Behaviour of Piled Rafts with Piles of Different Lengths and Diameters under Vertical Loading

The use of piled raft foundations has become popular in recent years as the system can act as a settlement reducer. When the raft is subjected to non-uniform loadings, piles of different diameters and lengths may be required to prevent the foundation from rotating and to reduce the differential settlement. This paper presents a finite layer method used for the analysis of piled rafts with piles of different lengths and diameters. The soil is divided into horizontal layers with different material properties and only vertical loads may be applied to the raft. Interactions between raft-soil-pile are computed. Results from the present method are shown to agree closely with those from the finite element method.