Coupled effective stress analysis of insertion problems in geotechnics with the Particle Finite Element Method

This paper describes a computational framework for the numerical analysis of quasi-static soil-structure insertion problems in water saturated media. The Particle Finite Element Method is used to solve the linear momentum and mass balance equations at large strains. Solid-fluid interaction is described by a simplified Biot formulation using pore pressure and skeleton displacements as basic field variables. The robustness and accuracy of the proposal is numerically demonstrated presenting results from two benchmark examples. The first one addresses the consolidation of a circular footing on a poroelastic soil. The second one is a parametric analysis of the cone penetration test (CPTu) in a material described by a Cam-clay hyperelastic model, in which the influence of permeability and contact roughness on test results is assessed.