The Behavior of Laterally Loaded single Pile model in Unsaturated Cohesionless Soil

Abstract

In the past decades, great efforts were spent to understand the behavior of laterally loaded piles in unsaturated soil. The main property of unsaturated soil is the ability to store and release water and introduce capillary zone which increase the soil resistance. Since the unsaturated soil above the water level is governed by two independent stresses, net normal stress (σ – ua) and matric suction (ua-uw). This property is represented by soil water characteristic curve (SWCC), which represented graphically for mathematical relationship between suction and water content. In this work, an attempt is made to investigate the effect of unsaturated sandy soil on the laterally loaded model pile of 16 mm in diameter and 600 mm in length. The pile tested in different saturation conditions (dry, saturated and unsaturated). Lateral loads were applied to the pile head by static lateral load set up arrangement until reach the ultimate lateral capacity. The results shows that decreases in lateral displacement and bending moments resisted by the pile when the soil is unsaturated more than that of dry and saturated conditions for the same relative density and this decrement occurred because of the presence of suction effect in the unsaturated soil.