An Approximate Method to Determine Lateral Force on Piles or Piers Installed to Support a Structure through Sliding Soil Mass

Abstract

Piles and drilled shafts are commonly used to stabilize potentially unstable natural and engineered slopes. Estimation of lateral pressures on piles or shafts used to stabilize potentially unstable sites continues to be a fundamental problem in geotechnical engineering. Several methods are available to estimate the lateral force on piles or drilled shafts used to stabilize a site. An approximate procedure to estimate the lateral force on drilled shafts supporting structures, i.e., installed at relatively large spacings on a potentially unstable site with a fixed slip surface is proposed, which is based on a widely referred theory of plastic deformation. Lateral pressures estimated using the method proposed show good agreement with a more rigorous method, which in turn has been reported to provide results close to field measurements. An approximate procedure to estimate a limiting (maximum) value of lateral pressure on shafts or piles when they are installed at close spacings is also proposed. Although, the limiting pressures estimated using the approximate procedure are in agreement with the pressures calculated using more rigorous method, verification of both methods with field measurements is recommended.