Soil-Pile Interaction for the Foundations of Bridge Abutments in Soft Clay Formations

The success of bridge construction and operation on soft grounds requires proper planning and execution of subsurface investigation. Embankments and/or approaches constructed on weak and compressible soils suffer from time settlement induced by the embankment loads and result in down-drag and lateral forces acting on the piles supporting the bridge abutments. The lateral loads acting on piles from the movement of soil are of significant concern in the design of pile foundations since they may result in additional straining actions and deflection in the piles. Furthermore, distress of the piles and accordingly adverse effect on the stability of the supported structures might occur due to such phenomenon. This problem is studied in this paper using the 3-D numerical modeling approach utilizing the finite element method. Verification of the developed numerical model was carried out by simulating a case study of a centrifuge test and comparing the predicted and measured results. The numerical model is used to study the effect of the developed lateral forces due to the consolidation of clay on the lateral displacement and abending moment of the adjacent piles.