Approximative analysis for piled rafts by pile load tests

Pile load tests are usually carried out for determining the ultimate bearing capacity,but not for predicting the settlement of piled raft.The elastic parameters of the subsoil were achieved through the initial stiffness of the pile load tests.Piles were modeled as interacting nonlinear springs.The nonlinear behaviour of pile-soil interaction could be matched by the hyperbola function.The interaction between piles was analyzed with interaction factors,and“restraint”action between piles was considered.Compared with theoretical and experimental results,this approximate method could save a large amount of computing time and give reasonable results.