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Three-dimensional (3D) numerical analyses have been performed to study the behaviour of single piles and grouped piles to adjacent tunnelling in the lateral direction of the pile. In the numerical analyses, the interaction between the tunnel, the pile and the soil next to the piles and shear transfer mechanism have been analysed allowing soil slip at the pile-soil interface by using interface elements. The study includes the shear stresses at the soil next to the pile, the axial force distributions on the pile and the pile settlement. It has been found that existing elastic solutions may not accurately estimate the pile behaviour since several key issues are excluded. Due to changes in the shear transfer between the pile and the soil next to the pile with tunnel advancement, the shear stresses and axial force distributions along the pile change drastically. Downward shear stress develops above the tunnel springline while upward shear stress is mobilised below the tunnel springline, resulting in a compressive force on the pile. In addition, mobilisation of shear strength at the pile-soil interface was found to be a key factor governing pile-soil-tunnelling interaction. It has been found that grouped piles are less influenced by the tunnelling than the single pile in terms of the axial pile forces. The reduction of apparent allowable pile capacity due to pile settlement resulted from the tunnelling seemed to be insignificant.

In the present work, a number of advanced three-dimensional (3D) parametric finite element numerical analyses have been conducted to study the behaviour of single piles and pile groups in consolidating ground from coupled consolidation analyses. Single piles, 4×4 and 6×6 piles inside groups with a spacing of 2.5D were considered, where D is the pile diameter. It has been found that dragload and downdrag on the piles developed rather quickly at the early stage of consolidation. However, when the degree of consolidation was more than 50～75%, only little increases of dragload and downdrag were induced on the pile. Negative Skin Friction (NSF) on the pile in the fill layer was mobilised quickly and remained constant throughout further consolidation. The development of NSF is influenced both by the relative shear displacements at the pile-soil interface and the vertical effective soil stresses during consolidation. The former governed the early stage of consolidation and the latter affected the later stage of consolidation. The vertical effective soil stresses adjacent to the piles were reduced due to the shear stress transfer at the pile-soil interface, in particular for piles inside the pile groups. The range of NSF influence zone concerning the reductions of the effective vertical soil stresses was about 20D measured from the piles in the horizontal direction. On the contrary, the effective horizontal soil stresses acting on the piles were similar to those at the far field.