Assessing repeatability, scale effects, and consistency in geotechnical physical modelling: a collaborative benchmark exercise on horizontally loaded piles in dry sand




Assessing repeatability, scale effects, and consistency in geotechnical physical modelling: a collaborative benchmark exercise on horizontally loaded piles in dry sand


This paper outlines an ongoing collaborative benchmark exercise conducted at multiple geotechnical experimental facilities within the GEOLAB community. The exercise involves two prototype large-scale pile tests performed at Technical University of Darmstadt and several small-scale centrifuge tests replicating the large-scale conditions. The prototype pile consisted of a hollow, open-ended steel pile with a diameter of 0.325 m, a wall thickness of 5.25 mm, and a total length of 3.00 m. The prototype piles were embedded 2.00 m into dry, dense sand prepared in a 5.00 m x 5.00 m x 2.85 m pit. The piles were subjected to various lateral load combinations, including monotonic loading until failure and cyclic loading at different load amplitudes and up to 10,000 cycles. The tests monitored the load-displacement response, rotation of the pile, longitudinal strains, and bending behaviour. The small-scale centrifuge tests aim to replicate the prototype geometry and loading conditions and will use identical soil, scaling factors and g-levels, while various centrifuge sizes and instrumentation methods will be employed. The participants will meticulously document each experiment, facilitating a comprehensive analysis and comparison of the results. The outcomes will be open-access data, which will significantly contribute to understanding reproducibility and scale effects in geotechnical physical modelling. The exercise will propose strategies for enhancing consistency and provide a valuable database for validating numerical models.



Joaquin Liaudat; Alexander Kochnev; H. Zachert; William Fernando Ovalle Villamil; S. Muraro; Miguel Angel Cabrera; Luc Thorel; Matthieu Blanc; Alexandru Marin; Liam Jones; I. Anastasopoulos; Samuel Stanier; G. Viggiani; S. J. M. van Eekelen; Koen Castelein; Dirk A. De Lange; Cihan Cengiz; Orianne Jenck; Christophe Dano; Rami Chalhoub


5th European Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics (ECPMG2024)



Scaling principles and fundamentals



https://doi.org/10.53243/ECPMG2024-127