Construction and verification of a unified p–y curve for laterally loaded piles

Abstract

Estimation of the lateral pile load capacity is the key design procedure for structures where lateral loads are predominant, such as bridges, tall buildings and offshore platforms. In the process of laterally loaded pile design, the p–y curve method is the mainstream method and preferred by designers compared to the elastic continuum or finite element analysis. The traditional p–y curves are derived from some specific field tests and limited data, which do not reflect the overall conditions. In this study, a unified p–y curve based on the stress increment perspective was constructed by introducing Vesic cavity expansion theory and considering the actual stress state of the surrounding soils. The proposed p–y curve combines the contributions of the expansion-induced soil radial stress increment, vertical stress increment and lateral soil resistance caused by deep pile rotation. To validate the proposed method, case examples of lateral pile load tests in various soil conditions were prepared and used to compare the p–y curves from the test results and proposed methods. The p–y curves calculated from the proposed method show reasonable agreement with measured results and give a good prediction in large deformation analysis.