OPTIMIZATION OF PILED-RAFT

FOUNDATION SYSTEM WHILE

CHANGING SOIL TYPE & NUMBER OF
PILES
Abdullah
Syed Ubaidul Amin
Muhammad Zaryab Khan
February 23, 2021

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Contents
1 INTRODUCTION 3

2 LITERATURE REVIEW 4
2.1 What is Piled-Raft Foundation: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2 Types of Piles: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.3 Types of Piled-Raft Foundation Systems: . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.3.1 Raft-enhanced Pile group: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.3.2 Pile-enhanced raft: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3.3 Connected Piled Raft: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3.4 Unconnected piled raft: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.4 Why Piled-Raft Foundations are in use: . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.5 Method for analysis of pile raft system: . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.5.1 Analytical method: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.5.2 FEM software: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.6 Why uniform pile in field: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.6.1 Easy construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.6.2 Method of analysis not available . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.7 Pile geometric optimization: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.7.1 Pile diameter variation (slenderness ratio) . . . . . . . 7
2.7.2 Pile length variation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.7.3 Pile density variation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.7.4 Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.7.5 Raft size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.8 Outcome of optimization: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.8.1 To increase the overall stiffness . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.8.2 To reduce differential settlement . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.8.3 To reduce the pile interaction effect . . . . . . . . . . . 9

3 METHODOLOGY 11

4 PILED-RAFT ANALYSIS 12

5 RESULTS ANALYSIS 13

6 APPENDIX A 14

7 APPENDIX B 15

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8 REFERENCES 16

3
1 INTRODUCTION

4
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 What is Piled-Raft Foundation:
Pile raft is a hybrid foundation system that combine the shallow and deep
foundation. The system combines raft and pile group such both of them
bear bearing capacity and reduce settlement. Pile raft system is used for tall
buildings and other structure to carry heavy loads. The pile is used under
the raft to enhance the performance of the raft and where the raft cannot
alone bear the load. The pile group used under the raft may be end bearing
or may be friction piles.

2.2 Types of Piles:

ˆ End bearing piles

ˆ Friction piles

2.3 Types of Piled-Raft Foundation Systems:

Depending upon the different ways wherein the bearing capacity of piles and
raft is harnessed and the associated design philosophies, following different
terms are used.

2.3.1 Raft-enhanced Pile group:

Pile groups are utilized in conjunction with raft. The behavior of both the
piles and raft will be within a pseudo-elastic range. The pile group capacity
will not be fully mobilized at the anticipated working load (based on the
anticipated raft or pile load share). Relative stiffness of the pile group to
the raft controls the behavior. It is important to determine the upper and
lower bound stiffness for the raft and pile group. Although the piles will
usually be stiffer than the raft and attract most of the design load, the raft
can be designed to resist a substantial proportion of the design load. The
pile and raft stiffness will be a function of the stiffness of the ground, and
the variation of ground stiffness with depth.

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2.3.2 Pile-enhanced raft:
The approach of providing a sufficient number of piles to limit settlement can
also be used to control differential settlement, bending moments and shear
stresses in the raft. Rafts that are designed with this approach are called
pile-enhanced rafts. The piles will be designed to mobilize all their ultimate
capacity. The raft will usually carry most of the design load. The piles will
usually be located under heavily loaded superstructure columns. In this type
of design, it is important to determine both the lower and upper bound pile
capacity with a high level of confidence, and the pile load-settlement behavior
must be ductile.

2.3.3 Connected Piled Raft:

In this type of design, the pile heads are rigidly connected to the raft struc-
ture. Piles are responsible for most of the stiffness while the raft provides
additional resistance at the ultimate load. If there is a larger spacing be-
tween the piles, then the axial load per pile will increase, a high axial stress
may develop in some of the piles. Hence the structural capacity of the pile
can become critical. Since the pile heads are penetrated into the raft, a
concentration of axial stresses occurs, and high bending moments develop.
Moreover, in seismic zones or under cyclic loading, the horizontal resistance
to lateral loads sometimes becomes inadequate.

2.3.4 Unconnected piled raft:

These types of piled rafts have no structural connection between piles and
raft. A cushion of coarse-grained granular soil is provided under the raft
which plays an important role in mobilizing the bearing capacity of subsoil.
This dissociation helps to overcome the problem of high stress concentration
by changing the load transfer mechanism. Piles in such foundations act as
reinforcement for the subsoil instead of a structural member. It is generally
found to be more economical.

2.4 Why Piled-Raft Foundations are in use:

When the pile or raft foundation alone often the limit allowable limit for
settlement is reached so to reduce the settlement the concept of hybrid foun-
dation has been introduced. If the geo-technical bearing capacity is not

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suitable or to reduce of foundation settlements, piles group under shallow
foundation and similarly pile can be used with raft as well. The design of
the system is done to optimize the use of pile and raft and to get most out
of the system so that the design is economical.

2.5 Method for analysis of pile raft system:

2.5.1 Analytical method:
Pile raft system is analyzed by different analytical method like Terzaghi
and Peck (1967),), Wiesner and Brown (1975), Randolph (1994), Clancy
and Randolph, the Randolph and Horikoshi (1997), Poulos-Davis-Randolph,
modifying Poulos-Davis-Randolph. These methods involve the plate and
spring approach, boundary element method and finite element approach these
methods are focused to give the results give the settlement and the load
sharing of the pile and raft.

