J. Cent. South Univ. Technol.

(2008) 15: 75−80

DOI: 10.1007/s11771−008−0016−9

3D finite element analysis on pile-soil interaction of passive pile group

ZHAO Ming-hua(赵明华), LIU Dun-ping(刘敦平), ZHANG Ling (张 玲), JIANG Chong(蒋 冲)

(Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China)

Abstract：The interaction between pile and soft soil of the passive pile group subjected to soil movement was analyzed with
three-dimensional finite element model by using ANSYS software. The soil was assumed to be elastic-plastic complying with the
Drucker-Prager yield criterion in the analysis. The large displacement of soil was considered and contact elements were used to
evaluate the interaction between pile and soil. The influences of soil depth of layer and number of piles on the lateral pressure of the
pile were investigated, and the lateral pressure distributions on the (2×1) pile group and on the (2×2) pile group were compared.
The results show that the adjacent surcharge may result in significant lateral movement of the soft soil and considerable pressure on
the pile. The pressure acting on the row near the surcharge is higher than that on the other row, due to the “barrier” and arching
effects in pile groups. The passive load and its distribution should be taken into account in the design of the passive piles.

Key words：pile-soil interaction; passive pile group; soft soil; lateral pressure; deformation; 3D finite element analysis

1 Introduction BRANSBY and SPRINGMAN[9] used three-dimensional

The majority of piles are designed to support
“active” loads, that is, loads from superstructure are
directly transferred to the pile foundation by the cap.
However, in many cases, piles are not designed to
withstand “passive” loads, which are created by the
deformation and movement of soil surrounding the piles
due to the weight of soil and the surcharge. These
passive loads may lead to structural distress or failure.
Examples of these cases include piles supporting bridge
abutments adjacent to embankment, existing pile
foundations adjacent to pile driving, excavation or
tunneling operations, and pile foundations in moving
slopes.
Several empirical and numerical methods have been
proposed for analyzing the response of single pile and
pile group subjected to lateral loading from horizontal
soil movements. A comprehensive review on these
methods has been made by STEWART et al[1]. Most of
the numerical methods that have been proposed utilize
the finite element method[2−11] or the finite differential
method[12−13]. For pile groups, the plane strain finite
element method was adopted by STEWART et al[2]. In
the study by STEWART et al, the piles were represented
by equivalent sheet-pile walls. The behavior of sheet-pile
wall system was assumed to be dependent on
predetermined relationship between the pressure and
relative soil displacement (soil movement past piles), and
the soil-pile interaction was not modeled. In a later study,
finite element method, in which relatively coarse mesh
was used due to limited computing capacity at that time,
and the distribution of soil contact stress around piles
was not investigated. In fact, this type of pile-soil
interaction involves nonlinearities such as plasticity of
soil, large displacement and pile-soil contact. The
influencing factors of the nonlinearity include properties
and depth of soft soil layer, diameter, number and
spacing of piles, and constraints from upper structure.
Up to date, limited studies on these influencing factors
have been found.
In this work, the distribution of soil contact stress
around piles and the lateral pressure were obtained,
the pile groups deformations in different rows were
investigated, and the lateral pressures on the (2×1) pile
group and on the (2×2) pile group were compared.
2 Analytical model
The basic problem of a passive pile group subjected
to soil movement is shown in Fig.1, where h1 is the depth
of the soft soil layer, h2 is the depth of stiffer stratum, and
L is the total pile embedded length.
In reality, both vertical and lateral soil movements
always concurrently occur[14−16]. In order to simplify the
problem, only the lateral soil movement was analyzed in
this paper. In the analysis, pile was modeled as elastic
material, whereas soil was assumed to be elastic-plastic

Foundation item: Project(50378036) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China
Received date: 2007−06−25; Accepted date: 2007−08−19
Corresponding author: ZHAO Ming-hua, Professor; Tel: +86−731−8821590; E-mail: mhzhaohd@21cn.com
76 J. Cent. South Univ. Technol. (2008) 15: 75−80
complying with the Drucker-Prager yield criterion. The paper, and the arrangement of piles is shown in Fig.4.
surface-surface contact elements were used to evaluate
the interaction between pile and soil. The pile surface
was established as “target” surface (Targe 170), and the
soil surface contacting the pile as “contact” surface
(Contac 174), these two surfaces got together to
comprise the “contact pair”. Processing of the
three-dimensional problem was carried out by ANSYS
software in a high-powered computer workstation. The
Fig.4 Arrangement of piles: (a) (2×1) Pile group; (b) (2×2)
normal contact stresses acting on the pile are shown in
Pile group
Fig.2.
3 (2×1) Pile group

The finite element mesh of (2×1) pile group is

shown in Fig.5. In order to investigate the response of
the pile group in soft soil layer, the smaller elements
were used in the mesh. The geometry and material
parameters were employed in the study by BRANSBY
and SPRINGMAN[9], d=1.27 m, L=19 m, h1=6 m, h2=
13 m, q=200 kPa. The material parameters can be seen in
Table 1.

