Finite element simulation of plugged open ended pile behavior

Abstract EN

Open-ended steel pipe piles are widely used for foundations both on land and offshore because of low cost compare with other types of piles and it does not need a high effort for driving.

During driving process of these piles into the soil, a soil column known as the soil plug is formed inside the pile.

As the penetration continues, the frictional resistance between the inner pile shaft and the soil plug may be developed and in turn may prevent further soil intrusion.

Depending on the relative movement between the pile and the soil plug, the pile is considered to be perfectly plugged, imperfectly plugged or unplugged.

A numerical modeling of experiments was carried out using PLAXIS-2015 software, in which the Hardening Soil Model (HS small) has been used for soil modeling.

During the verification problem used to simulate the experimental results of the pile group G2(2x2), the piles simulated as volume piles and steel cap were modeled using linear elastic model.

The simulation showed that the maximum percentage of deviation between experimental and theoretical results is not more than 13.0 %.

This ratio is considered good when compared to the actual results and the theoretical results with the same values in some of the results.