Centrifuge Modelling of the Influence of Size and Geometry of Hybrid Foundations on Bearing Capacity

抄録

Piles have been used widely on commercial developments in London for about the last 60 years. The life of a commercial building is about 25 – 30 years and as each building is demolished and rebuilt, the piles from the previous buildings remain in the ground. These cause obstructions to the new foundations because removal is difficult, time-consuming and expensive. Published research has shown that sheet piled foundations are a genuine and viable alternative to cast in-situ concrete piles. Individual sheet piles have relatively low capacity when axially loaded, therefore it is necessary to consider their use as a pile group in conjunction with a pilecap. In this paper these are defined as hybrid foundations. An increase in bearing capacity was observed when the geometry of the sheet pile group was varied from a circular arrangement to square formation. This research aimed to understand the influence of the geometric shape and the dimensions of sheet pile groups on their bearing capacity.