International Journal of Advanced Engineering Technology E-ISSN 0976-3945

IJAET/Vol.II/ Issue IV/October-December, 2011/431-434

Research Article
ANALYTICAL APPROACHES FOR ANALYSIS OF PILED-RAFT
SYSTEMS
Tejendra G Tank
1
, Dr. S. P. dave
2



Address for Correspondence
1
Research Scholar,
2
Associate Professor,
Applied Mechanics Department, L. D. College of Engineering, Gujarat Technological University, Ahmedabad,
Gujarat (India)
ABSTRACT
At places where clay deposit are of larger thickness, and if it possesses sufficient strength (qu>100 KN/m
2
), raft foundation can be
employed. If the foundation has a very poor strength (qu=0 to 25 KN/m
2
), purely pile foundation will prove to be a better option.
But if the clay deposit has an intermediate strength (qu=50 to 100 KN/m
2
), the only option available is piled-raft foundation
which is economical since the piles help in reducing settlements and the raft provides an ample bearing capacity as well as
resistance to differential settlements. Thus piled-raft is a good alternative at places where more total settlements are permissible
for the structure along with a considerable bearing capacity. This review paper aims with an objective to summarize the
analytical approaches for the analysis of combined piled-raft systems which is an emerging concept specifically when foundations
are to be designed for clay deposits.
KEYWORDS Piled-Raft foundation, approximation method, finite element analysis, non-linear analysis of piled-raft, Poulos-
Davies-Randolph method.
I. INTRODUCTION
From the literature available, there are no particular
design rules or specifications developed for piled-raft
foundation
2
. It the only alternative available in certain
unavoidable circumstances such as places where there
is need of optimum bearing capacity with permissible
settlements, and when differential settlements are also
to be looked forward
2
. Piled-raft can be adopted
without any hesitation as the piles give resistance to
settlements and raft has two important roles to play.
To provide bearing capacity to the
foundation.
To avoid differential settlements.
Providing adequate bearing capacity to the foundation
is the main function of raft, but it also helps to avoid
the hindrance caused to the adjacent structures due to
differential settlement of one structure and maintains
the stability of the structure too. The main advantage of
piled-raft foundation is that less length of pile is
required in comparison to a complete pile foundation.
Maximum and differential settlements are reduced and
hence there is a considerable improvement in
serviceability criteria. Bearing capacity of shallow
foundations is increased using the load sharing
mechanism between pile and raft. Due to less
settlement, distress caused to adjacent structures is
reduced. Thus piled-raft system proves to be
economically beneficial.
II. DIFFERENT APPROACHES AVAILABLE
FOR ANALYSIS
A. Approximation method
In this particular method the raft is treated as a plate,
piles are considered as springs and the underlying soil
as an elastic continuum
3
. Here the interaction effects
between the piles are ignored. In this method, many
researchers made several methods so that satisfactory
results can be obtained in approximate method too.
Randolph (1983) presented a method to compute the
interaction between single pile and a circular shaft.
Flexibility matrix method was then used here to
calculate the overall stiffness of piled-raft foundation
by combining the individual stiffness of single piled-
raft unit. Kitiyodom and Matsumoto (2003) presented
an approach in which the piles were modeled by elastic
beams and the interactions between structural members
were approximated by Mindlins solutions. The
foundations can be subjected to both axial and lateral
loads and embedded in non-homogeneous soil. This
approach incorporated both the vertical and lateral
resistance of the piles and the base of the raft in the
analysis.
B. Finite Element Analysis
The finite element method is one of the powerful
techniques for analysis of piled raft systems. In order
to reduce more rigorous computational efforts,
problems are simplified into an axisymmetric problem
or a plane-strain problem
3
. In the year 2001 Prakoso
and kulhawy analyzed piled raft foundations by using
linear elastic and non-linear plane strain finite element
models involving the analysis of three dimensional
piled-rafts as a two-dimensional strip piled raft. Here
six nodded triangular elements were used to model the
piled-raft and the soil. Here since the rows of piles
were simplified into strips, the row of pile in-plane has
to be simplified into a plane strain pile with an
equivalent pile youngs modulus E
(eq)
in terms of
number of piles in row considered as below
E
(eq)
= (np(row-i).Ap.Ep) / Lr.Dp
Where,
np(row-i) = Number of piles in row I
Ap = Area of pile cross section
Ep = Youngs modulus of pile
Lr = Length of raft
Dp = Pile diameter


