the pile length. The bearing force of single piles in expansive soil after water infiltration is reduced obviously than that before water infiltration.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 52068004, 51568006, and 51768006), Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi Province (Grant No. 2018JJA160134), Guangxi Key Research and Development Program (AB19245018).
Notation
The following symbols are used in this paper:
- Ap
- cross-sectional area of pile;
- d
- pile diameter;
- Eb
- elastic moduli of soil at pile base level;
- Ep
- elastic moduli of pile;
- vertical load vector of pile nodes after immersion;
- vertical load vector of pile nodes after immersion under loading;
- Gs
- initial shear moduli of soil;
- h0
- active depth;
- hb
- distance between pile tip and rigid bedrock below pile tip;
- stiffness matrix of pile after immersion;
- stiffness matrix of pile after immersion under loading;
- Kbz
- initial stiffness of pile end;
- l
- length of pile;
- Pi
- axial force of pile shift;
- qult
- ultimate resistance of pile tip;
- r0
- radius of pile;
- Rf
- shear–strain curve-fitting constant;
- rm
- influence radius of shear stress;
- s(z)
- pile–soil relative displacement;
- sb(l)
- pile–soil relative displacement at pile base level;
- sp(z)
- residual relative displacement at the pile–soil interface;
- Up
- cross-sectional perimeter of pile;
- {w}
- displacement vector of pile;
- wload
- displacement of pile under loading;
- wload
- displacement vector of pile under loading after immersion;
- wswell
- displacement of pile after immersion;
- w0
- displacement of pile top after immersion under loading;
- w(z)
- axial deformation of pile;
- ws0
- heave of the ground surface;
- ws(z)
- heave of soil;
- λ
- calculation parameter;
- v
- Poisson's ratio of the soil;
- vb
- Poisson's ratio soil at pile base level;
- τf
- ultimate friction resistance; and
- τ(z)
- shear resistance at the pile–soil interface.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 21 • Issue 6 • June 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 9, 2019
Accepted: Dec 10, 2020
Published online: Mar 26, 2021
Published in print: Jun 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Aug 26, 2021
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