Investigating the uncertainty in calculating the bearing capacity of helical piles by considering different behavior modes using the Monte Carlo method.

Rahmati, Hamed; Bagheripour, Mohammad Hossein

doi:10.48301/kssa.2025.453252.2960

Investigating the uncertainty in calculating the bearing capacity of helical piles by considering different behavior modes using the Monte Carlo method.

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

hamed rahmati ¹

Mohammad hossein bagheripour ²

¹ , Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Shahid Bahonar university, Kerman, Iran

² Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Shahid Bahonar University, Kerman, Iran

10.48301/kssa.2025.453252.2960

Abstract

The performance and bearing capacity of helical piles, in addition to their construction and geometry, are highly dependent on characteristics of site soil. On the other hand, the soil resistance parameters have inherent uncertainty, which causes differences in the analytical results and experiments. In this paper, using Monte Carlo analysis, the uncertainty of the compressive bearing capacity of helical evaluated by stochastic parameters of cohesion, internal friction angle, and unit weight of soil. To determine different failure mode, different piles with different geometries (single-plate and double-plate piles with different S/D) were modeled in PLAXIS 2D software. The results of analytical calculations, uncertainty analysis and FEM showed that the permissible settlement of helical piles in selected soil in order to achieve ultimate bearing capacity should not be more than 5% of the piles plate diameter. Also, the ratio S/D=1.5 is the change boundary of bearing behavior from individual plate to cylindrical shear for the two-plates helical pile. The results also showed that the greater influence of bearing plates on the final uncertainties of the bearing capacity of piles, and also the bearing capacity of the cylindrical shear mode has less uncertainty than the individual bearing mode. Also, by performing the sensitivity analysis of the input parameters in the final bearing capacity uncertainties, it was observed that the greatest effect in the final uncertainties is related to the internal friction angle of the soil than to the unit weight of the soil on the output of the analysis.

Keywords

helical piles

bearing capacity

numerical modeling

uncertainty

Coefficient of variation

Monte Carlo simulation

Subjects

Civil Engineering

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