Analytical investigation of pile–soil interaction in sand under axial and lateral loads

This paper presents a numerical study of pile– soil interaction due to application of axial and lateral loads to piles in sand. The pile–soil interaction was analyzed using the finite difference (FD) software LPILE and two finite element (FE) software. The three-dimensional (3D) FE models of pile–soil interaction have been created using Abaqus/Cae and SAP2000. Various types of soft soil were studied, such as loose, medium, and dense sand. A lateral displacement of 2 cm was applied to the top of the pile while maintaining a zero slope in a guided fixation. A combined lateral and axial load of 300 kN was also studied. The paper compared between the bending moments and lateral displacements along the depth of the pile obtained from the FD solutions and FE analyses. A parametric study was conducted to study the effect of crucial design parameters such as the modulus of elasticity of soil and the number of nonlinear soil springs that can be used to model the soil. A good agreement between the results obtained by the FE models and the FD solution was observed. Also, the FE models were capable of predicting the pile–soil interaction for all types of soft soil.