Behavior of piled raft foundations under non-uniform loading

Piled raft foundations have recently gained popularity as a design strategy for high-rise buildings. The design of such buildings is usually dealing with some complexities in the load distribution due to a number of factors such as architectural considerations. When the geometry of the superstructure is non-symmetric or there are separate parts with different weights in the building, a special attention is required to satisfy the design requirements. For this reason, in this study, three-dimensional finite element method was used to evaluate the behavior of piled rafts subjected to non-uniform loading. Three different vertical load types including uniform, strip and trapezoidal were considered in the analyses. Based on the results, investigation of the foundation behavior for different geometrical configurations and load types by an appropriate parametric study may lead to an acceptable design alternative to the foundation settlement.

Keywords:

Piled Raft Foundation , Finite Element Method , non-Uniform Loading , Settlement Analysis