• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.380-383
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• 2003

Deep pile caps usually contain no transverse shear reinforcement and only small percentages of longitudinal reinforcement. The current design procedures including ACI 318-02 for the pile caps do not provide engineers with a clear understanding of the physical behavior of deep pile caps. In this study, the failure strengths of nine pile cap specimens tested to failure were evaluated using 3-dimensional strut-tie models. The analysis results obtained from the present study were compared with those obtained from several design methods, and the validity of the present method implementing 3-dimensional strut-tie models was examined.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2002.03a
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• pp.389-396
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• 2002

Engineers should be careful in the design of bonding piles into pile caps because they are weak points in the pile foundation. Therefore in this study, the mechanism of bonding piles into pile caps was explained, and the design method of the composite bonding method was proposed. And the proposed design method was verified in comparison with the result of the full scale test. Also, the characteristic for the bearing capacity and the mechanism of compressive load of bonding method were analyzed.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.363-376
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• 2007

The paper presents the development of an adaptable strut-and-tie model that can be applied to the design or analysis of four-pile caps that support axial compression and biaxial flexure from a supported rectangular column. Due to an absence of relevant test data, the model is validated using nonlinear finite element analyses (NLFEA). The results indicate that the use of the proposed model would lead to safe and economical designs. The proposed model can be easily extended to any number of piles, providing a rational procedure for the design of wide range of pile caps.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.329-338
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• 2017

A new simple and practical strut-and-tie model (STM) for predicting the shear strength of RC pile caps is proposed in this paper. Two approaches are adopted to take into account the concrete softening effect. In the first approach, a concrete efficiency factor based on compression field theory is employed to determine the effective strength of a concrete strut, assumed to control the shear strength of the whole member. The second adopted Kupfer and Gerstle's biaxial failure criterion of concrete to derive the simple nominal shear strength of pile caps containing the interaction between strut and tie capacity. The validation of these two methods is investigated using 110 RC pile cap test results and other STMs available in the literature. It was found that the failure criterion approach appears to provide more accurate and consistent predictions, and hence is chosen to be the proposed STM. Finally, the predictions of the proposed STM are also compared with those obtained by using seven other STMs from codes of practice and the literature, and were found to give better accuracy and consistency.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.115-130
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• 2013

The sectional methods of current design codes have been broadly used for the design of various kinds of reinforced concrete pile caps. Lately, the strut-tie model approach of current design codes also became one of the attracting methods for pile caps. However, since the sectional methods and the strut-tie model approach of current design codes have been established by considering the behaviors of structural concrete without D-regions and two-dimensional concrete structures with D-regions, respectively, it is inappropriate to apply the methods to the pile caps dominated by 3-dimensional structural behavior with disturbed stress regions. In this study, the refined 3-dimensional strut-tie models, which consider the strength characteristics of 3-dimensional concrete struts and nodal zones and the load-carrying capacity of concrete ties in tension regions, are proposed for the rational analysis and design of pile caps. To examine the validity of the proposed models and to verify the necessity of appropriate constituent elements for describing 3-dimensional structural behavior and load-transfer mechanism of pile caps, the ultimate strength of 78 reinforced concrete pile caps tested to failure was examined by the proposed models along with the sectional and strut-tie model methods of current design codes.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.49-59
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• 2003

The factors affecting the vertical loads acting on embankment piles can be classified into two factors on pile and soil. Factor on pile is the space between pile cap and factors on soil are embankment height and soil parameters(c, $\phi$). Therefore, a series of model tests were performed both to investigate the extent of influence of these factors and to verify the reliability of the proposed theoretical analysis. In the model tests, the piles were installed in the 6 columns $\times$ 6 rows(or 5 columns $\times$ 5 rows) below the embankment and the isolated pile caps with the area of 2.5cm $\times$ 2.5cm were installed on each pile head. The portion of the embankment load carried by model pile caps decreases with increment of the space between pile caps and increases with increment of the embankment height and the relative density(or internal friction angle) of fill. Also, the experimental results showed good agreement with theoretical predictions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2001.03a
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• pp.323-330
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• 2001

The existing bonding methods of steel pipe piles into pile caps have many problems during construction or design. To overcome these, the composite bonding method of the bolting type and the welding type are proposed in this stud\ulcorner. The full scale test and the numerical analysis using finite element method were performed to verify the function of them. As results, the method of the filled with concrete in steel pipe piles head was good effective to increse strength. And the composite bonding methods are effective to protect the damage caused by earthquake than the bolted bonding method. Also, the composite bonding methods are cheaper than the existing bonding methods and a good construction as well.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.53-66
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• 2007

A series of model tests were performed to investigate the soil arching effect in embankments supported by piles with geosynthetics. In the model tests, model piles with isolated cap were inserted through the holes in a steel plate, which could be operated up and down. Then geosynthetics was laid on the pile caps below sand fills. The settlement of soft ground was simulated by lowering the plate. As the plate was lowered, the soil arching was mobilized in the embankments. The deformation of both the sand fills and geosynthetics were captured by camera. Also the loads acting on pile cap and the tensile strain of geosynthetics were monitored by data logging system. Model tests showed that the embankment loads transferred on pile cap by soil arching Increased rapidly with settlement of the soft ground. In case of the absence of geosynthetics, the loads acting on pile caps dropped to residual value after peak value, whereas loads on pile caps gradually increased until constant value in case of geosynthetic-reinforced. This illustrated that reinforcing with the geosynthetics has a good effect to restrain the settlement of embankments. Also, the deformation shape of geosynthetics between pile caps was circular. The embankment loads transferred on pile caps can be estimated by considering both soil arching and tensile strain of geosynthetics in embankments supported by piles with geosynthetics.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.9-18
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• 2010

A series of model tests were performed to investigate the load transfer by soil arching in geosynthetic-reinforced and pile-supported(GRPS) embankment systems. In the model tests, model piles with isolated cap were inserted in the model container and geosynthetics was laid on the pile caps below sand fills. The settlement of soft ground was simulated by rubber form. The loads acting on pile caps and the tensile strain of geosynthetics were monitored by data logging system. At the given interval ratio of pile caps, the efficiency in GRPS embankment systems increased with increasing the height of embankment fills, then gradually converged at constant value. Also, at the given height of embankment fills, the efficiency decreased with increasing the pile spacing. The embankment loads transferred on pile cap by soil arching increased when the geosynthetics installed with piles. This illustrated that reinforcing with the geosynthetics have a good effect to restraint the movement of surrounding soft grounds. The load transfer in GRPS embankment systems was affected by the interval ratio, height of fills, properties of grounds and tensile stiffness and so on.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 1999.03a
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• pp.259-266
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• 1999

In case that pile cap is in direct contact with underlying soil, the bearing mechanism for pile groups, including direct bearing effect of cap and its induced influence on pile-soil-cap interaction, should be properly considered. In this paper, the effects of pile caps on behaviors of pile groups in sandy soils were investigated by model tests, which consist of tests on 3 by 3 pile groups with/without contact on subsoil, single pile with/without contact and cap as a shallow foundation. Also, the influences of pile spacing in group piles on contact effects were investigated. The test results showed that the load carrying capacity of pile cap was large enough not to be ignored. However, the interaction effects due to contact between cap and subsoils were not revealed obviously in working load range. And in the design of pile groups, the bearing effect of pile cap when contacted with subsoils, can be reflected by simply summing up load settlement behaviors of each cap and group piles without contact.