Stiffness of piled raft foundations

This paper deals with some peculiar aspects of the load – settlement behaviour of piled rafts, which have been highlighted by a large series of centrifuge loading tests. Some of the results from tests with jacked piles in loose sand, in direct contact with a circular rigid raft, are presented. In the tests some of the model piles were instrumented with miniaturised load cells to determine the distribution of the load along the shaft and to establish the load transfer mechanisms from the raft to the piles and the soil.