Dem Analysis of Pile Penetration in Uncrushable Sands

This paper presents the numerical results of a series of two-dimensional discrete element simulations of pile penetration into an uncrushable granular foundation. A parametric study was conducted to examine the effects of in-situ vertical stress and initial void ratio on the penetration resistance development. Simulation results show that the pile penetration mechanism is independent of the penetration depth and initial density is a key factor that affects the tip and shaft resistance. Centrifuge test results from Klotz and Coop (2001) were used to validate the numerical results, and the good agreement between them confirms that the DEM is an effective approach to develop the understanding of the pile penetration mechanisms. Finally, the full-field stress and strain distributions as shown were presented to illustrate the stress and strain localization caused by pile penetration.