Impact of Suction on the Near Surface Lateral Soil Response using Centrifuge Modeling

Abstract

Recent studies have shown that unsaturated soils lead to greater lateral pile capacity. This study aims to experimentally assess how suction stress affects the lateral response of piles in unsaturated cohesionless soil. Two centrifuge tests were performed at 50 g to evaluate the effect of suction stress in the soil. Lateral loads were applied monotonically on a single free-head pile in a displacement-controlledmanner to a maximum pile head displacement of 0.44 m. The first test was conducted on fully saturated cohesionless soil, while the second test was performed in an unsaturated state with a mixed unsaturatedsaturated soil layer. The water table was lowered to about 0.12 times the embedded pile depth to ensure an unsaturated condition in the zone closer to the surface of the soil. Lateral response assessment indicates that the unsaturated soil influenced the pile head response, leading to larger applied lateral loads for similar pile displacements in comparison to the fully saturated soil test. Experimental findings reveal that suction stress played a meaningful role in magnitudes of pile bending moments and lateral resistances for unsaturated cohesionless soils.