The process and characteristics of loading on high-speed railway bridge pile foundation were firstly obtained by means of field research and analysis,and the corresponding loading function was presented.One-dimensional consolidation equation of elastic multilayered soils was then established with single drainage or double drainages under multilevel loading.Moreover,the formulas for calculating effective stress and settlement were derived from the Laplace numerical inversion transform.The three-dimensional composite analysis method of bridge pile group was improved,where the actual load conditions of pile foundation could be simulated,and the consolidation characteristics of soil layers beneath pile were also taken into account.Eventually,a corresponding program named LTPGS was developed to improve the calculation efficiency.The comparison between long-term settlement obtained from the proposed method and the in-situ measurements of pile foundation was illustrated,and a close agreement is obtained.The error between computed and measured results is less than 1 mm,and it gradually reduces with time.It is shown that the proposed method can effectively simulate the long-term settlement of pile foundation and program LTPGS can provide a reliable estimation.
The last two to three decades have seen significant advances in the mechanics of unsaturated soils.It is now widely recognized that the fundamental principles in soil mechanics must cover both saturated and unsaturated soils.Nevertheless,there is still a great deal of uncertainties in the geotechnical community about how soil mechanics principles well-established for saturated soils can be extended to unsaturated soils.There is even wide skepticism about the necessity of such extension in engineering practice.This paper discusses some common pitfalls related to the fundamental principles that govern the volume change,shear strength and hydromechanical behaviour of unsaturated soils.It also attempts to address the issue of engineering relevance of unsaturated soil mechanics.
