Pile Raft Foundation Analysis

www.midasuser.com

midas GTS NX
midas Soilworks

Index
Introduction : Pile raft foundation,Need, Favorable/unfavorable conditions
Design Approach

Numerical Analysis: Need, Preliminary/Complete Analysis

Case Study: Modelling of SuperStructure & SubStructure in GTS NX,
Advantages

Structural Soil Model : Rigid & flexible foundation,Determination of Soil

Spring
Introduction to P-Y non linear Analysis: Soilworks

Pile-raft foundation

Project Application: Kingdom Tower

Consultant: Langan International

Foundations which make use of raft and piles to reduce differential settlements leading to
considerable economy are referred to as pile-enhanced raft or Pile raft Foundations
www.midasuser.com

Need for Pile-Raft foundation

1)
2)
3)
4)

Reduce the maximum Settlement

Settlement
tlement
Control Differential settlement
Economical design
Lateral loads

www.midasuser.com

Favorable Conditions for Pile-Raft

According to Poulos, following Soil profiles are favorable for Pile-raft
a) Soil profiles consisting of relatively stiff clays
b) Soil profiles consisting of relatively dense sands

Unfavorable Conditions for Pile-Raft

Situations which may be unfavorable to pile raft foundation
a) Soil profiles containing soft clays near the surface
b) Soil profiles containing loose sands near the surface
c) Soil profiles which contain soft compressible layers at shallow depths
d) Soil profiles which are likely to undergo consolidation settlements due to external causes
e) Soil profiles which are likely to undergo swelling movements due to external causes

www.midasuser.com

Two Stage Design process

1) Approximate preliminary Stage
It is just to assess the feasibility of Pile-raft foundation for the project and estimation of the required
number of piles to satisfy design requirements

2) Complete analysis procedure

It is to obtain detailed design information
a) Spacing of the Piles
b) Pile diameter
c) Pile location/Arrangement of Piles

www.midasuser.com

www.midasuser.com

In preliminary analysis one need to check the feasibility of pile raft and at least predict with the minimum
number of piles meeting the design requirements

www.midasuser.com

It is to obtain detailed design information

a) Spacing of the Piles- Hit & Trial Approach
b) Pile diameter- parametric Study
oach
c) Pile location/Arrangement of Piles- Hit & Trial Approach

www.en.midasuser.com

Pile raft Foundation

Raft Foundation
www.en.midasuser.com

With Raft

With Pile Raft

% Reduction in
displacement

3.96

2.38

39.89

3.3

2.15

34.84

3.96

2.4

39.39

3.3

2.16

34.67

Maximum

3.96

2.40

39.14

Minimum

1.46

1.08

26.57

Differential Settlement

2.49

1.33

46.51

Displacement(mm)

Pile raft Foundation helps in reducing maximum Settlement and has considerable
effect in reducing differential settlements

www.en.midasuser.com

Advantages:
1) Real ground Simulation considering Sub surface Soil profile variation
2) Considering SSI to evaluate Pile-raft Analysis
3) Dynamic analysis of whole structure considering damping of Soil

Response Spectra Analysis-Displacement contours

www.en.midasuser.com

www.midasuser.com

Spring Stiffness
The K-value(Winkler Spring or modulus of Subgrade reaction) is the ratio of
pressure over displacement

K=p/
Foundation response
Significant differences in response between Winkler and Continuum models
- Rigid foundations
- Flexible Foundations

www.en.midasuser.com

www.midasuser.com

www.midasuser.com

Solution adopted:
Approximate Approach
1) Stiffness of outermost springs should be increased to account for increase in soil rigidity.
- For Stiff Soil, outer springs stiffness may increased by 30-40%
- For Soft Soil, they may need to be increased by 2-3 times!

Generate Building with raft as plate

element with fixed boundary
condition

Run the analysis and obtain reaction at

each node of the plate element

Generate the raft with same meshing and soil

mass in GTS NX and apply the reaction on each
node as obtained in previous step
www.midasuser.com

Run the analysis in GTS NX and obtain

displacement at each node
K=P/

Continuum model Settlements

Structural model Settlements

www.midasuser.com

P-Y Non Linear Analysis

PL
P

Layer A
y
P

Layer B
y

Layer C

P
y

Layer D

Points to be noted:
1. Different p-y curves have been developed for
different soil types.
2. Reflects nonlinear behavior of soil.
3. Analysis summary
-Pile : divided beam
-Soil : nonlinear spring ( p-y curve : input
parameter)
1) Calculate the deflection of each pile segment
2) Depending on the deflection, calculate soil
resistance from the p-y curve
3) Deflections and soil pressures are
interconnected
4) Keep iteration to obtain the correct value
5) Based on finite difference method

www.midasuser.com

Learnings:
1) Design Approach of Pile-raft using numerical analysis
2) Consider of Superstructure model from midas Gen to midas GTS NX
3) Determination of Spring Stiffness for Structural model
4) 3D Modelling of Pile-raft foundation in GTS NX
5) Effectives of pile-raft in reducing differential Settlement

1-23