A NUMERICAL STUDY OF PILES IN SATURATED EXPANSIVE SOIL

Foundations on expansive soils are of great interest to geotechnical engineers.Piles foundations are used in expansive soils to resist the induced heave.Many factors can affect the pile heave in expansive soil.These factors include the pile length, diameter, and pile loading.The depth of active zone and depth of wetting can also affect the pile and surrounding soil heave.A numerical model of a single straight shaft pile constructed in an expansive soil is presented herein.The numerical study concerning pile and soil properties is set to clarify their effect on pile heave.The finite element software, ADINA is used to model the pile and surrounding soil domain and to compute the pile heave.The model is exposed to inundation with various depths of wettings, where net pile and free field heave are computed.The results show that pile length significantly affects the pile heave, while pile diameter has no noticeable effect on pile heave neither has the pile loading.Tracking of the pile movement shows that it begins to settle immediately after decreasing the depth of wetting, returning approximately to its initial state due to loading at zero depth of wetting.