Factors Study On Non-uniform Settlement Of Bridge Piers In Soft Soil Foundation

In recent years, the bridge construction is developing rapidly in inland of China.Because of the foundation in this area generally have high moisture content, highcompressibility, and low bearing capacity, significant creep degeneration and othercharacteristics, bridges that built in such area usually produce non-uniform settlementduring the construction period and operation period, from this may cause the failure ofbridge structure or other accidents. In this paper, the author made some related researchand discussion on non-uniform settlement of bridge piers built in soft soil foundationby the finite element method, the major work as follows:1．The introduction of the Finite Element Analysis Method. Introduced the FiniteElement model and units used in this paper in detail, introduced the pile-soil contactanalysis function and the main steps, and the instructions of nonlinear analysis controloptions.2．Verified the finite element models used in this paper is correct and reasonable.with an engineering example, used the pile built in the thick mud layer as the researchobject, calculated and analyzed the pile settlement by three-dimensional finite elementmethod, then compared the results with the results that has been done by previous, thetwo conclusions were basically the same, thereby validated the method used in thispaper is reasonable.3．Analyzed some influence factors on pier settlement built in soft foundation.The main factors considered have geological conditions and piers construction andspecial load suffered by piers and heap around the piers. The results show that, the soilstructure have a great impact on settlement of piers, the farther away from the soilsurface the soft soil is, the greater settlement of piers are; the cap beam has a littleinfluence on settlement, tie beam in soft base has some influence on settlement; forfriction piles, the settlement of piers become smaller with the length increase of piles;asymmetric loads have obvious influence on non-settlement of piers, which can lead alarger lateral displacement, piers under horizontal loads can generate considerablehorizontal displacement, the displacement increases significantly with the horizontal load increases, which usually lead to pier tilt; heap load increased the subsidence ofthe soft soil surround, at the same time, the pier produce displacement departure fromthe heap load, which also can lead to pier tilt.