NUMERICAL STUDY ON THE BEHAVIOR OF INCLINED MICROPILE

Sepideh Damavandinejad Monfared, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.

In recognition of the practicality of using inclined micropiles as elements for
foundation support to resist static and seismic loading conditions, specifically in
retrofitting projects, this study presents an investigation into the behavior of an
inclined micropile subjected to simultaneous lateral load and bending moment.
Three-dimensional numerical simulations are performed using the finite element
method to assess the influence of micropile geometrical parameters such as
angle of inclination, length, and diameter on the response of micropile-soil
system. The Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion is used to define the behavior of soil
and stabilized soil around micropile materials and the micropile, constructed of
concrete and steel, is assumed to be elastic. The interaction between soil and
micropile is taken into account by defining interaction elements covering both
tangential and normal behavior. The study is carried out using nonlinear FEM
analyses. The results of these simulations indicate that negative micropiles, in
which slip surface deflects downward, have higher lateral load capacity than
positive micropiles with slip surface deflecting upward. The conducted research
also shows that increasing the diameter and the length of micropile increases the
lateral load capacity. Increasing micropile diameter is more effective in
increasing lateral load capacity. A relationship is developed from statistical
regression analysis of the finite element modeling computations to estimate the
lateral displacement of a micropile inclined at an angle of 30
o
in silty sands.

Introduction
Micropiles are small diameter (typically less than
300 mm), cast-in-place, drilled, and grouted
replacement piles with steel pipes which after
being conceived in Italy (Lizzi,1978), were
originally developed for underpinning existing
structures (Bruce et al.,1990) to arrest and
prevent structural movement, upgrade load-
bearing capacity of existing structures, repair or
replace deteriorating or inadequate foundations
or raise settled foundations to their original
elevation.

Micropiles are subjected to lateral load when
they are used in building foundations
(earthquake,wind), basement wall foundations,
retaining wall foundations (Ueblacker,1996),
excavation support, tower and stack
foundations, machine foundations or slope
stabilization (Lizzi,1982; Pearlman et al.,1992;
Palmerton,1984 and Bruce,1988a). Although
micropiles are generally considered to have little
lateral capacity due to their small diameters
compared to conventional driven piles, steel
casing provides significant resistance against
lateral load. Moreover, they are installed within
tight areas, advancing through difficult
formations and obstructions (Pearlman et al.,
1993), and can be constructed with different
inclination angles.

This paper focuses on a single micropile
subjected to simultaneous lateral load and
bending moment. The purpose is to
demonstrate the effect of micropile geometrical
parameters, including diameter, length and
inclination angle, on micropile-soil system
response and to develop a relationship to
estimate the lateral displacement of a micropile.
Numerical Model
Analyses were carried out using ABAQUS finite
element program driven by SIMULIA's vision of
Unified FEA and designed to effectively and
efficiently complement existing processes and
tools for design, production, and data
management. Some of the benefits of ABAQUS
include great efficiency in model generation,
improved correlation between tests and analysis
results, improved data transfer between
simulations, easy sharing of models and results,
and evolution of legacy methods to a more



sophisticated, real-world approach. Analyses
were carried out using a nonlinear analysis.
Micropile and soil were modeled using 3D solid
elements.
The Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion was used to
define the behavior of soil and stabilized soil
around micropile materials and the micropile,
constructed of concrete and steel, was assumed
to be elastic and it maintained within the elastic
range for the presented data.
The mechanical properties of the soil, low
plasticity silty sand that were given from
geotechnical investigations for a hotel in Tabriz,
and micropile are summarized in Tables 1 and
Table 2.
Table 1. Properties of the soil material

C
(KPa)

E
(MPa)

(KN/m
3
)
3 82 9.28 0.35 89.6 16.67

Table 2. Properties of the micropile material

E
(GPa)

(KN/m
3
)

