Experimental Investigation of soil confinement impact on RC-pile nonlinearity

Ahmed Mohammed Youssef Mohammed, Koichi Maekawa

In the proceedings of: GeoMontréal 2013: 66th Canadian Geotechnical Conference; 11th joint with IAH-CNC

Session: Foundations IV

ABSTRACT: Small-scale RC-circular piles with 5 cm diameter were produced as an alternative of real ones and loaded by combined shear and flexure under the soil confinement of different magnitudes. In order to identify the lateral confinement, SNAP-PINS were newly utilized as a replacement of stirrups for miniature RC members. The experimental results show that soil confinement improves the RC-pile ductility by suppressing the spalling of concrete cover and local buckling of reinforcement, and that the magnitude of soil confinement may reach the level produced by the stirrups inside members. But at the same time, the greater soil confinement was experimentally confirmed to increase in shear forces to RC piles and simultaneously become a risk factor of shear failure, too. This small scale RC-pile is newly proposed to be used in the future small-scale experiment instead of common elastic material ones, while it enjoys the full features of RC nonlinearity. The flexural and shear failures of RC piles under soil confinement could be successfully simulated by using a full three-dimensional finite element program such as COM3D, which was developed at the University of Tokyo. This analysis has been used in practice for seismic performance assessment of underground ducts, RC piles, and in-ground LNG storage tanks in consideration of soil-structure interaction under static and dynamic loading.

Please include this code when submitting a data update: GEO2013_762

Access this article:
Canadian Geotechnical Society members can access to this article, along with all other Canadian Geotechnical Conference proceedings, in the Member Area. Conference proceedings are also available in many libraries.

Cite this article: