Elastic Settlement of Single Piles

By: Wafi Bouassida

Adressed to: J.Eng Waad Belaid, SIMPRO Consulting

March 2020

It’s rather simple than complex to determine the elastic settlement of a single pile on which we apply
a vertical load. According to Poulos (1980), the settlement of a single pile sy can be expressed as:

Fig 1- computing the elastic settlement (Ref: the help section of the “Pile” application, Bentley)

First of all, we should compute the value of Rsy, which can be determined from the shaft capacity Rs
(c’est à dire la capacité portante en frottement) and the coefficient beta by the following equation

Fig2: Computing Rsy

For the value of Rs (i.e the shaft capacity or “la capacité portante en frottement”), it can be determined
by integrating the shear stress τ along the pile length based on the cohesions and friction angles of the
soil layers crossed by the pile. In this context, I will send u a matlab code determining such a value for
any inputted cohesions and friction angles by the user. So you will just compute the rest, which mainly
turns around 1/ computing beta (Fig2) and 2/ computing the influence factor I (Fig 1).
These coefficients can be easily determined when you digitize their related charts. But be careful, these
charts are usually logarithmic (at least there is one axe which is in the log scale, ask siwar for assistance
if necessary cause she had a problem when she started digitizing a log scale curve after that she solved
it, so u can ask them to accelerate and not waste time ). So pay attention when you digitize them. The
figures of these charts can easily be found in the “Help section” of “Pile” in “Bentley”. Nevertheless, I
will attach them to you in the figures below (who knows, maybe you will use them to write your next
manual of Rock’N_piles).

A/ Charts to determine Beta

B/ Charts to determine I
 Es range (In your future code, Es will be inputted by the user so don’t take care about this table in
your work, at least for now)

So let’s summarize what you will do step by step

1/ Digitize the charts related to beta and I

(extract their equations from excel)

2/ Put them in the matlab function

s_poulos.m

3/ Try to modify this function so that it can

be used for different layers having different
secant moduli Es (i)