Experimental and numerical study on performance of long-short combined retaining piles

Laboratory tests are conducted to investigate the performance of retaining system with different combinations of long-short piles. Numerical analysis implemented using ABAQUS are verified by comparing numerical results with measured data. By performing numerical studies, the horizontal displacement of piles, heave of excavation bottom and bending moment of pile for various pile system with different pile lengths are investigated. Results show that long piles share higher bending moments than short piles. The increase in the number of short piles leads to a slight increase in the heave at excavation bottom for long-short pile retaining system. Retaining system with different long and short pile combinations have greater effects on the horizontal displacement of pile above the excavation bottom, compared to its counterparts below excavation bottom. For a given length of long pile, the bending moment and displacement of piles increase with the decrease in length of short piles, while the increasing rate of maximum moment of retaining pile system is insignificant. Results highlight that a reliable and economical pile retaining system can be designed by optimizing the number and length of short piles, provided that the working performance of retaining structures above excavation bottom meets the design requirement in practice.