Influence of axial load on the lateral pile groups response in cohesionless and cohesive soil

Abstract

The lateral response of single and group of piles under simultaneous vertical and lateral loads has been analyzed using a 3D finite element approach. The response in this assessment considered lateral pile displacement and lateral soil resistance and corresponding p-y curve. As a result, modified p-y curves for lateral single pile response were improved with respect to the influence of increasing axial load intensities. The improved plots can be used for lateral loaded pile design and to produce the group action design p-multiplier curves and equations. The effect of load combination on the lateral pile group response was performed on three pile group configurations (i.e., 2×1, 2×2 and 3×2) with four pile spacings (i.e., s = 2D, 4D, 6D and 8D). As a result, design curves were developed and applied on the actual case studies and similar expected cases for assessment of pile group behavior using improved p-multiplier. A design equation was derived from predicted design curves to be used in the evaluation of the lateral pile group action taking into account the effect of axial load intensities. It was found that the group interaction effect led to reduced lateral resistance for the pile in the group relative to that for the single pile in case of pure lateral load. While, in case of simultaneous combined loads, large axial load intensities (i.e., more than 6H, where H is lateral load values) will have an increase in p-multiplier by approximately 100% and will consequently contribute to greater group piles capacities.

Keywords

piles / pile group / spacing / configuration / combined load

References

[1] Karthigeyan S, Ramakrishna V V G S T, Rajagopal K. Influence of vertical load on the lateral response of piles in sand. Computers and Geotechnics, 2006, 33(2): 121–131

[2] Karthigeyan S, Ramakrishna V V G S T, Rajagopal K. Numerical investigation of the effect of vertical load on the lateral response of piles. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 2007, 133(5): 512–521

[3] Poulos H G, Davis E H. Pile Foundation Analysis and Design. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1980

[4] Rollins K M, Olsen K G, Jensen D H, Garrett B H, Olsen R J, Egbert J J. Pile spacing effects on lateral pile group behavior: Analysis. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 2006, 132(10): 1272–1283

[5] Zhang L, Mc Vay M, Lai P. Numerical analysis of laterally loaded 3×3 to 7×3 pile groups in sands. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 1999, 125(11): 936–946

[6] Patra N R, Pise P J. Ultimate lateral resistance of pile groups in sand. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 2001, 127(6): 481–487

[7] Ashour M, Pilling P, Norris G. Lateral behavior of pile groups in layered soils. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 2004, 130(6): 580–592

[8] Rollins K M, Lane J D, Gerber T M. Measured and Computed lateral response of a pile group in sand. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 2005, 131(1): 103–114

[9] Chandrasekaran S S, Boominathan A, Dodagoudar G R. Group interaction effects on laterally loaded piles in clay. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 2009,

[10] Brown D A, Morrison C, Reese L C. Laterally load behavior of pile group in sand. Journal of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, 1988, 114(11): 1261–1276

[11] Rollins K M, Peterson K T, Weaver T J. Lateral load behavior of full-scale pile group in clay. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 1998, 124(6): 468–478

[12] Kishida H, Nakai S. Large deflection of a single pile under horizontal load. In: Proceedings of the IX International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering. Tokyo, Japan, 1977, 87–92

[13] Iyer P K, Sam C. 3-D elastic analysis of three-pile caps. Journal of Engineering Mechanics, 1991, 117(12): 2862–2883.

[14] Randolph M F. The response of flexible piles to lateral load. Geotechnique, 1981, 31(2): 247–259

[15] Muqtadir A, Desai C S. Three-dimensional analysis of a pile-group foundation. International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, 1986, 10(1): 41–58

[16] Brown D A, Shie C F. Modification of p-y curves to account for group effects on laterally loaded piles. In: Proceedings of the Geotechnical Engineering Congress. Boulder, Colorado, Jane, 10-12, 1991, 1: 749–490

[17] Trochanis A M, Bielak J,Christiano P. Three-dimensional nonlinear study of piles. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, 1991, 117(3): 429–447

[18] Kimura M, Adachi T, Kamei H, Zhang F. 3-D finite element analyses of the ultimate behavior of laterally loaded cast-in-place concrete piles. 5th InternationalSymposium on Numerical Models in Geomechanics. 1995, 589–594

[19] Rabczuk T, Areias P M A. A new approach for modelling slip lines in geological materials with cohesive models. International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Engineering, 2006, 30(11): 1159–1172

[20] Zhu H, Zhuang X, Cai Y, Ma G. High rock slope stability analysis using the enriched meshless Shepard and least squares method. International Journal of Computational Methods, 2011, 8(02): 209–228

[21] Li E, Zhuang X, Zheng W, Cai Y. The effect of graph generation on the slope stability analysis based on the graph theory. Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, 2014, 6(4): 380–386

[22] Kahyaoglu M R, Imancli G, Ozturk A U, Kayalar A S. Computational 3D finite element analyses of model passive piles. Computational Materials Science, 2009

[23] Brinkgreve R B J, Broere W. PLAXIS 3D FOUNDATION- version 1. Netherlands, 2004

[24] Potts D M, Zdravkovic L. Finite element analysis in geotechnical engineering: Theory. Thomas Telford. Heron Quay, London, 1999

[25] Johnson K, Lemcke P, Karunasena W, Sivakugan N. Modelling the load - deformation response of deep foundation under oblique load. Environmental Modelling & Software, 2006, 21(9): 1375–1380

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg