Computer Design Of Pile Foundation Systems For High-Rise Buildings

H.G. Poulos

High rise buildings are usually founded on some form of piled foundation which is subjected to a combination of vertical, lateral and overturning forces. Conventional methods of assessing foundation stability may not be adequate when designing such foundations because they tend to focus primarily on foundation resistance under vertical loading.

This paper sets out the principles of using computer programs for pile group response to design a pile foundation system according to the Australian Piling Code AS2159-1995. The approach involves three sets of analyses:

  1. An overall stability analysis;
  2. A serviceability analysis;
  3. An analysis to obtain the structural actions for structural design of the raft and the piles.

The approach is illustrated via its application to a simple example problem and then to a high-rise building in the Middle East. The computer program DEFPIG has been used to assess overall foundation stability while the program GARP has been used for the serviceability analysis.