Numerical simulation of pile installation in a hypoplastic framework using an SPH based Method

In this project, a 3D computational tool using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) is developed which based on a hypoplastic constitutive approach for the mechanical behavior of the soil. The numerical code is firstly validated against a benchmark problem. Then several test cases are simulated including monotonic and vibratory penetration of piles into the soil. A good agreement with the experimental observation is found. Additionally, the impact of pile running in the presence of sheetpiles (retainers) are investigated to see how pile running can alter the applied forces on the sheet piles. The simulation of such complex geotechnical problems which involve large deformation, material nonlinearity and moving boundary conditions demonstrates the applicability and versatility of the proposed numerical tool in this field.