Zur lateralen Bettungssteifigkeit von Pfählen mit großen Durchmessern bei kleinen Verformungen - Vergleich von Finite-Elemente-Berechnungen mit Methoden basierend auf p-y-Kurven

Lateral bedding stiffness of large diameter piles at small displacements - comparison of Finite Element calculations with methods based on p-y-curves.

The economical and safe design of offshore foundations with driven steel pipe piles depends to a large degree on the realistic modelling of the lateral bedding provided by the surrounding soil. Usually, the complex and strongly non-linear soil behaviour is taken into account in the design of offshore foundations by employing non-linear bedding springs (p-y-curves) in beam-spring models. The behaviour of the p-y-curves at small displacements strongly influences the dynamic properties of the structure, which are crucial for both the ultimate limit state (ULS) and the serviceability limit state (SLS). This paper compares different approaches for p-y-curves with numerical results obtained with the Finite Element method, using advanced constitutive models accounting for high soil stiffness at very small strains in the numerical calculations. It is shown, that good agreement between the Finite Element calculation and the beam-spring model can be obtained if the p-y-curves are modified at small displacements.