Coupled 3D discrete-continuum numerical modeling of pile penetration in sand

Abstract

A coupled discrete-continuum simulation incorporating a 3D aspect and non-circular particles was performed to analyze soil-pile interactions during pile penetration in sand. A self-developed non-circular particle numerical simulation program was used which considered sand near the pile as interacted particles using a discrete element method; the sand away from the pile was simulated as a continuous medium exhibiting linear elastic behaviors. The domain analyzed was divided into two zones. Contact forces at the interface between the two zones were obtained from a discrete zone and applied to the continuum boundaries as nodal forces, while the interface velocities were obtained from the continuum zone and applied to the discrete boundaries. We show that the coupled discrete-continuum simulation can give a microscopic description of the pile penetration process without losing the discrete nature of the zone concerned, and may significantly improve computational efficiency.