A novel 2D-3D conversion method for calculating maximum strain of geosynthetic reinforcement in pile-supported embankments

For design of a geosynthetic-reinforced pile-supported (GRPS) embankment over soft soil, the methods used to calculate strains in geosynthetic reinforcement at a vertical stress were mostly developed based on a plane-strain or two-dimensional (2-D) condition or a strip between two pile caps. These 2-D-based methods cannot accurately predict the strain of geosynthetic reinforcement under a three-dimensional (3-D) condition. In this paper, a series of numerical models were established to compare the maximum strains and vertical deflections (also called sags) of geosynthetic reinforcement under the 2-D and 3-D conditions, considering the following influence factors: soil support, cap shape and pattern, and a cushion layer between cap and reinforcement. The numerical results show that the maximum strain in the geosynthetic reinforcement decreased with an increase of the modulus of subgrade reaction. The 2-D model underestimated the maximum strain and sag in the geosynthetic reinforcement as compared with the 3-D model. The cap shape and pattern had significant influences on the maximum strains in the geosynthetic reinforcements. An empirical method involving the geometric factors of cap shape and pattern, and the soil support was developed to convert the calculated strains of geosynthetic reinforcement in piled embankments under the 2-D condition to those under the 3-D condition and verified through a comparison with the results in the literature.     

桩承式加筋路堤土拱及格栅受力模型试验研究

介绍了桩承式加筋路堤足尺模型实验装置,该实验装置利用PVC材料水袋模拟桩间软土,从而在一定程度上能够控制桩土差异沉降。路堤填筑过程中测试了路堤内部土压力以及格栅拉力,并且重点分析了桩帽和桩间不同位置处土压力以及格栅拉力随填筑高度的变化规律。实验结果表明,路堤在填筑过程中发生了明显的土拱效应,路堤填筑完成后桩土应力比约为8.46,土拱高度约为1.125倍桩间净距;单向土工格栅能够进一步将桩间上方土压力传递到桩顶上方;随着路堤填筑高度的增加,格栅拉力增长并不大,路堤横向滑移引起的格栅拉力可以忽略不计。     

3D numerical study of the performance of geosynthetic-reinforced and pile-supported embankments

Geosynthetic-reinforced and pile-supported (GRPS) systems provide an economic and effective solution for embankments. The load transfer mechanisms are tridimensional ones and depend on the interaction between linked elements, such as piles, soil, and geosynthetics. This paper presents an extensive parametric study using three-dimensional numerical calculations for geosynthetic-reinforced and pile-supported embankments. The numerical analysis is conducted for both cohesive and non-cohesive embankment soils to emphasize the fill soil cohesion effect on the load and settlement efficacy of GRPS embankments. The influence of the embankment height, soft ground elastic modulus, improvement area ratio, geosynthetic tensile stiffness and fill soil properties are also investigated on the arching efficacy, GR membrane efficacy, differential settlement, geosynthetic tension, and settlement reduction performance. The numerical results indicated that the GRPS system shows a good performance for reducing the embankment settlements. The ratio of the embankment height to the pile spacing, subsoil stiffness, and fill soil properties are the most important design parameters to be considered in a GRPS design. The results also suggested that the fill soil cohesion strengthens the soil arching effect, and increases the loading efficacy. However, the soil arching mobilization is not necessarily at the peak state but could be reached at the critical state. Finally, the geosynthetic strains are not uniform along the geosynthetic, and the maximum geosynthetic strain occurs at the pile edge. The geosynthetic deformed shape is a curve that is closer to a circular shape than a parabolic one.     

加筋形式对桩承式路堤工作性状影响的试验研究

对无加筋和采用不同加筋材料、加筋层数下桩承式路堤的工作性状进行了三维模型试验研究,侧重分析了桩土应力比、应力折减系数、填土中竖向应力分布、地基沉降等内容。结果表明加筋材料的设置有利于荷载向桩顶的转移,可有效减小沉降,但不同加筋形式下桩承式路堤的工作性状有所不同。使用单层或双层土工布时,路堤的荷载传递机理主要是填土的土拱效应和加筋材料的拉膜效应,但拉膜效应发挥相对较晚。使用双层格栅时,加筋材料与周围砂土形成半刚性平台。单层格栅的作用介于两者之间。试验结果与常规拉膜效应设计方法的对比表明,若假设荷载只由相邻桩间的加筋材料条带承担,计算的拉力将偏大,过于保守。     

Influence of helix bending deflection on the load transfer mechanism of screw piles in sand: Experimental and numerical investigations

