Granular Pile Settlement Prediction on Varying Soil Strata: FEM Approach

This paper presents the outcomes of the settlement profile of granular piles made with recycled aggregates reinforced in soft clay. The finite element analysis was applied to analyze the load-settlement response and time-dependent excess pore water pressure profile with variation in geometry of enhanced granular pile. Various sectional soil stratum cases have been examined, including variation in the spacing of granular piles on homogenous ground conditions and variation in both spacing and sectional shape. The investigation reveals that the increment in pile spacing leads to an increase in the peak of excess pore water pressure profile for all the materials. Moreover, increasing the penetration of granular piles improves the dissipation rate and load-carrying capacity. The outcome prevails that the lowest excess pore water pressure was recorded for recycled brick and the highest for recycled concrete aggregate. Similarly, the comparisons were also shown for limestone, marble, granite, and sandstone. The results of this investigation were suitable for soft soil improvement in filler materials and load-bearing structures.