Analysis and Parametric Study of Piled Raft Foundation Using Finite Element Based Software
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Date
2009-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The design of group piles depends on either the group or single pile capacity of piles. In
conventional design method of such foundations, the stiffness of the pile cap is barely taken into
account. Such design becomes too conservative if the pile cap is in contact with the ground.
Because the pile cap contributes in transferring load to the ground and distributing load over the
piles. The design method that considers the contribution of the pile cap and interaction between
the different elements of group piles is called piled raft foundation. The concept of piled raft
foundation leads to economical design.
In this paper, analysis and parametric study of piled raft foundation has been conducted. The
study is performed using powerful finite element based software, PLAXIS. A number of
parameters were selected from the elements of the piled raft system. According to their effect on
the response of piled raft system, some are taken to be constant while others are varied. Among
the varied parameters, raft thickness, pile length, pile spacing and pile number were considered.
Other possibilities were also investigated in search of an optimum placement of piles.
The analysis results from the PLAXIS software have shown a close prediction to that of in-situ
measurements and other numerical methods. From the parametric study, concentrating piles
around the center for uniformly loaded rectangular piled raft foundation reduce the differential
settlement.
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Civil Engineering