Numerical and Theoretical Study on the Settlement of Capped Piles Composite Foundation under Embankment

Capped piles are efficient in settlement control and have been widely used in the reinforcement of soft soil foundations for high-speed railways and highways. In this study, scenarios involving both capped piles and ordinary piles without caps are numerically studied using the finite element software (ABAQUS). The settlement characteristics of capped piles composite foundation considering the effects of both the pile spacing and the ratio of pile cap to pile diameter are achieved. Based on the numerical results, assuming that the capped pile and the soil under the cap jointly bear load and settle together, a settlement calculation model for capped piles composite foundation is established. By both replacing the compression modulus with the deformation modulus obtained from the field static load test and calculating the area replacement ratio, the formula for calculating the total settlement of the capped piles composite foundation is derived using the layer-wise summation method. In addition, a real embankment engineering with capped piles composite foundation is adopted to validate the accuracy of this method; by comparing with other methods, the results show that this method is in better agreement with the field monitoring data. Therefore, the proposed method is recommended in the relevant engineering design.

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