Study of Lateral Capacity of a Single Pile in Clay Overlying Sand

Abstract

Aim of this paper is to present results evaluated from experimental study of laterally loaded free-head model steel pile embedded in a two-layered soil bed consisting of clay overlying sand. The study was conducted to obtain an optimum embedment length of pile which may help to limit the cost of construction while producing maximum lateral strength. The soil bed was prepared using clay at liquid limit and dense sand of relative density 80%. Effects of variation of pile embedment length and thickness of clay layer on the lateral capacity of pile are discussed in this paper. Lateral capacity of a single pile is observed to be increasing with increase in pile length but this effect diminishes with increase in length and after obtaining an optimum value the lateral capacity decreases with further increase in length. The optimum embedment length of single pile is found to be about 30 times pile diameter. Increase in thickness of clay layer results in decrease of lateral capacity and the relation between these two parameters is nonlinear which follows a power law in terms of ratio of clay layer thickness to pile length.