0.2 22

25 concrete
0.3 210 78 Steel case
In order to eliminate the boundary condition
effect, the height and diameter of the soils part
were defined considering the results of
sensitivity analysis, in which one parameter is
defined by increasing it up to the value that
changing it has no impact on the models results
while other parameters are assumed to be
constant. In all modelings, a cylindrical part was
used as the soil part with 15 m height and 8 m
diameter.
The interaction between soil and micropile was
taken into account using surface-to-surface
contact interaction with finite-sliding formulation
and surface-to-surface discretization method
which enforces contact conditions in an average
sense over regions nearby slave nodes rather
than only at individual slave nodes (Node-to-
surface contact discretization). Tangential
behavior was defined using Penalty friction
formulation. And, Hard contact model was
used to define contact pressure-overclosure
relationship in normal behavior.
According to the geometry of the model 20-node
quadratic hexahedral and 4-node linear
tetrahedron elements were used to mesh
micropile and soil respectively. The finite
element mesh used in numerical simulations for
the inclined micropile is depicted in Figure 1.
FHWA (2000) recommends lateral displacement
of micropiles to be limited to 6.4 mm.
Accordingly, the limiting lateral load required to
produce this amount of displacement was
determined. Numerical simulations were
performed for micropiles with different inclination
angles, diameters, and lengths, as presented in
Table 3.


Figure 1. 3D mesh used for the finite element
analysis of the soil-micropile system

Table 3. Range of investigated parameters

NUMERICAL RESULTS
The bending moment to lateral load ratio,
determined by geometrical parameters of the
structure above the micropile, has a significant
effect on the lateral load required to produce
recommended lateral displacement. In this
study this ratio was assumed to be equal to 3 ,
as illustrated in Equation 8 , and the objectives
were to achieve the effect of micropiles
geometrical parameters on the required load to
produce recommended lateral displacement for
structures subjected to static loads and to
develop a relationship to estimate the lateral
displacement of micropiles.

100-250 (mm) Micropiles Diameter
4-11 (m) Micropiles Length
55 5 Micropiles inclination angle



Bending moment to lateral load ratio = M/F = 3
(Equation 1)
Where;
F = Applied Lateral Load (ton)
M = Applied Bending Moment (ton.m)
The Effect of Micropiles Inclination Angle on
Soil-Micropile system response
Battered piles are used to translate lateral loads
along the axis of the pile. In order for the
translation to occur, additional vertical or
opposite battered piles are added to the pile
group and, the pile group system response is
the primary resistance to lateral loads.
Inclined piles subjected to lateral load are
classified into two groups, negative and positive
piles, depending on the formation of slip
surfaces. Negative piles are the group in which
slip surface deflects downward and positive piles
are the group with slip surface deflecting
upward, as illustrated in Figure 2.


Figure 2. negative and positive battered piles
To investigate the behavior of inclined micropiles
and the effect of inclination angle on the
response of soil-micropile system a group of
nonlinear static analysis were performed for
positive and negative inclined micropiles at
different inclination angles to the vertical axis.
Lateral displacement obtained at the ground
surface for both negative and positive inclined
micropiles are plotted versus lateral load and
bending moment in Figure 3.
The results indicate that a negative micropile
has higher lateral load capacity than a positive
micropile. Furthermore, increasing the
inclination angle in negative micropiles causes
to increase lateral load capacity but in positive
micropiles increasing the inclination angle up to
30
o
has contrariwise effect and decreases lateral
load capacity. Increasing the inclination angle
more than 30
o
has no notable effect on the
micropile-soil system response.


Figure 3. load - displacement response of
micropile for negative and positive battered
micropiles (Note: L=8m , D=200mm)
The Effect of Micropiles Diameter and
Length on Soil-Micropile System Response
Studying the effect of micropiles diameter on
soil-micropile system response was conducted
by simulating the 8 meter length negative
battered micropiles with inclination angle of 35
to the vertical axis and various diameters, as
illustrated in Table 3.
The results indicate that increasing the diameter
of micropile increases the lateral load capacity.


