Finite element analysis on impact of foundation treatment in bridgehead transition section upon bridge piles

In order to decrease relative settlement, foundation treatment plays an extremely important role in bridgehead transition section, especially, the situation of building the bridge piles firstly, and then processing piles. On the basis of engineering practice, the authors analyzed the influence of foundation treatment on bridge piles in bridgehead transition section by finite-element method (FEM). This research has positive significance in predicting displacement of bridge pile, directing construction of foundation treatment, and improving quality of engineering and so forth.

Transient response of piles-bridge under horizontal excitation

Moving ships and other objects drifting on water often impact a bridge' s pile foundations. The mechanical model of the piles-bridge structure under horizontal forcing was established, and a time-domain approach based on Finite-difference Method was developed for analyzing the dynamic response of the piles-bridge structure. For a single pile, good agreement between two computed results validated the present approach.The slenderness ratio of the pile, the pile-soil stiffness ratio and the type of the structure influence the dynamic response of the piles-bridge structure. The computed results showed that the stiffness of the structure determines the dynamic response of the piles-bridge structure under horizontal forcing.

Experimental study on seismic reinforcement of bridge foundation on silty clay landslide with inclined interlayer

A shaking table test for a bridge foundation reinforced by anti-slide piles on a silty clay landslide model with an inclined interlayer was performed.The deformation characteristics of the bridge foundation piles and anti-slide piles were analyzed in different loading conditions.The dynamic response law of a silty clay landslide with an inclined interlayer was summarized.The spacing between the rear anti-slide piles and bridge foundation should be reasonably controlled according to the seismic fortification requirements,to avoid the two peaks in the forced deformation of the bridge foundation piles.The“blocking effect”of the bridge foundation piles reduced the deformation of the forward anti-slide piles.The stress-strain response of silty clay was intensified as the vibration wave field appeared on the slope.Since the vibration intensified,the thrust distribution of the landslide underwent a process of shifting from triangle to inverted trapezoid,the difference in the acceleration response between the bearing platform and silty clay landslide tended to decrease,and the spectrum amplitude near the natural vibration frequency increased.The rear anti-slide piles were able to slow down the shear deformation of the soil in front of the piles and avoid excessive acceleration response of the bridge foundation piles.

Construction Technology of Pile Foundation for Subway Tunnel Crossing Bridge

Urban infrastructure has become more complex with the rapid development of urban transportation networks.In urban environments with limited space,construction of facilities like subways and bridges may mutually influence each other,especially when subway construction requires passing under bridges.In such cases,pile foundation replacement technology is often necessary.However,this technology is highly specialized,with a lengthy and risky construction period,and high costs.Personnel must be proficient in key technical aspects to ensure construction quality.This article discusses the technical principle,construction process,and core technology of pile foundation replacement,along with the application of this technology in subway tunnel crossing bridge projects,supported by engineering examples for reference.

A computational method for post-construction settlement of high-speed railway bridge pile foundation considering soil creep effect

Based on reasonable assumptions that simplified the calculational model,a simple and practical method was proposed to calculate the post-construction settlement of high-speed railway bridge pile foundation by using the Mesri creep model to describe the soil characteristics and the Mindlin-Geddes method considering pile diameter to calculate the vertical additional stress of pile bottom.A program named CPPS was designed for this method to calculate the post-construction settlement of a high-speed railway bridge pile foundation.The result indicates that the post-construction settlement in 100 years meets the requirements of the engineering specifications,and in the first two decades,the post-construction settlement is about 80% of its total settlement,while the settlement in the rest eighty years tends to be stable.Compared with the measured settlement after laying railway tracks,the calculational result is closed to that of the measured,and the results are conservative with a high computational accuracy.It is noted that the method can be used to calculate the post-construction settlement for the preliminary design of high-speed railway bridge pile foundation.

Influence of water-rich tunnel by shield tunneling on existing bridge pile foundation in layered soils

At present,shield tunneling often needs to pass through a large number of bridge pile foundations.However,there are few studies on the influence of shield tunneling on adjacent pile foundations by combining with groundwater seepage.Based on Winkler model,the calculation equations of shield tunneling on vertical and horizontal displacement of adjacent bridge pile are derived.Meanwhile,full and part three-dimensional finite element models are established to analyze the trend of bridge pier settlement,ground surface settlement trough,vertical and horizontal displacement of the pile and pile stress under three calculation conditions,i.e.,not considering groundwater effect,considering stable groundwater effect and fluid-soil interaction.The results show that the calculated value is small when the effect of groundwater is not considered;the seepage velocity of the soil above the excavation face is faster than that of the surrounding soil under fluid-soil interaction,and after the shield passing,the groundwater on both sides shows a flow trend of“U”shape on the ground surface supplying to the upper part of the tunnel;the vertical displacement of the pile body is bounded by the horizontal position of the top of the tunnel,the upper pile body settles,and the lower pile body deforms upward.The horizontal displacement of pile body presents a continuous“S”shape distribution,causing stress concentration near the tunnel.The calculated results of fluid-soil interaction are in good agreement with the field measured data and accord with the actual situation.