Fig.1 Schematic diagram of pile group subjected to

soil movement

Fig.5 3D finite element model for analysis of (2×1) pile group

Table 1 Material parameters for pile and soil

Elastic Cohesive Internal
Fig.2 Schematic diagram of normal contact stresses on pile Poisson
Item modulus force friction
ratio
/MPa /kPa angle/(˚)
By projecting the normal contact stresses on the Pile 30 000 0.20
x-axis, the resultant force per unit length, F, in that
direction was calculated. The average lateral pressure on Soft soil 15 0.30 6 12
pile was then p=F/d, as illustrated in Fig.3. Stiffer
30 0.35 20 30
statum

Fig.6(a) shows that the bending deformations of the

Fig.3 Schematic diagram of average lateral pressure
Two types of pile groups were investigated in this
piles are very serious, especially in the soft soil layer. In
addition, the surrounding soil reaches its plastic state, as
shown in Fig.6(b).
Average lateral pressures on the piles are shown in
Fig.7 for a surcharge of 200 kPa. The pressure
distributions of this study agree well with the deduced
values from the double differentiation of centrifuge
bending moment data[9]. The results are also in accor-
dance with the those of BRANSBY and SPRINGMAN
J. Cent. South Univ. Technol. (2008) 15: 75−80
Fig.6 Schematic diagrams of deformed piles(a) and plastic zone
of soil(b)
Fig.7 Average lateral pressure on (2×1) pile group: (a) Rear
pile; (b) Front pile
77
[9]
in the soft soil layer . The pile behavior in the stiffer
stratum is not very well replicated due to both the coarse
mesh and the simplistic constitutive model used in the
study by BRANSBY and SPRINGMAN[9], adapting to
limited computing capacity. In practice engineering,
lateral pressures on the piles embedded in stiffer stratum
will decrease with increasing embedding depth. A finer
mesh combined with a more complex constitutive model
for the stiffer stratum can solve this problem in this
work.
Three different horizontal cross-sections of the piles
were investigated. In the first case, the cross-section is
2 m below the cap (in the soft soil layer); in the second
case, the cross-section is 8 m below the cap (in the stiffer
stratum); and in the third case, the cross-section is 16 m
below the cap (near the pile bottom). The distributions of
normal contact stresses are shown in Fig.8. Separation
appears between soil and pile, where the contact stresses
come to zero. This phenomenon exists only when the
contact elements are used between the soil and pile. Due
to resistance to soil movement of the rear pile, which
functions as a “barrier” around the front pile, the contact
stresses and lateral pressures on the front pile are less
than those on the rear pile.
Fig.9 shows the pressures acting mainly on the rear
pile due to the “barrier” effect from the rear pile near the
surcharge in the stiffer ground. For the soft ground, soil
will move laterally past the piles under the action of
surcharge, causing passive lateral pressures both on rear
pile and front pile. The “barrier” effect is weakened, as
shown in Figs.10 and 11. It is also been found that the
pressures on the piles are rightward in the soft soil layer.
In contrast, the pressures are leftward below the interface
between the soft soil layer and the stiffer stratum.
4 (2×2) Pile group
The finite element mesh of (2×2) pile group is
shown in Fig.12. The geometry and material parameters
are the same as those of the (2×1) pile group. The
deformation of the (2×2) pile group is shown in Fig.13.
Compared with the (2×1) pile group, the resistance
to soil movements of the (2×2) pile group is more
noticeable. The reasons cover two important aspects. On
the one hand, the (2×2) pile group stiffness is greater
than that of the (2×1) pile group as a whole, on the other
hand, for the (2×2) pile group, the soil arching effect is
formed between the pile and pile in the same row[17],
except for the “barrier” effect from the rear piles.
However, the soil arching effect will not come into being
for the (2×1) pile group. For the same pile rows, the
pressures distributions of the (2×2) pile group are very
similar to those of the (2×1) pile group, but the values
are less than those on the (2×1) pile group, as shown in
Figs.14 and 15.
78 J. Cent. South Univ. Technol. (2008) 15: 75−80

Fig.8 Distributions of normal contact stresses on (2×1) pile group (in kPa): (a) 2 m Below pile cap of rear pile; (b) 2 m Below pile
cap of front pile; (c) 8 m Below pile cap of rear pile; (d) 8 m Below pile cap of front pile; (e) 16 m Below pile cap of rear pile;
(f) 16 m Below pile cap of front pile
J. Cent. South Univ. Technol. (2008) 15: 75−80 79

Fig.9 Average lateral pressures on piles for stiffer ground

Fig.13 Schematic diagram of deformed (2×2) pile group

Fig.10 Average lateral pressures on piles for 10 m-thickness

soft ground

Fig.14 Comparison of average lateral pressures on rear piles for

different pile groups

Fig.11 Average lateral pressures on piles for soft ground

Fig.15 Comparison of average lateral pressures on front piles

for different pile groups

5 Conclusions

1) Three-dimensional finite element modeling of

method (2×1) and (2×2) passive pile groups loaded by
Fig.12 3D finite element model for analysis of (2×2) pile group lateral soil movements due to adjacent surcharge is
80
presented, in which the nonlinearities of the plasticity of
soil, large displacement and pile-soil contact are
considered. The normal pile-soil contact stress and the
average lateral pressure along the pile are obtained.
2) The lateral soft soil movement and the pile-soil
interaction are revealed using three-dimensional finite
element method. The separation between pile and soil is
reasonably modeled and the lateral pressure acting on the
pile is properly estimated.
3) The adjacent surcharge may result in significant
lateral movement of the soft soil and considerable
pressure on the pile is high due to adjacent surcharge,
which should be taken into account in the design of
passive piles.
4) The pressures on varying rows of pile groups are
different. The pressure acting on the row near the
surcharge is higher than that on the other row due to the
“barrier” and arching effects in pile groups.
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(Edited by CHEN Wei-ping)