Numerical Simulation of Piled-Raft Foundation in Cohesionless Soil using ABAQUS

Due to rapid growth in infrastructure sector, the construction of high-rise buildings is becoming very popular among all the countries. Engineers face significant issues with high rise buildings, particularly in terms of structural and foundation aspects. Many old design approaches can't be used with certainty since they involve extrapolation far beyond the domains of existing experience, hence structural and geotechnical engineers are being compelled to use more advanced analysis and design methodologies. The current study is an attempt to predict the bearing capacity and settlement behavior of piled-raft footing when embedded into cohesionless deposit. The numerical analysis has been carried out to examine the effect of numerous key parameters of pile and raft such as pile length (10, 15, 20 m), pile diameter (0.3, 0.4, 0.5 m), pile number (16, 20, 24), pile spacing (2D, 3D, 4D) (where "D" is diameter of the pile), raft thickness (0.4, 0.5, 0.6 m), and angle of internal friction of soil (25 degrees, 30 degrees, 35 degrees) on load-settlement behavior of the piled- raft foundation using ABAQUS software. A constant spacing between the piles, i.e. 3D was used throughout the analysis. The results of numerical investigation revealed an improvement in bearing capacity and a reduction in settlement value on increasing length, diameter and number of piles and also with increasing angle of internal friction. The current study not only increases the bearing capacity of the foundation but provides a cost-effective foundation technique to engineers.