Vibratory pile driving in water-saturated sand: Back-analysis of model tests using a hydro-mechanically coupled CEL method

Abstract

The development of a hydro-mechanically coupled Coupled-Eulerian–Lagrangian (CEL) method and its application to the back-analysis of vibratory pile driving model tests in water-saturated sand is presented. The predicted pile penetration using this approach is in good agreement with the results of the model tests as well as with fully Lagrangian simulations. In terms of pore water pressure, however, the results of the CEL simulation show a slightly worse accordance with the model tests compared to the Lagrangian simulation. Some shortcomings of the hydro-mechanically coupled CEL method in case of frictional contact problems and pore fluids with high bulk modulus are discussed. Lastly, the CEL method is applied to the simulation of vibratory driving of open-profile piles under partially drained conditions to study installation-induced changes in the soil state. It is concluded that the proposed method is capable of realistically reproducing the most important mechanisms in the soil during the driving process despite its addressed shortcomings.