A hypoplastic macroelement for single vertical piles in sand subject to three-dimensional loading conditions

• Published in: Acta geotechnica Vol. 11; no. 2; pp. 373 - 390
• Main Authors: Li, Zheng, Kotronis, Panagiotis, Escoffier, Sandra, Tamagnini, Claudio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.04.2016; Springer Nature B.V; Springer Verlag
• Subjects: 3-D technology; Building foundations; Civil Engineering; Complex Fluids and Microfluidics; Constitutive relationships; Engineering; Engineering Sciences; Fatigue (materials); Foundations; Geoengineering; Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; Geotechnics; Hydraulics; Materials; Mathematical analysis; Mathematical models; Mechanics; Piles; Research Paper; Sand; Sand & gravel; Soft and Granular Matter; Soil Science & Conservation; Soils; Solid Mechanics; Three dimensional; Soil-structure interaction; Hypoplasticity; Foundation; Macroelement; Pile
• ISSN: 1861-1125; 1861-1133
• DOI: 10.1007/s11440-015-0415-7

This paper presents a novel macroelement for single vertical piles in sand developed within the hypo-plasticity theory, where the incremental nonlinear constitutive equations are defined in terms of generalized forces, displacements and rotations. Inspired from the macroelement for shallow foundations of Salciarini and Tamagnini (Acta Geotech, 4(3):163–176, 2009 ), the new element adopts the “intergranular displacement” mutuated from Niemunis and Herle (Mech Cohes Frict Mater, 2:279–299, 1997 ) to reproduce the behavior under cyclic loading. Analytical and numerical strategies are provided to calibrate the macroelement’s parameters. Comparisons with experimental results show the performance of the macroelement that while being simple and computational fast is suitable for finite element calculations and engineering design.