Discrete Modelling of Breakage Induced Pile Creep in a Centrifuge

Abstract Time-dependent pile settlement under sustained service load has been reported in the literature and was defined as pile creep. Particle breakage has been found as the main mechanism for pile creep in sand by Leung et al., [1]. Based on the time-to-fracture Fontainebleau sand DEM model proposed by Lei et al., [2], particle breakage induced pile creep is first investigated in a centrifuge virtual chamber, and this is achieved using the particle refined method (PRM). The creep settlement trend observed is similar to that reported by Leung et al., [1], which demonstrates a great potential of the proposed method for the investigation of pile creep and pile ageing (set-up) behaviour.