A numerical solution for predicting the axial load and corresponding settlement of large diameter piles is proposed based on the hyperbolic curve load transfer function in this paper. It is important to note that the most reliable approach to determine the axial load capacity of a pile is to use the P-S curve, which is usually obtained through an on-site load test. Performing a pile load test on a large diameter pile (pile diameters over 3m), requires a thousand tons of test load, which sometimes is unachievable. The load-settlement relationship or P-S curve of this type of pile can be determined by the Runge-Kutta numerical method for practical application especially for offshore piles. Comparison is made between the results obtained by this proposed numerical, the test data, analytical solution and pile load test data, and close agreement has been found thus verifying the accuracy of the proposed method. However, the rigid body displacement of the piles did not show any significant effect on the proposed numerical when compared to the analytical and onsite pile load test results. It is expected that the proposed numerical method can be used to predict the load and corresponding settlement of large diameter piles.
Key words: Large diameter piles, Pile load test, load-settlement behaviour, P-S curve, Numerical solution, Analytical solution, Axial load.
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