I modeled my raft pile foundation all as volume elements, with a surface load of 200 kN / m ^ 2 on the raft, I used the interfaces for the piles and for the plate, I made the mesh and I considered phase 0, phase 1 in which I activated the interfaces etc. and last phase in which I activate the surface load, then I run the analysis considering for the curves 9 points aligned with the piles at -1m, from the analysis I obtained a maximum value of the settlement equal to 0.08m therefore 8cm, is reliable?anyway I would like to verify that this settlement is reliable, and to do this I need to calculate the settlement of the single pile, my question is, I must always apply 200 kN / m ^ 2 on this pile??
Dear Alfonso,
To be able to make any comparison to understand whether the results are reliable you need to have something as a reference. Whether that is a result of a similar design in the area, professional experience, field tests and pile tests, etc.
As you can imagine it is very difficult for anyone to simply answer to your question with a yes/no.