Responses of Laterally Loaded Single Piles Subjected to Various Loading Rates in a Poroelastic Soil

Meen-Wah Gui,Alex A Alebachew

doi:10.3390/app12020617

Abstract

Groundwater table has an important role in soil–structure interaction problems. However, analysis of laterally loaded single piles has often been conducted by solely considering the mechanics of the soil skeleton or decoupling the interactive mechanics of the soil skeleton and the fluid flux; in other words, most analyses were performed without taking into consideration the coupling effect between the soil skeleton and the fluid flux. To improve our understanding of the hydromechanical coupling effect on laterally loaded single piles, a series of finite element study on laterally loaded single piles in saturated porous media was conducted. The effect of pile cap geometries, cap widths, cap embedment depths, and pile lengths, on the response of laterally loaded single piles was also studied. The loading condition of the pile was found to have a significant effect on the generation of excess pore-water pressure. The lateral displacement and bending moment computed at the maximum excess pore water pressure, which in turn, is equivalent to an undrained analysis, produced the minimum responses among all the other loading conditions. The effect of pile cap geometries was found to be much less significant than anticipated.

Highlights

Pile foundation, among many underground structures, is an embedded structure in a soil mass and is used to transfer and resist loads through its body and tip
Experimental, elastic theory, p − y curve, and finite element (FE) methods are some of the common methods used in tackling issues that are related to the problem of pile and pile cap subjected to various loading
As mentioned in the previous section, in the following coupled analysis, a lateral load of 200 kN was incrementally applied to the pile cap under various loading conditions: fast loading rate (2 kN/s), i.e., undrained condition, slow loading rate (2 kN/h), i.e., partially drained condition, and almost stationary loading rate (2 kN/day), i.e., drained condition

Summary

Introduction

Among many underground structures, is an embedded structure in a soil mass and is used to transfer and resist loads through its body and tip. Small-scale and full-scale lateral load experiments on single piles and pile groups with pile caps of different elevations from the ground surface, of varying sizes and thicknesses, and of different pile spacings in a pile group have been studied by Nath and Hazarika [1], El-Garhy et al [2], Mokwa and Duncan [3], etc. Nath and Hazarika [1] experimentally studied the lateral resistance of a pile cap subjected to different depths of cap embedment, pile group axial capacities, pile spacings, and material properties.

Methods

Results

Conclusion