Abstract Cushion is one of the key parts of composite foundation with the thin-wall pipe piles made of cast-in-situ concrete(PCC) and makes the piles and soil to work together. The cushion is usually made of gravel with geogrid reinforcement in practice. The characteristics of cushion,such as the thickness,the reinforcement layers and types,affect the load sharing of piles and soil,which affect the load transfer mechanism of the composite foundation. A large model testing system of simulating the full scale pile foundations was developed and described in this paper. The load transfer mechanism of PCC pile composite foundation was studied with the full scale model tests. The effects of nine different types of cushions on the load transfer mechanism were studied,including the load-settlement curve,the pile-soil stress ratio,the axial force in piles,and the soil pressure and friction inside the pile wall. The testing results show that with the increase of the number of geogrid reinforcement layers,the pile-soil stress ratio,the pile axial force,and the soil pressure and friction inside the piles were all increased;and the settlement was decreased under the same amount of load. Piles always played a major role in load carrying in the composite foundation. The loads transferred to the pile heads were increased and the negative friction force onto the piles was decreased.
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Received: 15 September 2014
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