This study investigates the load transfer mechanism that includes the effect of helix bending deflection on end-bearing capacity, distribution of ground pressure under the helix and soil deformation around the screw pile. The helix to shaft diameter ratio of 2.5 and 2.8 with a strong helix and a weak helix were used. The model ground was prepared with fine sand at 80% of relative density. To investigate the load transfer mechanism, the experimental tests were modelled in a 3D finite element code. A good agreement between the experimental and numerical approaches was found. The numerical analyses showed that large influence zone exists under screw pile with strong helix, which resulted in higher mobilized soil shear strength that contributed to higher end-bearing capacity. In the case of strong helix, uniform pattern of pressure distribution was observed under the central shaft and the helix. Similar pattern of pressure distribution under the central shaft was observed in weak helix case but the pattern of pressure distribution under the helix changed from uniform to triangular to trapezoidal at various stages during the load test. The normalized end-bearing capacity decreased linearly with the increase in normalized helix bending deflection in both approaches, i.e. experimental and numerical.     

大直径深长钻孔灌注桩分层荷载传递特性试验研究

 基于常州高架一期工程现场静荷载和桩身应力测试结果,分析竖向荷载下大直径深长钻孔灌注桩在分层土中的荷载传递规律。由于试桩加载至破坏,故对此分析能为深入研究大直径深长钻孔灌注桩的承载性状提供有价值的工程参考。试验结果表明：大直径深长钻孔灌注桩端承力所占比例较低,荷载–沉降关系呈陡降型,存有明显拐点;侧、端阻力非同步发挥且相互影响,同时上下层侧阻力亦先后发挥至极限;通过对试桩的实测数据进行分析可得,埋深对桩周具有相似物理力学特征土层的侧阻力影响较大,一些土层实测侧阻力与勘察报告推荐值有很大差异;土层(1)和(3)荷载传递曲线属加工软化型,而桩端土荷载传递曲线属明显的双折线硬化模型,这说明上部土层有剪切破坏趋势,使侧阻产生一定程度削弱,而在承载时端承力有较大发挥空间。     

被动受荷桩成拱效应及三维数值分析

采用三维有限差分法,分析了被动受荷桩的成拱效应。建立了三维数值分析模型,考虑不同桩间距,不同堆载大小和不同边界条件等情况下,被动受荷桩对土体侧向位移的遮拦效应。分析结果表明:土体的成拱效应和桩间距关系密切,在较小的桩间距条件下,土体成拱效应明显,桩的存在有效限制了土体的侧向变形;三维情况下被动受荷桩的成拱效应与二维情况下没有太大差别,但在其他条件相同时,二维情况下桩周土体的应力明显比三维大。     

Centrifuge tests to investigate global performance of geosynthetic-reinforced pile-supported embankments with side slopes

Three centrifuge model tests were conducted to investigate the influence of the number of geosynthetic layers and the pile clear spacing on the global performance of Geosynthetic-Reinforced Pile-Supported (GRPS) embankments with side slopes constructed on soft soil foundations. This study found that the change of the geogrid number from one to two did not significantly affect the foundation settlement, the geogrid deflection, and the vertical stress at the embankment base. For the GRPS embankment with a single geogrid layer, the geogrid strain distribution at the embankment base showed an “M” shape along the transverse direction with the maximum strain near the embankment shoulder. When two geogrid layers with sand in between were used, the upper and lower layers showed different strain distributions with the maximum strains happening near the embankment shoulder and at the center of the embankment for the upper and lower layers respectively. The strains of the upper geogrid were smaller than those of the lower geogrid. Smaller pile clear spacing reduced the geogrid deflection and the foundation settlement. Despite the change of the pile clear spacing, the progressive development of soil arching with the normalized displacement at the embankment base followed a similar trend without an obvious stress recovery stage.     

Two-dimensional soil arching evolution in geosynthetic-reinforced pile-supported embankments over voids

Soil arching and tensioned membrane effects are two main load transfer mechanisms for geosynthetic-reinforced pile-supported (GRPS) embankments over soft soils or voids. Evidences show that the tensioned membrane effect interacts with the soil arching effect. To investigate the soil arching evolution under different geosynthetic reinforcement stiffness and embankment height, a series of discrete element method (DEM) simulations of GRPS embankments were carried out based on physical model tests. The results indicate that the deformation pattern in the GRPS embankments changed from a concentric ellipse arch pattern to an equal settlement pattern with the increase of the embankment height. High stiffness geosynthetic hindered the development of soil arching and required more subsoil settlement to enable the development of maximum soil arching. However, soil arching in the GRPS embankments with low stiffness reinforcement degraded after reaching maximum soil arching. Appropriate stiffness reinforcement ensured the development and stability of maximum soil arching. According to the stress states on the pile top, a concentric ellipse soil arch model is proposed in this paper to describe the soil arching behavior in the GRPS embankments over voids. The predicted heights of soil arches and load efficacies on the piles agreed well with the DEM simulations and the test results from the literature.     

