Nonlinear 3D interactive analysis of superstructure and piled raft foundation

An interactive design method that takes into account the coupling between the stiffness of the superstructure, the piled raft and the soil has been proposed for analyzing the response of building structure. Special attention is given to consideration of interaction between the superstructure and the piled raft. And a series of numerical analysis is performed to validate the interactive analysis routine in comparison to the unified analysis method. Through the comparative studies, it is found that the iterative and interactive analysis gave similar results of settlement and raft bending moment compared with finite element analysis. And it is also found that the proposed design method considering interaction between superstructure and foundation is capable of predicting reasonably well the behavior of building structures. It can be effectively used to perform the design of a superstructure-piled raft foundation system.