Impact of Pile Punching on Adjacent Piles: Insights from a 3D Coupled SPH-FEM Analysis

Abstract

Pile punching (or driving) affects the surrounding area where piles and adjacent piles can be displaced out of their original positions, due to horizontal loads, thereby leading to hazardous outcomes. This paper presents a three-dimensional (3D) coupled Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics and Finite Element Method (SPH-FEM) model, which was established to investigate pile punching and its impact on adjacent piles subjected to lateral loads. This approach handles the large distortions by avoiding mesh tangling and remeshing, contributing greatly high computational efficiency. The SPH-FEM model was validated against field measurements. The results of this study indicated that the soil type in which piles were embedded affected the interaction between piles during the pile punching. A comprehensive parametric study was carried out to evaluate the impact of soil properties on the displacement of piles due to the punching of an adjacent pile. It was found that the interaction between piles was comparatively weak when the piles were driven in stiff clays; while the pile-soil interactions were much more significant in sandy soils and soft clays.

Numerical Modelling of Various Aspects of Pipe Pile Static Load Test

“…are still vivid (alive) and up-to-date in the scientific discourse. Recent works on driven pile effects on nearby piles [17,18], and even a sophisticated analysis on the effect of "air in groundwater"-structure interaction [19] (during pile driving) confirms the necessity of developing knowledge on various aspects of this phenomena.…”

Analysis of Soil Response during High-Frequency Vibratory Steel Pipe Pile Driving in Soft Soil

“…LS-DYNA provides various contact types and algorithms to accurately model contact between different parts or surfaces [14]. It is automatic contact options with the capability to handle disjoint meshes and detect penetration can be used in simulating penetration process in which the location of contact of the pile to soil needs to predetermine [15]. Additionally, LS-DYNA has appropriate constitutive models for the soil material, to accurately capture the soil's behavior [16,17].…”