An experimental evaluation of the behavior of footings on geosynthetic-reinforced sand

This research was performed to investigate the behavior of geosynthetic-reinforced sandy soil foundations and to study the effect of different parameters contributing to their performance using laboratory model tests. The parameters investigated in this study included top layer spacing, number of reinforcement layers, vertical spacing between layers, tensile modulus and type of geosynthetic reinforcement, embedment depth, and shape of footing. The effect of geosynthetic reinforcement on the vertical stress distribution in the sand and the strain distribution along the reinforcement were also investigated. The test results demonstrated the potential benefit of using geosynthetic-reinforced sand foundations. The test results also showed that the reinforcement configuration/layout has a very significant effect on the behavior of reinforced sand foundation. With two or more layers of reinforcement, the settlement can be reduced by 20% at all footing pressure levels. Sand reinforced by the composite of geogrid and geotextile performed better than those reinforced by geogrid or geotextile alone. The inclusion of reinforcement can redistribute the applied footing load to a more uniform pattern, hence reducing the stress concentration, which will result reduced settlement. Finally, the results of model tests were compared with the analytical solution developed by the authors in previous studies; and the analytical solution gave a good predication of the experimental results of footing on geosynthetic reinforced sand.     

3-Dimensional numerical modeling of geosynthetic-encased granular columns

In this paper, series of three-dimensional (3-d) numerical modeling of geosynthetic-encased granular columns were performed both in model and prototype scale using FLAC^3D software to understand the lateral load carrying capacity of ordinary and geosynthetic encased granular columns (OGC and EGC). In the first part of the study, numerical modeling of direct shear tests were carried out. The soil in the direct shear box was reinforced with two different diameters of granular columns (50 mm and 100 mm) and three different patterns of arrangement (single, triangular and square) to study the effect of group confinement. The numerical simulations were carried out at four different confining pressures namely 15, 30, 45 and 75 kPa. From the numerical simulations it was observed that higher shear stresses are mobilized inside the granular column due to geosynthetic encasement and the magnitude of shear stress increases with increase in the normal pressure. It was found that the tensile forces in the geosynthetic encasement were mobilized both in circumferential and vertical directions, which helps in mobilizing additional confinement in the granular column. In the second part, the influence of the geosynthetic encasement of granular column treated soft ground was demonstrated through 3-dimensional slope stability analyses.     

某大型哑铃型承台群桩基础与土体共同作用竖向承载变形特性数值模拟分析

用ANSYS对某特大桥索塔哑铃型承台群桩基础与土体共同作用进行了三维弹塑性有限元分析。利用桩土界面间水平方向位移相容,桩土界面间竖向设置双曲线本构方程的弹簧,能较好模拟竖向荷载作用下特大型群桩基础桩土间相互作用。分析结果表明,数值分析所得承台沉降与承台荷载的关系曲线、桩顶轴力分布、桩顶轴力随承台荷载变化的关系曲线,与其离心模型试验实测成果较一致。在用离心模型试验成果验证数值分析的正确性下,用其数值分析成果进一步深入分析群桩基础的承载变形特性。     

Experimental study on the load bearing behavior of geosynthetic reinforced soil bridge abutments with different facing conditions

This paper presents an experimental study on reduced-scale model tests of geosynthetic reinforced soil (GRS) bridge abutments with modular block facing, full-height panel facing, and geosynthetic wrapped facing to investigate the influence of facing conditions on the load bearing behavior. The GRS abutment models were constructed using sand backfill and geogrid reinforcement. Test results indicate that footing settlements and facing displacements under the same applied vertical stress generally increase from full-height panel facing abutment, to modular block facing abutment, to geosynthetic wrapped facing abutment. Measured incremental vertical and lateral soil stresses for the two GRS abutments with flexible facing are generally similar, while the GRS abutment with rigid facing has larger stresses. For the GRS abutments with flexible facing, maximum reinforcement tensile strain in each layer typically occurs under the footing for the upper reinforcement layers and near the facing connections for the lower layers. For the full-height panel facing abutment, maximum reinforcement tensile strains generally occur near the facing connections.     

Investigation on geogrid reinforcement and pile efficacy in geosynthetic-reinforced pile-supported track-bed

This paper presents a full-scale model study of geosynthetic-reinforced pile-supported (GRPS) track-bed to investigate the effect of geogrid reinforcement and the evolution of pile efficacy (ratio of load borne by the pile cap to the total applied load). Three testing procedures were followed: model construction, static loading and subsoil settlement (simulated by discharging of water bags surrounding the pile caps). The results indicated that partially mobilized soil arching was developed during the first two procedures. When sufficient subsoil settlement was reached, fully mobilized soil arching was established. The geogrid was proven to effectively transfer load from the water bag to the pile cap. The stress difference induced by the geogrid showed lower absolute values for the corresponding sensors above the water bag during loading and settlement procedures, due to the inverse triangular distribution of the vertical-directional geogrid tensile force above the water-bag area. The experimental results of pile efficacy were compared to the estimations of four analytical models. For the present test at partially mobilized arching state, the pile efficacy increased with the construction height increasing and decreased as the static loading increased. The partially mobilized arching also resulted in overestimations of the pile efficacy from all four analytical models. At fully mobilized arching state, the pile efficacy stayed relatively stable, being well predicted by all four analytical models.     

