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Effects of soil arching on behavior of composite pile supporting foundation pit

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Abstract

This study uses the discrete element method (DEM) to simulate the soil arching effect of composite piles supporting foundation pits during excavation and revealed the influences of small grouted steel pipe pile diameter, position, pile spacing, and friction coefficient on horizontal soil arching. The DEM simulation results show that as the diameter of the small grouted steel pipe pile decreases, the displacement arch of the soil particles between the large bored pile and the small grouted steel pipe pile evolves from a triangle to a tower shape and finally to the arch shape. When the top of the large bored piles and the small grouted steel pipe piles is in line, the stress arch between the large pile and the small pile is half of the shape of the ellipse. The stress arch between the large and large piles is in the shape of a parabola; this supporting mode is the best for different positions of small steel pipe piles. When the center of the large bored pile and small grouted steel pipe pile is in line, the stress arch between the large pile and the small pile takes the shape of a parabola, and the stress arch between the two large piles is triangular. With the increase in pile spacing, the vertical displacement of soil particles gradually decreases, the redistribution of soil particles becomes weak, and the soil arching effect becomes insignificant. The increase in friction coefficient has little effect on the geometry of the soil arch but can improve the load transfer efficiency.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 217020711, 12172085). The authors greatly appreciate the provided financial support which made this study possible.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering Mechanics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China

    Dashuai Zhang, Xingli Zhang & Honghua Zhao

  2. State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China

    Dashuai Zhang, Xingli Zhang & Honghua Zhao

  3. China Railway No.8 Engineering Group Co, Ltd, Chengdu, 610000, China

    Haotian Tang

  4. Dalian Rail Transit Design Institute Co., Ltd, Dalian, 116000, China

    Zhiqiang Zhao

  5. Dalian Municipal Design and Research Institute Co., LTD, Dalian, 116000, China

    Jing Guo

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  1. Dashuai Zhang
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Contributions

DZ contributed to methodology, formal analysis, investigation, writing–original draft. XZ make suggestions and change the format. HT contributed to resources. ZZ supervised the study. JG validated the study. HZ contributed to conceptualization and project administration.

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Correspondence to Honghua Zhao.

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Zhang, D., Zhang, X., Tang, H. et al. Effects of soil arching on behavior of composite pile supporting foundation pit. Comp. Part. Mech. 10, 645–662 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40571-022-00518-1

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