Investigation of the Scale Effect on the Static and Seismic Response of an Opened Ended Pipe Pile

• Published in: Transportation infrastructure geotechnology 2024-08, Vol.11 (4), p.1462-1491
• Main Authors: Al-Jeznawi, Duaa, Jais, I. B. Mohamed, Albusoda, Bushra S., Alzabeebee, Saif, Al-Janabi, Musab Aied Qissab, Keawsawasvong, Suraparb
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Building Materials; Cohesionless soils; Engineering; Finite element method; Foundations; Friction resistance; Geoengineering; Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; Ground motion; Hydraulics; Liquefaction; Pile settlement; Piles; Pipe piles; Saturated soils; Scale effect; Scale models; Scaling; Scaling factors; Seismic response; Soil; Soil analysis; Soil resistance; Soil surfaces; Technical Paper
• ISSN: 2196-7202; 2196-7210
• DOI: 10.1007/s40515-023-00330-1

The effect of scale factor on the static and seismic response of an open-ended pipe pile is examined in this study with a focus on the pile plugging phenomenon using finite element analysis. The scenarios of open-ended pipe piles embedded in dry and saturated cohesionless soils were analyzed. The effects of different scaling factors (1 (small physical model), 10, 20, 35 (full-scale)) were considered. The results revealed that the maximum frictional resistance is observed at the tip of the soil plug and the maximum liquefaction ratio is observed around the pile shaft and near the soil surface. In addition, the liquefaction ratio is observed to increase with increasing ground motion intensity, with the maximum value occurring at the peak ground acceleration, followed by a significant pile settlement. Overall, the main outputs of the scaled models were normalized to illustrate the differences in the results and provide insight into the scaling effects. Importantly, scaling factors were proposed for open-ended pipe piles embedded in dry and cohesionless soils. These factors could be used to extrapolate the results of small-scale models or to scale down full-scale problems to enable their modeling in 1-g small-scale models.