Numerical investigation of bearing capacity and lateral response of pile group considering soil interaction

Introduction: Piles play a crucial role in major structures like power plants, petrochemical complexes, offshore platforms, and bridges. Ensuring their safe and cost-effective design under lateral dynamic loads is essential. Due to the complexity of soil-pile interaction and the influence of multiple factors, further research is required.Objective: The main objective of this research is to investigate the parameters affecting the interaction of soil and reinforced concrete pile groups.Methods: The parameters discussed and investigated in this research include the use of UHPC concrete with different strengths instead of conventional concrete in piles, pile length, pile diameter, pile length-to-diameter ratio, and pile spacing. Results: The results of this research show that if the diameter of the pile is 0.6 meters, increasing the length from 9.15 to 11.65 meters and from 9.15 to 14.15 meters will increase the bearing capacity of the pile by 53% and 77%, respectively. In cases where the pile length is 9.15 meters, increasing the diameter from 0.6 to 1 meter results in a 58% increase in bearing capacity. Additionally, reducing the distance between piles from 1.8 meters to 0.8 meters enhances their bearing capacity by 37%. Conclusions: The findings indicate that pile dimensions and spacing significantly influence their bearing capacity. Using larger pile diameters, increasing pile length, and optimizing pile spacing can effectively enhance structural performance under dynamic lateral loads.