Analysis of Vertically Loaded Pile-Raft Foundation on Cohesionless Soil Using ABAQUS

Pile foundations are widely used in weaker soil site to support superstructures. Study on bearing capacity of pile foundations is still gaining much attention to the geotechnical researchers. Besides laboratory and field tests, numerical method such as finite element method is used increasingly to deal with analysis of pile foundation problem. In this paper, a general-purpose finite element-based software “ABAQUS” has been used to explore the load-bearing capacity of piled-rafts. Soil profile has been used in this study which is cohesionless soil with varying relative densities. While we draw the load-settlement curve form “ABAQUS” viewport, the result shows nonlinear variation. To determine load capacity in pile-raft system, interaction factor has been considered as available in literature. In accordance with the proposed pile-raft model, the load-sharing ratio decreases as settlement increases which depends on the load capacity ratio. The value of load-sharing ratio is increase with load capacity ratios. The proposed load-sharing model has been verified using established formulas.