International Journal of Advanced Engineering Technology E-ISSN 0976-3945
IJAET/Vol.II/ Issue IV/October-December, 2011/431-434

Mandolini and Viggiani (1997) presented an analysis to
predict the settlement of piled raft foundations. The
method takes into account the soil-structure interaction
and non-linear behavior at the pile-soil interface. The
piles were analyzed by the boundary element method
and the behavior of a pile group embedded in an elastic
continuum was then analyzed based on the use of
interaction factors. The raft was analyzed by the use of
the finite element method and the interaction between
the piles, raft and soil was represented by a linear
elastic model.
C. Non Linear analysis of Piled-Raft
3

The general load-settlement pattern of piled raft is as
shown in Figure 1. When the piled raft is loaded
below Pe, the behavior of pile as well as raft is elastic.
When it is loaded between Pe and Pu, the interface
between the soil and the pile starts to slip. The load in
excess of Pe is carried by raft alone only when the pile
capacity is mobilized. As shown in graph, when the
load reaches Pu, both pile as well as raft reach their
ultimate bearing capacity and thereby they can no
longer take additional loads. Hence we can see the
non-linear behavior of the foundation. Now to
stimulate the slip occurring at the interface, the analysis
process is implemented through an incremental-
iterative process. The application of loads is done in
increments and the raft-soil and pile-soil interfaces are
computed for each increment. Such interface forces
obtained are than compared with the limiting contact
pressures acting on the raft. The calculation of limiting
forces is done from the shear strength of the soil, Su.
Thus the limiting loads along the pile shaft for any pile
element x is,
LRx = c
a
.C.z
The limiting base load at pile base is given by,
L
B
= Nc.Su.A
Where,
c
a
= (Su. ) = Pile-soil adhesion.
C= Pile circumference
z= Length of pile element x
= Adhesion factor (as function of Su)
Nc= Bearing capacity factor (generally it is taken as
9 for piles in clay)
A= Area of pile base
Su= Shear strength of soil


Figure 1 Load-Settlement pattern of Piled-
raft
As far as non-linear analysis of piled raft is concerned,
the effect of L/d ratio on settlement is as shown in
figure 2.

Figure 2 Effect of pile length on settlement
The effect of L/d ratio on load carrying capacity of
piles is shown in figure 3 below.
0
100
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
%

o
f

l
o
a
d

o
n

p
i
l
e
s
L/d
Effect on Load carried by
piles

Figure 3 Effect of pile length on load on piles
D. Poulos-Davis-Randolph Method
The Poulos-Davis and Randolph method is a powerful
tool as far as the load carrying between pile and raft is
to be found out. This method gives directly the amount
of total load carried by raft. The remaining load
thereby is carried by the piles. The load settlement
pattern shown in figure1 applies to the PDR method
too. It is seen that within elastic limit, the stiffness of
foundation is of raft alone until it reaches plastic limit
1
.
To find the vertical bearing capacity of a piled raft
foundation using manual approaches, the ultimate load
capacity can generally be taken as the lesser of the
following two values:
The sum of the ultimate capacities of the raft
plus all the piles
The ultimate capacity of a block containing the
piles and the raft, plus capacity of the portion of
the raft outside the periphery of the piles
5
.
Using this approach, the stiffness of the piled raft
foundation can be estimated as follows
4

2
.
(1 2. )
(1 )
p r cp
r p cp
K K
Kpr
K K

+
=
( ) i

Where,
2
Area of raft
(1 )
r
s
G
Kr
I
=

Where,
International Journal of Advanced Engineering Technology E-ISSN 0976-3945
IJAET/Vol.II/ Issue IV/October-December, 2011/431-434

1 0.5
B
Gr B
L
( | |
=
| (
\

s = Poissons ratio of Soil = 0.25
I = Influence factor for Raft = 1.2
p K =Entire Method given by Randolph as
mentioned below.
0
0
. 0.
4 2 tanh( )
(1 )
4 tanh( )
1
(1 )
p
s
p
i t
s
vI L
Pt vI r
vI L
G r S
vI r

