Numerical simulation of large deformation of piles in sand during cyclic penetration

It is extremely important to understand the stress conditions around the pile shaft during pile installation for accurately predicting its bearing capacity. The large-deformation arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) finite element method in ABAQUS with the state-dependent Mohr-Coulomb sand model is employed to simulate the highly instrumented calibration chamber tests. The stress regimes developed at different penetration stages are obtained with a focus placed on the radial stress. The h/R effects of the stress in the surrounding soil are validated, along with the stress distribution varying with the relative distance with respective to the pile tip and pile centerline. The numerical simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental ones, indicating the robustness of the numerical model. The stress distribution obtained from the numerical analysis fills the blank of the stress data near pile shaft in experiments and is considered to be useful for improving the design methods for driven piles.