2.5.2 FEM software:

Different software is available to study the pile raft behavior. Most of the
software are based on the finite element method approach which is based on
the notion of dividing the geometry into small elements and then applying
the boundary condition and analyzing these elements according to the stress
strain theory. It provides the results at each node. We can easily get the
results like settlement, differential settlement, normal stress, axial stresses
and shear stress. different software has been used by researchers to get the
results. Some software are plaxis 2d, plaxis 3d, ABACUS and ANSYS. All
these software have good capabilities but it is up to the researcher that how
he utilize the software and how accurate model he creates in his software.
Different models can be run in this software such as microcoulomb model,
soil softening model, soil hardening model, modified cam clay model and the
used defined model can be run in these software’s.

2.6 Why uniform pile in field:

2.6.1 Easy construction
For the pile raft system often, we use the pile of equal length as it is easy to
construct. This is done to reduce the risk of miss locating the pile of different

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length. You need to properly mark the points of pile location along with
mentioning of pile length and diameter if there is a change in the geometry
of the piles. So, it means you need skill labor who understand the grid of
the pile. Sometime this consumes more time than the normal length pile
construction.

2.6.2 Method of analysis not available

Most of the pile raft analysis deal with identical piles like the Randolph
and Horikoshi (1997), ta and small (1996) and Clancy and Randolph (1993).
These and many other researchers have worked on the pile raft but the rigor-
ous analysis are based on the assumption that the piles have the same length
and diameter.

2.7 Pile geometric optimization:

A number of geometric features related to the pile raft, it may be the length
of the pile, diameter of the pile, thickness of the raft, density of the amount
of pile and may more variation can be done with pile raft system to change it
load distribution path and reduce the differential settlement. All the above
optimization techniques are sometime utilized separately or they can be ap-
plied in combination. Here are some of their optimization method mentioned

2.7.1 Pile diameter variation (slenderness ratio)

The ratio of pile length to pile diameter has be used by various researcher as
a parameter to study the features of the pile raft system. Andy Y.F. Leung
and Kenichi Soga has shown that the average length to diameter ratio of
40 or more give optimum results in terms of the settlement. As common
for most of the soils epically sandy soils the maximum settlement occurs at
the center of the piles and the least at the corner so the introduction of
piles of high diameter at the center while keeping into view the optimum
slenderness ratio to minimize the differential settlement. Minimizing the
differential settlement can be very curtail to optimize the design of the pile
raft system.

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2.7.2 Pile length variation
To reduce the interaction effect between the piles we often go for such pile
length variation which will reduce the interaction of a pile with its surround-
ing piles. Thus, the influence zone of each pile will less overlap and thus
optimize the pile use. some of the pile pattern with respect to length has
been explained below

ˆ Row of pile with equal length: In this pattern all the piles with same
length are kept in the same row. Alternate rows of high and low length
piles can be combined to produce the optimized geometry. The ob-
jective is to reduce the pile-to-pile interaction and to minimize the
differential settlement with most efficient and cost-effective system.

ˆ Equal length squares: A square pattern with the same length pile in
the same square. There square then move outwards. In literature it is
found that the pile with the greatest length is found at the center and
then moving outward squares and reducing the length.

ˆ Equal length ring or circular pattern: Circular pattern is the same as

the square pattern but here the piles are arranged in the circular or
ring shape.

2.7.3 Pile density variation

Pile density variation mean that how the piles are spread over the raft. How
much piles are located at the center and how many piles are located to the
edges. In most of the research work it has been stated that to cater for the
differential settlement the piles maximum number of piles are introduced at
the center.

2.7.4 Location
There are various arrangements of the pile raft system like the grid pattern
which is normally used in the field with equally spaced piles and many other
patterns. Some of these are explain

ˆ Grid pattern: The most common pattern in practice is the common

grid pattern which is easy to implement in the field. Here the pile is
uniformly spaced throughout the raft. But this due not give optimum

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 results. This trigged the researchers to work on other pile geometry
and patterns.

ˆ Circular pattern: Here the piles are arranged in the circular fashion.

ˆ Square pattern: Same as circular but the piles are arranged in square
shape.

2.7.5 Raft size

in the raft geometry the crucial parameter that govern effect of the raft on
the system of the foundation the it’s thickness. The thickness raft will be the
main contributing factor in the calculation of the stiffness of the raft. So, as
we increase the thickness of the raft the raft become stiffer and will reduce
the differential settlement. The thickness of the pile can be change along the
length of the pile which can optimize the use of concrete material.

2.8 Outcome of optimization:

There is some objective which is achieved by arranging the piles in a specific
way. Some of the effects of the geometrical arrangement are shown as:

2.8.1 To increase the overall stiffness

It is well known that the load is attracted towards the stiffer path. Concrete
is a lot stiffer than the soil that is way piles are used to transfer the load
so all the geometrical arrangements are done to attract the load towards the
stiffer path and to transfer the load in adequate way to the soil.

2.8.2 To reduce differential settlement

One of important motive after all their geometrical arrangement is to reduce
the differential settlement. The differential settlement can be very large for
some type of soil so that if it is minimizing, we can get the most from our
piles raft system.

2.8.3 To reduce the pile interaction effect

Every pile has an influence zone. To distribute the load the understanding
of this influence zone is very important. As the number of piles are closely

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spaced the three-influence zone overlap which will reduce the efficiency of the
piles. So, in most of the research it is tried to make the geometry in such
way that the overlapping is minimum so that every plie is fully utilized.

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3 METHODOLOGY

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4 PILED-RAFT ANALYSIS

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5 RESULTS ANALYSIS

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6 APPENDIX A

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7 APPENDIX B

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8 REFERENCES

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