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Numerical Study of the Arching Phenomenon of Bored Piles in Sand

Zahra A. Kamal1; Mohamed G. Arab2; and Adel Dif3

1
Graduate Student, Dept. of Structural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura Univ., Egypt. E-
mail: zahraakamal1012@gmail.com
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2
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Structural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura Univ., Egypt.
E-mail: mg_arab@mans.edu.eg
3
Professor, Dept. of Structural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura Univ., Egypt. E-mail:
Adif@mans.edu.eg

Abstract: Several bored pile field-testing observations showed the arching

phenomena and its effect on side shear resistance. Finite elements numerical model is
developed in this paper to study the arching phenomena of bored pile and the effect on
the overall compression capacity of single board piles. The numerical models
developed apply a hardening/softening model (multi-surface) constitutive model to
account for sandy soil non-linear behavior. 2D- axisymmetric Finite Elements full pile
model has been developed and calibrated using several field-testing available in the
literature. The numerical study has been conducted to investigate the effect of arching
close to the single pile shaft on pile bearing capacity considering three major influence
factors: pile length, pile diameter, and sand relative density. The numerical analyses
conducted show the important of the arching phenomenon on the overall behavior of
piles and on the prediction of bored piles bearing capacity.

INTRODUCTION

Pile foundation has gained popularity lately in Egypt especially in high-rise

buildings and heavy structures. Side resistance is an important source of pile
resistance, especially for long board piles. Several analytical methods have been
developed to predict pile shaft resistant based on soil shear properties. In design
practice, the unit shaft resistance (qsL) is often calculated as percentage of vertical
effective stress as follows:
tan
qsL = K vo (1)
where vo is initial vertical effective stress, is the friction angle mobilized along
the vertical shaft wall, and K is the lateral earth pressure coefficient at limit shaft
resistance conditions. Due to axial loading of the pile, the soil around piles shears and
as a result the normal effective stress acting on the shaft evolves from its initial
(geostatic) value to an ultimate value. The new values for the effective normal stress
will greatly affect the prediction for the shaft resistance of piles.
Terzaghi (1943) proved experimentally using trapped door experiment that stresses
in the soil body changes takes place during soil shearing these changes are due to
shearing resistance along the boundaries between the moving and stationary mass of
sand. Similarly, upon axial loading of pile and shearing of soil around the shaft while
the soil lying further away from the pile shaft is stationary causing changing of the
stresses along the pile shaft from initial stresses developed before shearing. Two

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distinct zones is developed around the tip of the pile as a result of the downward
movement of the pile, these zones are the flow zone and the arching zone as illustrated
in Fig.1 (Reese and Touma, 1972).
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FIG. 1. Schematic of the Stresses around the Pile in the case of a pile loaded
axially in compression (Reese and Touma, 1972).

This paper studies the arching effect in bored piles in sandy soils and possible effect
on pile bearing capacity using numerical modeling and advanced constitutive model.

Experimental Data from Single Pile Loading

The Center for Highway Research (CFHR) has conducted a research program to
investigate the behavior of drilled shafts installed in a variety of soils located in
Houston. One site named (G1) was chosen in this research to calibrate the numerical
model to investigate the suitability of the constitutive model used for soil elements to
reproduce pile behavior. Soil profile and soil properties in this site are shown in Fig.2.
The properties of the pile based on Reese and Touma (1972) installed in this site are as
follows: 18m length, 0.95 m average diameter, the Young's modulus 33 GPa , the
Poisson's ratio is 0.2 and the specific weight 23 kN/m3. Reese and Touma shows that
the soil profile in the site is a 9.5-metre thick clay stratum with an average undrained
shear strength of about 86 kPa overlaying sand layer of medium density of an average
standard penetration number (Nblows/ft) =22 .

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FIG. 2. Standard Penetration Test of selected Site- Gl (Reese and Touma , 1972).

Numerical Analysis

For the work described herein, in order to capture the behavior of single bored piles
in sandy soils a finite element model is developed using the commercial software
ABAQUS 6.10 (Simulia, 2010). The proposed model is able to realistically capture the
most important aspects of pile loading.

Constitutive Model

The constitutive model used in this paper to predict sand nonlinear behavior is
Drucker-Prager model (DP) available in ABAQUS 6.10. The DP is noncircular yield
surface in the deviatoric plane to match different yield values in triaxial tension and
compression. Input data parameters define the shape of the yield and flow surfaces in
the meridional and deviatoric planes. The Drucker-Prager criterion is used which can
be represented by equation:
F = t p tan d (2)
Where, is the slope of the linear yield surface in the pt stress plane and is
commonly referred to the friction angle of the material, d is the cohesion of the
material and K is the ratio of the yield stress in triaxial tension to the yield stress in
triaxial compression, where and d could be expressed in terms of Mohr-Column
parameters c and as follows:
6 sin
tan = (3)
3 sin
18c cos
d= (4)
3 sin

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The model is referred to as an isotropic hardening and the evolution of the yield
surface with plastic deformation is described in terms of the equivalent stress (c) and
plastic strain (PL).

Calibration of Constitutive Model

Analyses were performed to simulate laboratory triaxial tests conducted on Toyoura
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and Ottawa sand in the literature. The backbone curve for the sandy soil was used to
develop model parameters for hardening yield surface. The input model parameters
are listed in Tables 1. Analyses were performed using ABAQUS 6.10 to simulate
triaxial behavior of Toyoura and Ottawa sand. The single element illustrated in Fig.3
was used to simulate the laboratory tests. Confining pressure equal to 3 is applied to
the sides of the element and a vertical displacement is applied to upper boundary of
the single element. The results of the numerical analyses are shown in Fig.4 along
with the triaxial results from drained triaxial compression tests on Toyoura sand
(Fukushima & Tatsuoka, 1984) and clean Ottawa sand (Carraro, 2004) measured in
the laboratory.

