Performance of Pile Cap Foundation with Respect to Cap Thickness

Abstract

The thickness of a pile cap is a governing parameter in the design of pile-cap foundations. A thin cap perform as a flexible slab which distributes the load on the piles unevenly, and it does not accord with the concept of pile foundation design. On the other hand, a thicker and rigid cap is expected to evenly distribute the load on the piles, as well as resisting bending moments and punching shear failure, but may impose more load on the foundation compared to a thinner cap. In view of these differences, there is a need to determine how the pile cap thickness would affect the performance of piles and pile cap. For this purpose, a 3-D finite element model was developed to simulate a 16-pile cap foundation for a range of cap thickness from 0.5m to 3m. The collected data is in the form of the load on individual piles and the deformation of the cap.