TOWARDS A PERFORMANCE-BASED DESIGN OF PILED FOUNDATIONS: A NOVEL ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK FOR PREDICTING PILE RESPONSE IN SAND

In this work a novel analytical framework for the prediction of cast-in-situ piles response in sand is proposed. First, the paper describes an effective formulation for the evaluation of the shaft loadsettlement response accounting for the horizontal stress increase during the loading process produced by the dilatancy occurring in the shear band. Second, an analytical solution, based on the well-known similarities between the pile tip behaviour and that of an expanding spherical cavity in an elasto-plastic medium, is proposed. The proposed methods require standard input parameters, available from ordinary in situ and laboratory tests performed in current practice. The accuracy of the proposed analytical tools is verified against well-documented full scale pile load tests.