Revision as of 13:26, 1 July 2024

Abstract

The contact behavior between soil and structures is an important aspect in many geotechnical applications. One example is the contact between pile and soil during pile installation which especially for open-ended pipes can lead to soil plug formation. Within the present research, contact behavior between clayey soil and pile is investigated by means of numerical and laboratory experiments focusing on the contact behavior within tubular piles. First, the contact between kaolin clay and steel is experimentally investigated with respect to overburden pressure in the so-called Geo-Tribometer developed at HSU. The results of the experimental investigations show some unexpected results leading to the assumption that the contact failure surface inside the soil specimen changes with differing overburden pressure. Additional numerical simulations are carried out for better understanding of contact stress development. Second, further laboratory investigations using soil-filled tubular piles show that adhesion-like effects significantly influence the contact behavior between soil plug and internal surface of the tube. For estimation of the adhesion values, numerical simulations by means of finite element analyses are carried out showing that as expected with increasing soil’s overburden pressure adhesion effect increases. The results are finally discussed with respect to transferability from small scale in numerical and laboratory investigations toward prototype scale.

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