Immediate and long-term installation effects adjacent to an open-ended pile in a layered clay

Journal article, 2014

The response of floating piles is often described using the neutral plane approach. This approach requires a reliable prediction of the soil settlements, which in turn are affected by the pile installation effects. Additional experimental evidence on the soil behaviour during, directly after installation, and in the long-term is required if advanced numerical methods are exploited. This paper presents a novel approach to retrieve this experimental data on immediate and long-term pile installation effects in the geotechnical centrifuge. An axisymmetric experimental test setup allows for measurement of full-field soil deformations, as well as pore pressures, during and after pile installation. These unique results indicate that pile installation effects, such as generation of excess pore pressure and change of the hydraulic conductivity in the soil due to remoulding, have an influence on the development on the neutral plane, and therefore affect the response of floating piles.