Shake table test of soil-pile groups-bridge structure interaction in liquefiable ground

This paper describes a shake table test study on the seismic response of low-cap pile groups and a bridge structure in liquefiable ground. The soil profile, contained in a large-scale laminar shear box, consisted of a horizontally saturated sand layer overlaid with a silty clay layer, with the simulated low-cap pile groups embedded. The container was excited in three E1 Centro earthquake events of different levels. Test results indicate that excessive pore pressure （EPP） during slight shaking only slightly accumulated, and the accumulation mainly occurred during strong shaking. The EPP was gradually enhanced as the amplitude and duration of the input acceleration increased. The acceleration response of the sand was remarkably influenced by soil liquefaction. As soil liquefaction occurred, the peak sand displacement gradually lagged behind the input acceleration; meanwhile, the sand displacement exhibited an increasing effect on the bending moment of the pile, and acceleration responses of the pile and the sand layer gradually changed from decreasing to increasing in the vertical direction from the bottom to the top. A jump variation of the bending moment on the pile was observed near the soil interface in all three input earthquake events. It is thought that the shake table tests could provide the groundwork for further seismic performance studies of low-cap pile groups used in bridges located on liquefiable groun.

Long-term settlement prediction of high-speed railway bridge pile foundation

The process and characteristics of loading on high-speed railway bridge pile foundation were firstly obtained by means of field research and analysis,and the corresponding loading function was presented.One-dimensional consolidation equation of elastic multilayered soils was then established with single drainage or double drainages under multilevel loading.Moreover,the formulas for calculating effective stress and settlement were derived from the Laplace numerical inversion transform.The three-dimensional composite analysis method of bridge pile group was improved,where the actual load conditions of pile foundation could be simulated,and the consolidation characteristics of soil layers beneath pile were also taken into account.Eventually,a corresponding program named LTPGS was developed to improve the calculation efficiency.The comparison between long-term settlement obtained from the proposed method and the in-situ measurements of pile foundation was illustrated,and a close agreement is obtained.The error between computed and measured results is less than 1 mm,and it gradually reduces with time.It is shown that the proposed method can effectively simulate the long-term settlement of pile foundation and program LTPGS can provide a reliable estimation.

Research on Deformation and Force of Bridge Pile Foundation on High and Steep Slope in Mountainous Area

With the rapid development of my country’s economy, the demand for infrastructure construction is also increasing. However, in most areas of China, the terrains are mountainous and hilly. Some projects have to be built on steep slopes. Choosing viaducts or half-bridges on high-steep slopes is not only conducive to the protection of the surrounding environment, but also conducive to the stability of the slope. Bridges usually choose the form of pile foundation-high pier bridge. This paper uses numerical simulation to study and analyze the bridge pile foundation of the slope section. Relying on actual engineering, use the finite element software ABAQUS6.14 to establish a three-dimensional finite element model to study the bearing mechanism and mechanical characteristics of the pile foundation under vertical load, horizontal load and inclined load, discuss the influence of the nature of the soil around the pile and the stiffness of the pile body on the deformation and internal force of the bridge pile foundation in the slope section. The analysis results show that the horizontal load has a great influence on the horizontal displacement of the pile, but has a small influence on the vertical displacement, and the vertical load is just the opposite. Inclined load has obvious “p-Δ” effect. The increase in soil elastic modulus and pile stiffness will reduce the displacement of the pile foundation, but after reaching a certain range, the displacement of the pile foundation will tend to be stable. Therefore, in actual engineering, if the displacement of the pile foundation fails to meet the requirements, the hardness of the soil and the stiffness of the pile can be appropriately increased, but not blindly.

Comprehensive Detection and Analysis of Defects in Foundation Pile of Bridge

In the process of piling ,there are many various defects in foundation pile of bridge such as mud-bearing,sediment-bearing, isolation, honeycomb, broken piles, and so on, showing physical and mechanical features of low-density and low-intensity. In fact, by using the comprehensive detection of acoustic transmission method, the reflected wave method as well as drill coring sample method, and the rational utilization of engineering geological condition in field, the characteristics, size and location of common defects of foundation pile of bridge can be accurately detected and judged and the integrity of piles and the quality of concrete can be impersonally estimated.comprehensive detecting and analyzing methods on this kind of piles are introduced briefly. The physical characters of defects and basic features of detecting curves and their corresponding relation are emphasized, and causes are analyzed in in detail in this paper.