Figure 4. load - displacement response of
micropile for negative battered micropiles.
(Note: L=8m , inclination angle=30
o
)
0
3
6
9
12
15
18
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
L
a
t
e
r
a
l

L
a
o
d

(
t
o
n
)


Lateral displacement (mm)
Alpha
Alph0
Series
4
Series
3
Series
2
Series
1
-10
-20
-30
-40
23
B
e
n
d
i
n
g

M
o
m
e
n
t

(
t
o
n
.
m
)

0
3
6
9
12
15
18
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
L
a
t
e
r
a
l

L
o
a
d

(
t
o
n
)

Lateral displacement (mm)
D=100
mm
D=150
mm
D=200
mm
D=250
mm
B
e
n
d
i
n
g

M
o
m
e
n
t

(
t
o
n
.
m
)

=50
o

=40
o

=50
o
=20
o

=10
o
=0
o
=10
o
=20
o
=30
o
=40
o
=30
o
Negative
Micropiles
Positive
Micropile
s



The effect of micropiles length on its load
capacity was investigated by simulating eight
negative battered micropiles with 200 millimeter
diameter and inclination angle of 30
o
and
different lengths in the range of 4-11 m.
Figure 5 presents the lateral displacement of
micropile versus applied lateral load and
bending moment.
The results presented in this figure show that
micropiles capacity increases with length up to a
micropile length of 9 m, after which there is very
negligible effect with further increasing the
length of micropiles.
In comparison to the diameter, increasing the
length of micropile has a significantly less effect
on soil-micropile system response. Thus to
reach the maximum effect, increasing the
diameter is more efficient.

Figure 5. load - displacement response of
micropile for negative battered micropiles.
(Note:D=200 mm , inclination angle=30
o
)
THE PROPOSED EQUATION TO ESTIMATE
LATERAL DISPLACEMENT OF A MICROPILE
Micropiles constructed as the foundation of
different structures are subjected to different
loading conditions. For micropiles subjected to
lateral load and bending moment
simultaneously, the bending moment to lateral
load ratio varies by the geometrical parameters
of the structure above the micropile.
Deeming the fact that every single analysis can
model one particular loading condition, it is
necessary to adopt an approach to cover all
ratios. In order to meet this objective and
eliminate the bending moment to lateral load
ratio, the results of analyses for one particular
micropile (D=200 mm, L=8 m and inclination
angle=30
o
) subjected to loading with the ratios
equal to 1, 2 and 3 were plotted in a 3D diagram
, as illustrated in Figure 6.
Next, the equation of the plane going through
the Load-Displacement curves was calculated
by programming in MATLAB code, Equation 2
and Figure 0.

U = 0.0165F
2
+ 0.0061M
2
+ 0.0011FM + 0.4276F
+ 0.3353M + 0.0181
(Equation 2)
Where;
U = Lateral Displacement (mm)
F = Applied Lateral Load (ton)
M = Applied Bending Moment (ton.m)


Figure 6. load - displacement response
of a negative battered micropile.
(Note:D=200mm, inclination angle=30
o
,
L=8m, loading ratio=1, 2 and 3)

Figure 7. defining the plane which goes
through load-displacement curves.



The lateral displacements calculated by the
Equation 2 were in a good agreement with
those given from ABAQUS modelings. The
average error was 1.8%.
Equation 2 can be used just to estimate the
lateral displacement of negative micropiles with
200 mm diameter, 8 m length, and inclination
angle of 30
o
to the vertical axis. Considering the
numerous types of micropiles constructed in
different projects, it is essential to develop a
more inclusive equation. Thus, the diameter
and length of the micropile were taken into
account during two separate steps, by using the
results of 24 and 96 modelings respectively and
programming in MATLAB code.
Including the Micropiles Diameter in the
Proposed Equation
In order to include the micropiles diameter in
the proposed equation, the following
multivariable interpolation polynomial was
employed:
U = p
1
D
3
+ p
2
F
2
+ p
3
M
2
+ p
4
D
2
+ p
5
F + p
6
M +
p
7
D + p
8
D
2
F + p
9
D
2
M + p
10
DF + p
11
DM + p
12
FM
+ p
13
DFM + p
14

