Numerical simulation of pile installations in a hypoplastic framework using an SPH based method

authored by: Meisam Soleimani, Christian Weißenfels
Abstract: This paper presents a tool to estimate the stresses, and thus the expected forces, at a retaining wall by the installation of piles. The solution method is based on Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) and the soil is modeled using a simplified hypoplastic material law. In order to correctly compute the forces on the soil due to the contact between the pile and the soil, a formulation for imposing frictional boundary conditions using SPH is developed. Modeling the soil with the chosen hypoplastic approach also allows for tensile forces in the soil. However, these are not physical. Therefore, an alternative formulation is presented which directly eliminates unphysical tensile stresses in the cohesionless soil without any additional numerical parameters. The numerical code is firstly validated against benchmark problems. Then several test cases are simulated including monotonic and cyclic penetration of piles into the soil. A good agreement with the experimental observation is found. Additionally, the impact of pile driving in the presence of sheetpiles (retainers) is investigated to see how the pile driving can alter the applied forces on the sheet piles. The simulation of such complex geotechnical problems that involve large deformation, material nonlinearity, and moving boundary conditions demonstrates the applicability and versatility of the proposed numerical tool in this field.
Organisation(s): Institute of Continuum Mechanics
External Organisation(s): Technische Universität Braunschweig
Type: Article
Journal: Computers and Geotechnics
Volume: 133
ISSN: 0266-352X
Publication date: 05.2021
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology, Computer Science Applications
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compgeo.2021.104006 (Access: Closed)
: Details in the research portal "Research@Leibniz University"

BibTeX

@article{7aa3594a29e84bf690a64b90e5e95cfd,
title = "Numerical simulation of pile installations in a hypoplastic framework using an SPH based method",
abstract = "This paper presents a tool to estimate the stresses, and thus the expected forces, at a retaining wall by the installation of piles. The solution method is based on Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) and the soil is modeled using a simplified hypoplastic material law. In order to correctly compute the forces on the soil due to the contact between the pile and the soil, a formulation for imposing frictional boundary conditions using SPH is developed. Modeling the soil with the chosen hypoplastic approach also allows for tensile forces in the soil. However, these are not physical. Therefore, an alternative formulation is presented which directly eliminates unphysical tensile stresses in the cohesionless soil without any additional numerical parameters. The numerical code is firstly validated against benchmark problems. Then several test cases are simulated including monotonic and cyclic penetration of piles into the soil. A good agreement with the experimental observation is found. Additionally, the impact of pile driving in the presence of sheetpiles (retainers) is investigated to see how the pile driving can alter the applied forces on the sheet piles. The simulation of such complex geotechnical problems that involve large deformation, material nonlinearity, and moving boundary conditions demonstrates the applicability and versatility of the proposed numerical tool in this field.",
keywords = "Hypoplasticity, Pileinstallation processes, Smoothed particle hydrodynamics, Soil-structure interaction",
author = "Meisam Soleimani and Christian Wei{\ss}enfels",
note = "Funding Information: This project was funded by the Ministry of Science and Culture (MWK) of Lower Saxony, Germany within the framework of the SMARTBIOTECS alliance between the Technical University of Braunschweig and the Leibniz University of Hannover. The authors acknowledge this support. ",
year = "2021",
month = may,
doi = "10.1016/j.compgeo.2021.104006",
language = "English",
volume = "133",
journal = "Computers and Geotechnics",
issn = "0266-352X",
publisher = "Elsevier BV",
}