Influence of change in pile diameter at various locations of a pile group in a Berthing Structure

Abstract

Numerical analyses have been performed using the Finite Element software on a single frame pile group of a Marine berthing structure in sloping ground. A case study from Chennai port trust (India) is taken with the actual soil profile of a marine environment. Diameter of piles at various locations in a sloping ground has been varied to study its influence on the load distribution among the piles and lateral load carrying capacity of the pile group. The results showed that increasing the diameter of piles in the slope crest increases the lateral load carrying capacity of the pile group, whereas increasing the pile diameter on the down slope redistributes the overall load on the frame. It is concluded that increasing the diameter of rear piles decreases the deflection of the structure to a large extent. Increasing the diameter of the front and rear piles distributes the load more evenly among the piles of the berthing structure.