A practical method for the analysis of rigid pile composite foundation-raft system

A method is proposed for the settlement and inner force analysis of rigid pile composite foundation raft system. In this method the raft is modeled with Mindlin plate element, and the soil pile cushion system is modeled through semi analytical methods. Besides, an algorithm is proposed to consider the rigidity of the super structure. The methods and the choice of its parameters are discussed in detail. Numerical examples are presented to compare the calculated results with field measurements and with those obtained by truly 3 dimensional FEM calculations. The satisfactory agreements approve the applicability of the proposed method.