Non-linear finite-element analysis of axially loaded piles driven in chalk

Wen, K., Kontoe, S., Jardine, R., Liu, T. and Pan, L. (2023) Non-linear finite-element analysis of axially loaded piles driven in chalk. In 10th European Conference on Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering (NUMGE2023). International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering.. (doi:10.53243/NUMGE2023-337).

Abstract

Driven piles are often employed to support onshore and offshore structures at low-density, porous weak carbonate chalk sites, which are encountered across Northern Europe and under the North and Baltic seas. Their efficient design is limited by uncertainties regarding their ultimate axial capacity and load-displacement behaviour. Intensive axial testing has been undertaken recently for the ALPACA Joint Industry Project on piles driven at a UK chalk site, in conjunction with comprehensive chalk characterisation studies. This paper presents PLAXIS-2D numerical simulations of such piles' axial loading behaviour. The simulation accounts for three distinct zones of chalk identified around the pile shafts after installation. These comprise a thin annular zone of de-structured, puttified, chalk and a second, thicker, annular zone of highly fractured chalk; both have different mechanical properties compared to the surrounding parent intact chalk mass. The FE analyses investigate how shaft resistance, axial capacity and load-displacement behaviour develop differently in compression and tension tests.

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Contributors

Author: K. Wen

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