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A hypoplastic macroelement formulation for single batter piles in sand
Author(s) -
Li Zheng,
Kotronis Panagiotis,
Escoffier Sandra,
Tamagnini Claudio
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
international journal for numerical and analytical methods in geomechanics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.419
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1096-9853
pISSN - 0363-9061
DOI - 10.1002/nag.2794
Subject(s) - pile , nonlinear system , geotechnical engineering , finite element method , structural engineering , foundation (evidence) , monotonic function , engineering , geology , mathematics , mathematical analysis , physics , archaeology , quantum mechanics , history
Summary Batter piles are widely used in geotechnical engineering when substantial lateral resistance is needed or to avoid the interference with existing underground constructions. Nevertheless, there is a lack of fast numerical tools for nonlinear soil‐structure interactions problems for this type of foundation. A novel hypoplastic macroelement is proposed, able to reproduce the nonlinear response of a single batter pile in sand under monotonic and cyclic static loadings. The behavior of batter piles (15°, 30°, and 45°) is first numerically investigated using 3D finite element modeling and compared with the behavior of vertical piles. It is shown that their response mainly depends on the pile inclination and the loading direction. Then, starting from the macroelement for single vertical piles in sand by Li et al (Acta Geotechnica, 11(2):373‐390, 2016), an extension is proposed to take into account the pile inclination introducing simple analytical equations in the expression describing the failure surface. 3D finite element numerical models are adopted to validate the macroelement that is proven able to reproduce the nonlinear behavior in terms of global quantities (forces‐displacements) and to significantly reduce the necessary computational time.