NUMERICAL ANALYSIS ON BEARING CAPACITY OF PILED RAFT FOUNDATIONS

Abstract

Bearing capacity of piled raft foundations in clay soils was studied using elasto-plastic three-dimensional FE analysis. The numerical analysis was carried out by varying ratio of pile length to raft breadth and distribution of soil strength with depth. The analytical results about the bearing capacity of piled raft foundations were compared with that of raft foundations and pile foundations. Consequently, it was found that the ultimate bearing capacity of a piled raft was approximately equal to or larger than 0.8 times the sum of the bearing capacities of a raft alone and a pile group.