Nonlinear Lateral Response of RC Pile in Sand: Centrifuge and Numerical Modeling
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 147, Issue 6
Abstract
Centrifuge modeling has been considered as an effective means of studying flexural soil–pile interaction, yet the conventional use of elastic material to model an RC pile prototype is unable to reproduce the important nonlinear quasi-brittle behavior. It also remains a challenge to numerically model the soil–pile interaction due to the nonlinearity of both the soil and pile materials. This paper presents a small-scale model RC pile for testing soil–structure interaction under lateral pile head loading in sand within a centrifuge. Accompanying nonlinear finite-element numerical modeling is also presented to back-analyze the centrifuge observations and explore the influence of the constitutive models used. The physical model RC pile is able to (1) reproduce the pile failure mechanism by forming realistic tension crack patterns and plastic hinging and (2) give hardening responses upon flexural loading. Comparisons of measured and predicted results demonstrate that for the laterally loaded pile problem, the load–displacement response can be well approximated by models that do not incorporate strain softening, even though the soil behavior itself exhibits a strong softening response.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the funding provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) including the Basic Science Center Program for Multiphase Media Evolution in Hypergravity of the NSFC (No. 51988101), the Excellent Youth Scientist Scheme (H. K. & Macau) (Project No. 51922112), and also Grant No. 51625805. The first author also thanks the studentship provided by the Chinese Scholarship Council as well as the support from the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, ETH Zürich, during a 3-month research visit. The authors sincerely thank Professor Ioannis Anastasopoulos and Dr. Alexandru Marin from ETH Zürich for their contribution to the setup of the numerical models and parameter calibration.
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 147 • Issue 6 • June 2021
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© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 20, 2020
Accepted: Jan 13, 2021
Published online: Mar 25, 2021
Published in print: Jun 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Aug 25, 2021
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