Stability of Footings Adjacent to Pile Walls

• Published in: International journal of geomechanics Vol. 15; no. 6
• Main Authors: Sudani, Ghassan A, Brake, Nicholas, Jao, Mien
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Society of Civil Engineers 01-12-2015
• Subjects: Bearing capacity; Concretes; Criteria; Mathematical analysis; Mathematical models; Soil (material); Stability; Technical Papers; Walls
• ISSN: 1532-3641; 1943-5622
• DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)GM.1943-5622.0000480

AbstractThe stability of a footing may be destabilized near a retaining wall because of increased lateral displacement and decreased soil confining pressure. The stability of footing within this footing–soil–wall system is complex and not predicted using the classical solutions utilized for a semi-infinite footing–soil system. In this study, the bearing capacity of a concrete footing placed near a wall of spaced driven concrete piles using three-dimensional finite-element (FE) analysis with ANSYS 13.0 is investigated. All system materials are idealized as nonlinear, elastic–perfectly plastic, and rate independent using the upper bound function of the Drucker–Prager yield criterion. Three different soil deposits are studied: kaolin, silty clay, and kaolin–sand. A total of 144 unique FE analysis runs are executed. The footing bearing capacity is computed from the output footing pressure–settlement curve using several well-known postprocessing linearization criteria from which the lowest value is chosen. Soil yielding patterns and failure mechanisms are also studied and presented. Empirical equations capable of predicting the footing bearing capacity and the footing–pile distance without the effect of destabilizing factors are developed.