ABSTRACT

The behaviour and the design of soil improvement by rigid piles is nowadays well understood under monotonic loading and for uniform surface loadings, while it appeals to additional research works for cyclic loadings and for non-uniform surface loading, such as those obtained under isolated footings. A study has been conducted on a 1g small-scale model, at a reduced length-scale equal to 1/10. Two types of surface loadings are studied: the case of a rigid slab covering the entire surface and the case of a square rigid footing covering the four central piles. Experiments have been conducted under monotonic and low frequency cyclic loading. The two cases highlight a different behaviour in terms of load redistribution, while a settlement accumulation is obtained during the cycles. One of the objectives of this study is the development of numerical models able to simulate the behaviour, applicable to real case conditions.