FIG. 3. Single element used for simulation.

FIG. 4. Fitting Drained triaxial compression tests of Toyoura sand and clean
Ottawa sand.

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Table 1. Soil Data using Presented Drucker-Prager Model.

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Finite Element

Analyses were performed to simulate single pile test presented earlier (Center for
Highway Research (CFHR) at the University of Texas site G1. A finite element model
is developed to simulate single bored pile loaded axially. The finite element program
ABAQUS 6.10 is used in the simulation of pile behavior. Fig.5 presents the finite
element (FE) mesh and boundary conditions of base model in this analysis. The pile
and soil are modeled using 8-noded axisymmetric elements; the radius of the soil
domain is 15.0 m, and the depth is 30.0 m. An elastic model is used for the 18 m long
pile rested in sand. Soil part divided into two parts, the upper part represents clay layer
with thickness 9.5 m modeled by simplified Mohr-Coloumb model and the remaining
portion of the soil is a sand layer simulated by Drucker-Prager model. Fine mesh is
used near the pilesoil interface, and it becomes coarser further from the pile. The
interface between the pile and the soil is defined using an interface element available
in ABAQUS as penalty behavior. Tangentially ,the properties of the interface is
specified by an interface friction coefficient , =tan=0.6 , =0.98c as c is the true
friction angle at critical state (Loukidis and Salgado, 2008)and tangential stiffness Ks
where Ks=G/ts.Normally ,the properties of the interface is specified by Normal
stiffness Kn where Kn=E/ts ,as G is the shear modulus and ts is the thickness of
interface layer taken 2mm .Analysis is divided into two steps; first the overburden
pressure is defined in geostatic options as unit weight of soil part= 20KN/m3 and
initial coefficient of earth pressure Ko=0.5. In the second step a vertical displacement
is applied on the surface of modeled pile.

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FIG. 5. Typical finite element mesh and boundary conditions in full pile
simulation

Comparison with Experimental Field Data

The calculated load-settlement curve of the numerical model of the test loading,
together with the measured response of the tested pile using 2D nonlinear analysis
shown in Fig.6. The results presented in the figure are: the pile total resistance (Q),
pile shaft resistance (Qs) and pile tip Resistance (Qt) due to 20 mm settlement. Results
presented in FIG.6 shows that the numerical models calculate accurately the frictional
behavior of the single pile testing in this case while the slight different between the
calculated tip resistant and the measured tip resistant especially at high settlement
values (near failure).

FIG. 6. Comparison between field test data and numerical simulations of the
loadsettlement curve (Site G1), Touma and Reese (1972).

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Critical Depth of Sand Mass

Vesic, 1967 was among the first theoreticians to present the concept of limiting
average unit shaft resistance. Vesic reported that shaft resistance does not increase
infinitely with depth, but reaches a constant value at some critical depth (Dc). The
calculated shear stress along pile shaft from numerical model presented earlier shows
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a reduction in shear stress at specific depth (critical depth) (3m)beneath sand level in a
good agreement with field result as presented in FIG.7 (a). Parametric study was
conducted to examine the effect of the sand relative density, pile length and pile
diameter on the critical depth calculated. The base model presented earlier was used
changing one parameter at the time to examine the effect of the parameter on the
critical depth and results are shown on Fig 7 & 8.
FIG.7 (b) shows that the critical depth increases with an increase in the relative density
of the sand mass and subsequently the value of the limited average unit shaft
resistance increases also, which is in agreement with the findings by Vesic, 1967.
Fig. 8 (a) shows that increasing pile length (pile impediment into sand layer) increases
the critical depth. This means that pile bearing capacity does not increase linearly
with depth. Fig. 8 (b) shows the effect of the pile diameter on the critical depth. The
figure shows negligible effect of pile diameter on the critical depth.

FIG. 7. Shear Stress along piles shaft (a) Field test compared with Numerical
result (b) Numerical analysis (Ls=15m, dp=50 cm )

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FIG. 8. The effect of pile length, relative density and pile diameter on Critical
Depth (a)Pile Length (b)Pile Diameter.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

1) The field testing for a single augured pile in deep sand deposits was reproduced
numerically.
2) The sand relative density was computered numerically by changing hardening
behavior in Drucker-Prager constitutive model.
3) The arching phenomenon around pile shaft was calculated successfully using
numerical modeling.
4) There is evidence from the field and from numerical modeling that the shear stress
along pile shaft does not increase linearly for infinity rather reaches a constant value at
a critical depth.
5) The critical depth increases with increasing the impediment length of piles in sandy
soils.
6) The augered pile diameter has a minimal effect on the critical depth.
7) The denser the soil the deeper the critical depth occurred.

REFERENCES
[1] Carraro, J. A. H. (2004). Mechanical behavior of silty and clayey sands. PhD
dissertation, Purdue University
[2] Fadlo T. Touma & Lymon C. Reese. (1972). The Behavior of Drilled Shaft.
Report No. CFHR 3-5-72-1761
[3] Fukushima, S. & Tatsuoka, F. (1984). Strength and deformation characteristics
of saturated sand at extremely low pressures. Soils Found. 24, No. 4, 3048.
[4] Loukidis.D. & Salgado. R. (2008). Analysis of the shaft resistance of non-
displacement piles in sand. Geotechnique 58, No. 4, 283296.
[5] Simulia (2010) Abaqus version 6.10 documentation. USA.
[6] Terzaghi. K..,(1943) Theoretical soil Mechanics, New York,Wiley.
[7] Vesic,A. S. (1967),A Study of Bearing Capacity of Deep Foundations, Final
Report B-189,Georgia Institute of Technology,Atlanta,p. 279.

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