A Numerical Study on a Laterally Loaded Pile in Fiber-Reinforced Soil
摘要
This study aims to improve the lateral load capacity of a single pile by replacing the top layer of the soil around the pile with Fiber-Reinforced Soil (FRS). To fulfil the objective, a 3D finite element analysis is used for modeling the soil-pile system for obtaining the load–deflection behavior of the pile. A concrete pile of 10 m in length and 1 m diameter is modeled using the linear elastic model, and the Mohr–Coulomb model is used for the modeling of soil. Validation of the model is done with the help of existing literature. The top layer of the soil around the pile is replaced by FRS, and load–deflection behavior is observed in the lateral direction. The depth of the reinforced soil layer was taken as 3D (D is the diameter of the pile). Also, the reduction in the lateral deflection was observed upon the introduction of FRS in the top layer. From the analysis, it was found that there was an improvement of approximately 75% in the lateral load capacity of the pile, having an aspect ratio of 10 when papyrus fiber was used in the top layer. For the larger aspect ratio of the pile, the improvement in the lateral load capacity was found to be more than the pile having a smaller aspect ratio.