(
+
(

= (
(
+
(


Where,
i G =
Shear Modulus of stiff clay = 150.Cu
Where,
Cu = 100 + 7.2(z)
z = Depth of pile tip from ground
p L = Pile length

0 r = Pile radius
* G
Gi
=

Where,

0
*
2
i G G
G
+
=

0 (150)( , G Cu = At ground level)

i
b
G
G
=

Where,
i b G G =

(Since shear modulus of stiff clay is equal to shear
modulus of stiff clay below pile tip at base.)
p
i
E
G
= = Pile soil stiffness ratio.
Where,
p E = Modulus of elasticity of pile material
0
b
r
r
= = Ratio of under ream of under reamed
piles
Where,
o r = Pile Radius
b r = Under ream increase radius of pile

m
o
r
In
r

| |
=
|
\

= Measure of radius of influence of pile
Where,
| | 0.25 (2.5 (1 ) 0.25) . m s p r L = +

0
2

p L
vI
r
| |
| |
=
| |
\
\
o.5

Putting all above parameters and finding the value we
get,
t
t
P
K
S
=
Thus we get stiffness of single pile
If we want settlement of single pile t S , we get it as
t
t
P
S
K
=
Now stiffness of pile group can be obtained by:
.n. p w K K =

Where,
w = n-e
n = Number of piles
e = Efficiency exponent
If we want settlement of pile group ( ) pg S , we get it as
u
pg
p
P
S
K
=
Also , cp can be obtained from equation below:
0
1 ln
c
cp
r
r

| |

|
\
=

Now since we have values of , p r K K and cp , we
can calculate pr K from equation - ( ) i
Thus percentage of total load on foundation shared by
raft can be calculated as:
)
(1 )
(1 2
r cp
t cp
p kr
P kp kr

| |
=
|
+
\

Where,
r p = Total load on Piled-Raft
If , 0.45,
r
t
p
p
= than one can conclude that 45
percent of total load will be shared by raft and rest will be
taken by piles.
III. CONCLUSIONS
The approximation method allows only
vertical interaction between the raft piles and
the soil. The results obtained by
approximation method vary greatly.
In finite element method for elastic-plastic
modeling, simplifications are necessary to
make same compression for equivalent plain
strain pile and in-plane row of piles.
As the length of pile increases to a ratio of L/d
= 30, the settlement decreases.
As the pile length increases to the ratio of L/d
= 30, the load carried by piles increases.
Beyond L/d > 30, the pile length has little
effect on the settlement and the load carrying
capacity of piles.
In most cases of piled raft, the amount of total
load carried by pile varies from 55 to 65
percent and that by raft varies from 35 to 45
percent.
International Journal of Advanced Engineering Technology E-ISSN 0976-3945
IJAET/Vol.II/ Issue IV/October-December, 2011/431-434

As the soil stiffness increases, the percentage
load shared by raft also increases with
increase in spacing between piles in Piled-Raft
system.
As the length of pile increases, percentage
load taken by raft reduces (for a constant
thickness of raft).
Increase in pile length results in increased
stiffness of pile approximately in the same
proportion as that of increase in diameter.
As the stiffness of Piled raft increases,
settlement of foundation reduces.
As the thickness of raft increases the
settlement reduces due to flexible behavior of
raft, but later on with increase in thickness of
raft, the settlement increases because of rigid
behavior of raft.
REFERENCES
1. Lecture note # 9, University of Texas at Arlington,
Geotechnical Engineering Laboratory, page 3.
2. Carsten Ahner and Dmitri Sukhov , Combined
piled-raft foundation (CBRF) safety concept,
Institute of Concrete and Building Materials,
University of Leipzig, 2000.Page 334.
3. Helen Sze Wai Chow, Report on Analysis of
piled-raft foundation with piles of different lengths
and diameters, University of Sydney, 2007, page
23, page 184.
4. Gandhi S R, Maharaj D K, Design of pile group
and pile cap, Seminar by Indian geotechnical
society, Madras. Page 4.
5. Poulos H G, Methods of analysis of Piled-Raft
foundations, Report by Coffey Geosciences Pvt.
Ltd. & The university of sydney, Australia, July
2001, Page 4.
6. Gandhi S R, Maharaj D K, Behaviour of piled-raft under
uniform loading, Paper presented at Indian Geotechnical
Conference, Bangalore. December 1995 Vol 1. Page
170.