AN EFFECTIVE BEM/FEM FORMULATION FOR THE STATIC INTERACTION ANALYSIS OF PILE GROUPS EMBEDDED IN A SEMI- INFINITE CONTINUUM

Resumo

In the literature, numerical analysis of pilesoil interaction is performed by a variety of
formulations based on Finite Element Method (FEM), Finite Difference Method (FDM), Boundary
Element Method (BEM) or a combination of two numerical methods. In those formulations, very
complex and computationally expensive meshes are generally used. In this paper, pilesoil interaction
problems are solved with relatively simple and yet efficient meshes as a result of coupling the BEM
with the FEM, and using Mindlin’s fundamental solution for the soil modeling. To adequately

consider the flexibility of the pile, the same is discretized into a parametric number of three-
dimensional finite beam elements. Therefore, the pile can be of any size and subjected to any type of

loading including axial, lateral and moment loads. Moreover, the formulation can be easily extended
so that a foundation plate can be coupled to piles to form a capped pile group or a piled raft. The
efficiency of the developed and implemented formulations is properly demonstrated through
numerical examples including single piles and pile groups.