Experimental Investigation on the Movement of Soil and Piles in Transparent Granular Soils

In order to visually observe the displacement characteristics of internal soil, model tests on the penetration of six flat-ended piles in synthetic transparent soil were carried out. The granular-soil particles were registered by laser speckles, thus the penetration process of the piles was visualized. The movement of pile-soil interaction was determined by comparing the images before and after penetrations. Based on the test results, the vertical and horizontal displacement of the granular caused by a sequence of jacked piles was discussed. The sheltering effect of the adjacent piles during the penetration of the follow-up pile was analyzed. The responses of the granular soils during the penetration of piles were discussed, and test data was compared with DEM analyses. The pile heave at different stages of the penetration and the ground uplift at different positions were evaluated and compared.