Numerical simulation of bulging and their effects on ultimate bearing capacity in bored piles

Resumo

Piles are deep foundations that are used to overcoming difficulties of founding on soft soils to ensure
structural safety to carry the loads imposed by a structure through a weak soil to a resistant stratum. It is becoming
more important to design piles and avoid their shortcomings. Bulging in bored piles is a common event that can
occur due to multiple factors. This type of imperfection increases the ultimate bearing capacity of the pile, due to
the increase in its geometry, which increases its ultimate shaft resistance. This can be beneficial for the
superstructure that said pile supports. However, said increase in the ultimate bearing capacity of the pile must be
analyzed cautiously, to avoid overestimations when conducting the structural design of the superstructure. For this
reason, a simulation of the ultimate bearing capacity in a concrete pile without a bulging was conducted, in order
to compare the results with different cases of piles with bulging, and to calibrate the model.