Influences of soil consolidation and pile load on the development of negative skin friction of a pile

Negative skin friction (NSF) along a pile caused by soil consolidation is of great concern to engineers. The development of NSF is time-dependent because soil consolidation is also time-dependent. In this paper, a numerical solution is provided for the development of negative skin friction of a pile in nonlinear consolidated soil under different loads on a pile top. A hyperbolic interface model is also developed. This model considers the development of shear strength during soil consolidation and loading–unloading scenarios at the pile–soil interface. One-dimensional nonlinear consolidation theory is invoked to estimate the soil settlement and shear strength. The distributions of NSF and the axial force along the pile are obtained using the differential quadrature method (DQM). The influences of soil consolidation and different pile loads on the negative skin friction of a pile are discussed.