Finite element analyses of soil plug response

Open‐ended pipe piles are often used in offshore foundations. The response of the soil plug inside a pipe pile is poorly understood, and only limited work has been performed to quantify the response under the different loading conditions relevant to offshore platforms. This paper describes numerical analyses that have been carried out in order to assess the end‐bearing capacity of the soil plug under loading conditions which range from undrained to fully drained. The soil plug has been modelled as either elastic, elastic–perfectly‐plastic or elastoplastic. The soil–pile interface, an important aspect of the problem, has been examined critically. Comparison with experimental data from model test at laboratory scale indicates that the load–deformation behaviour of the soil plug is modelled well using an elastoplastic model for the soil plug, and an elastic–perfectly‐plastic joint element to model the soil–pile interface. The finite element analyses show that, under typical loading conditions, adequate end bearing may be mobilized by the soil plug, largely by high effective stresses in the bottom 3–5 diameters of the soil plug.