基于土体固结流变的桩基长期沉降数值模拟

通过考虑上海饱和土体的固结流变特性以及桩端压缩层为砂土的三层土层剖面,运用有限元分析程序ABAQUS,对钻孔桩基和打入桩基的沉降特性进行了模拟分析,并对浅层砂土的存在对两种桩基的影响进行分析。通过引入小孔扩张理论模拟打桩引起的超静孔隙水压力,模拟验证施工效应对桩基沉降的影响,并基于打桩施工对浅层砂层的挤土效应,模拟分析了浅层砂土对减少打入桩基沉降的作用。     

柔性基础下褥垫层厚度对带帽CFG桩复合地基特性分析

带帽CFG桩复合地基应用于高速铁路处理深厚软土地基工程中,其设计有别于建筑工程的设计。工民建房屋建筑基础为刚性基础,而铁路路基直接承受上部路堤的自重和列车运行产生的动荷载为柔性基础。因此,对于柔性基础条件下CFG桩桩帽复合地基褥垫层厚度的优化十分有意义。在现场载荷试验过程中利用橡胶板模拟高速铁路的柔性路基基础,通过改变褥垫层厚度,研究桩帽复合地基沉降变形及桩土荷载分担特性。     

Mobilisation of Earth Pressure Acting on Pile Caps Under Cyclic Loading

In lateral resistance of piles with a pile cap, marked contribution of the pile cap resistance can be expected. For seismic performance assessment of pile foundations, mobilisation of the earth pressure acting on pile caps, induced by interactions between the pile cap and surrounding soils, has to be properly considered. In this study, a series of centrifuge model tests were conducted (1) to examine the effect of strain history on the mobilization of lateral earth pressure acting on pile caps and (2) to show the importance of considering strain history when modelling the interaction between a surface soil layer and a pile cap. Observations into the physical model tests reveal that mobilisation of the earth pressure acting on pile caps under cyclic loading can drastically change depending on soil type and/or conditions. Especially, relocation of soil adjacent to the pile cap in unload-reload phase plays an important role for the earth pressure mobilisation, as it completely alters the shape of the earth pressure-displacement curves. Based on the physical model test results, a simple empirical model that can be used for the beam on non-linear Winkler foundation type analysis is proposed and compared to the test results.     

注浆抗压桩破坏性静载试验分析

结合某工程桩端注浆抗压桩破坏性静载试验,通过桩身埋设钢筋应力计对各土层的平均极限侧阻值进行了分析,得到在竖向极限承载力作用下,单位侧阻的极限值比工程地质报告提供的侧阻极限值提高了2%~29%,下部土层比上部土层侧阻值增加多数要高等结论。     

带帽刚性桩复合地基现场足尺试验研究

为深入、全面了解带帽刚性桩复合地基工作性状,通过在苏州绕城高速公路两试桩区的现场足尺试验,重点研究带帽刚性桩复合地基的荷载沉降、载荷板与桩体的沉降差、地表土应力分布特征、剖面沉降等性状规律。试验研究结果表明:带帽长桩型复合地基较带帽短桩型复合地基易于控制地基沉降变形和提高地基承载力,在设计荷载下带帽短桩型复合地基较带帽长桩型复合地基更能发挥地基土承载作用,桩帽下土体与桩帽间土体承载性能及发挥程度不同。由于桩帽能均化桩顶应力,起到刚性板作用,带帽桩体与桩帽下土体能产生近似等量的竖向变形,同时保证了垫层的整体效应。试验分析成果有助于建立带帽刚性桩复合地基计算模型、完善带帽刚性桩复合地基工作性状研究以及优化工程设计。     

抗滑桩桩后土拱效应特征的三维数值研究

通过对抗滑桩桩后土拱效应的三维数值模拟分析,发现在抗滑桩桩后和桩间土体中存在两种不同作用机理的应力拱,抗滑桩桩后土拱效应随着深度的增加而增强,不同性质的土体土拱具有不同的形状。经过对抗滑桩桩后土拱效应影响因素的分析表明,抗滑桩桩后外载荷大小、桩间距、土体内摩擦角、黏聚力、土体与桩体的相对刚度的大小、土体的泊松比、桩土接触面性状等对土拱效应有不同程度的影响。