Finite element study on static pile load testing

Abstract

The thesis focuses on some particular interest which is associated with the conventional static load test and Osterberg-cell test. The commercial FEM code PLAXIS and PLAXIS 3D Foundation were used for the numerical simulation. Simplified models and some case histories for the static pile load test are analyzed to study the effect of reaction system on the test results. The numerical results indicate that the influence of the reaction system on the settlement of the test pile is usually under-estimated in practice. Besides, O-cell test is analyzed in comparison with static pile load test, which suggests that the O-cell test is a good substitute for the conventional test. The differences of effective stresses around the pile due to the different excess pore pressures generated from the different load-transfer mechanism cause a stiffer load-movement response and slightly higher ultimate capacity for the O-cell test than those of conventional test.