A SIMPLIFIED NUMERICAL METHOD OF PREDICTING SETTLEMENTS ON AX- IALLY STRESSED PILES

Resumo

The aim of this article is to simulate soil-structure interaction on multi-story buildings with
deep foundations (building + pile cap) using a simple numerical model via the Winkler model, based on
Mindlin’s equations, considering an empirical load transfer model proposed by Aoki-Velloso to calculate
bearing capacity in order to obtain settlements and coefficients of subgrade reaction between soil and
pile. The advantage of applying this methodology is supported by its simplicity and easy computational
implementation as well as avoiding a significant computational cost and memory. The use of this simple
proposed procedure is due to the future application in the analysis of more complex group, considering
the geometric non-linearity of the building and the coupling with a dynamic model associated with
fluid mechanics in the numerical wind tunnel solution. The formulation proved to be consistent when
comparing the responses obtained with analytical model - Poulos and Davis - and by numerical procedure
via the Boundary Element Method.