Realistic Modelling of Soil-structure Interaction for High-rise Buildings

For a save design and construction and the technical and economic optimisation of deep foundation systems a realistic modelling of the soil-structure interaction is necessary. Especially for the hybrid deep foundation system Combined Pile-Raft Foundation (CPRF) this has to be considered. Based on an adequate soil investigation, in-situ pile load tests and a high-level design using the Finite-Element-Method (FEM) it is possible to design complex foundation systems for high-rise buildings even in soft soil conditions. For guarantee of the ultimate limit state (ULS) and the serviceability limit state (SLS) an independent peer review and the application of the observational method is necessary. The paper explains some special aspects of the optimisation process of the design and presents several projects from engineering practice, where the CPRF has been successfully applied.