The p
i
unknown coefficients of the employed
equation were obtained using the following
algorithm:
Step 1: set {

,
Where,

are the variables of the

multivariable interpolation polynomial U,

is
the magnitude of displacement calculated by
modeling in ABAQUS software, and n is the
number of input data.
Step 2: introduce the multivariable interpolation
polynomial U with m terms and the unknown
coefficients of

, .
Step 3: compute the following summation:

Step 4: compute the following terms:

,
Step 5: solve the m by m linear system:

,
And calculate

Step 6: set the computed

in the multivariable
interpolation polynomial U.
The result of processing ABAQUS outputs by
the mentioned algorithm is presented below
which can be used for micropiles with inclination
angle of 30
o
to the vertical axis an 8 m length.
U = (-2.881610
3
)D
3
+ 0.0155F
2
+ 0.0033M
2
+
(1.488110
3
)D
2
+ 2.4026F + 4.8097M +
(-238.7819)D + 48.4873D
2
F + 90.2667D
2
M +
(-20.4271)DF + (-40.9403)DM + 0.2010FM +
(-0.8215)DFM + 11.7831
(Equation 3)
Where;
U = Lateral Displacement (mm)
F = Applied Lateral Load (ton)
M = Applied Bending Moment (ton.m)
D = Micropiles Diameter (mm)
Including the Micropiles Length in the
Proposed Equation
In the next step, in order to include the length of
micropile in the proposed equation the results of
96 modelings in the ABAQUS software were
processed by programming in MATLAB code
using the mentioned algorithm.
The result of processing ABAQUS outputs is
presented as Equation 4 and Table .4

(Equation 4)




Where:
U = Lateral Displacement (mm)
F = Applied Lateral Load (ton)
M = Applied Bending Moment (ton.m)
D = Micropiles Diameter (mm)
L = Micropiles Length (m)



Table 4. P
ijk
coefficients
-
3.004610
3

-265.7225

1.602710
3

-5.4255

-0.1837

5455.0

52.7646

2.9287

0.0178

84.8148

.40333

5455.

-0.7697

-0.0172

1.7089

-6.066410
-4

548290

-23.2419

13.6886

0.103

-39.4149

0 other 0.0896

-0.0359

The precision of the computation of
displacement using Equation3 and Equation4
in comparison to those given from ABAQUS was
3.2%. Which confirms there is a good
agreement between the displacements
calculated using the proposed equations and
given from ABAQUS modelings.
Conclusions
This paper presented three-dimensional finite
element analyses of single micropile subjected
to simultaneous lateral load and bending
moment, and the effect of micropiles
geometrical parameters on soil-micropile system
response was investigated.
The results of numerical analyses showed that
negative micropiles have higher lateral load
capacity than positive micropiles. They also
indicated that increasing the inclination angle in
negative micropiles increased lateral load
capacity but in positive micropiles increasing the
inclination angle up to 30
o
had contrariwise
effect and decreased lateral load capacity.
Increasing the inclination angle more than 30
o
in
positive micropiles had no notable effect on the
micropile-soil system response.
The results of this study further indicated that
increasing the diameter and the length of
micropile lead to increased bearing capacity.
Increasing the length more than 9 meter

had no
effect on the micropile-soil system response.
Increasing micropile diameter had a significantly
larger effect on increasing micropile load-
carrying capacity.
A relationship was developed from statistical
regression analysis of the finite element
modeling computations to estimate the lateral
displacement of micropiles inclined at an angle
of 30
o
in silty sands.
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