Design and construction of scour protection for deep-water group pile foundation structures of two pylons in the Sutong Bridge project

Sutong Bridge,as a world-record cable-stayed bridge with its main span exceeding 1 000 m constructed in Yangtze River estuary region in China,is located at a site with complicated hydrologic conditions and poor geotechnical conditions and therefore,scour protection will be a decisive factor for ensuring smooth and successful construction of this bridge.This paper,starting from structural description of deep-water group pile foundation,analyzes impact to the bridge safety introduced by scour and its protection and further presents different solutions of scour protection for foundation structures of this bridge.

Time-dependent deviation of bridge pile foundations caused by adjacent large-area surcharge loads in soft soils and its preventive measures

Time-dependent characteristics(TDCs)have been neglected in most previous studies investigating the deviation mechanisms of bridge pile foundations and evaluating the effectiveness of preventive measures.In this study,the stress-strain-time characteristics of soft soils were illustrated by consolidation-creep tests based on a typical engineering case.An extended Koppejan model was developed and then embedded in a finite element(FE)model via a user-material subroutine(UMAT).Based on the validated FE model,the time-dependent deformation mechanism of the pile foundation was revealed,and the preventive effect of applying micropiles and stress-release holes to control the deviation was investigated.The results show that the calculated maximum lateral displacement of the cap differs from the measured one by 6.5%,indicating that the derived extended Koppejan model reproduced the deviation process of the bridge cap-pile foundation with time.The additional load acting on the pile side caused by soil lateral deformation was mainly concentrated within the soft soil layer and increased with the increase in load duration.Compared with t=3 d(where t is surcharge time),the maximum lateral additional pressure acting on Pile 2#increased by approximately 47.0%at t=224 d.For bridge pile foundation deviation in deep soft soils,stress-release holes can provide better prevention compared to micropiles and are therefore recommended.

Numerical simulation and analysis of the pile underpinning technology used in shield tunnel crossings on bridge pile foundations

Currently,the pile foundation underpinning technology is widely used when underground transportation infrastructure passes through existing buildings or structures in urban areas.This study aims to investigate stress transfer mechanisms in pile foundations during an underpinning process as well as the influence of shield tunnel construction on pile stability.To this end,the pile foundation underpinning technology used in China’s Shenzhen Metro Line 10 crossing through the bridge pile foundation group of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen highway was analyzed in detailed.The refined numerical simulation of the pile foundation underpinning and shield tunnel construction processes were conducted using the fast Lagrangian analysis of continua in 3 dimensions(FLAC3D)software.The results demonstrate that after the pile foundation underpinned,the previous bridge load system of bridge panel→pile foundation→bearing soil would transform into a bridge panel→existing pile foundation→new underpinning pile→deep bearing soil stratum structure.The overlying load on the underpinned pile could be effectively transferred to a new underpinning pile.In the process of underpinning and tunnel excavation,the settlement and deformation of the foundation can improve the tip resistance and shaft friction of piles,which in turn,can reduce the maximum principal stress in the pile foundation group.The deformation of the bridge pile foundation is mainly caused by ground loss and excavation disturbance generated during shield tunneling as the settlement induced by pile foundation underpinning accounts for approximately 20%-30% of the total settlement.The reduction effects of settlement deformation,lateral displacement,and principal stress are mainly manifested in underpinning piles,while the non-underpinning pile exhibits minimal variation.Meanwhile,the deformation of the segment lining structure of the shield tunnel primarily occurs near the underpinning area of the pile foundation,and it is mainly settlement deformation with a small horizontal displacement.

Field study on performance of new technique of geosynthetic-reinforced and pile-supported embankment at bridge approach

Vehicle bumps at a bridge approach caused by the differential settlement between a bridge and an adjacent backfill embankment are one of the most difficult problems in geotechnical engineering. Large vehicle bumps make drivers uncomfortable and cause large impact loads on vehicles and the bridge abutment. A new ground-improvement technique called fixed-geosynthetic-reinforced and pile-supported embankment(FGT embankment) was developed and used to alleviate vehicle bumps at a trial bridge-approach site located in central China. To distribute the differential settlement between the bridge and adjacent backfill embankment over a long transition zone, the following three techniques were used at the trial bridge-approach site:(a) the FGT embankment,(b) conventional geosynthetic-reinforced and pile-supported embankment(CT embankment), and(c) geosynthetic-reinforced embankment without piles(GR embankment). The performance of all three techniques in the field trial was investigated by field measurements involving earth pressure cells, geosynthetic deformation sensors, and settlement gauges. The FGT and CT embankments exhibited better performance than the GR embankment. Compared with the CT embankment, the FGT embankment was more effective at ground improvement. At an elevation of 4.0 m from the base of the embankment, the pressures below the geosynthetic were smaller than those above the geosynthetic at the closest measurement point. The difference between the pressures between above and below the geosynthetic tended to increase with the embankment height.