Piled foundations are largely employed as settlement reducers in the design of artificial embankments on soft soil strata. The commonly employed design methods are, however, based on simplified approaches not allowing the assessment of average and differential settlements at the top of the embankment. With this objective, the authors introduce a generalised constitutive relationship capable of accounting for irreversibilities stemming from both geometrical evolution and soil yielding. The model derives from the interpretation of the results of a campaign of three-dimensional elastic–plastic finite-difference numerical analyses describing the embankment construction process. Numerous simplifying assumptions (for instance smooth pile shaft, drained conditions) have been employed. Nevertheless, this does not compromise the theoretical value of the proposed approach. From a practical point of view, this model is a useful tool for geotechnical engineers to employ with a displacement-based design perspective.

中文翻译：

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桩基上土堤力学响应的数学模型

在软土层上的人工路堤设计中，桩基被大量用作沉降减少剂。但是，常用的设计方法是基于简化的方法，不允许评估路堤顶部的平均沉降和差异沉降。为此，作者介绍了一种广义的本构关系，该关系可以说明几何演化和土壤产量所引起的不可逆性。该模型源自对描述路堤施工过程的三维弹塑性有限差分数值分析的结果的解释。已经采用了许多简化的假设（例如，光滑的桩身，排水条件）。不过，这不会损害所建议方法的理论价值。从实际的角度来看，该模型是岩土工程师基于位移设计角度使用的有用工具。