Laterally Loaded Single Pile Response Considering the Influence of Suction and Non-Linear Behaviour of Reinforced Concrete Sections

Abstract

A hybrid BEM-p-y curves approach was developed for the single pile analysis with free/fixed head restraint conditions. The method considers the soil non-linear behaviour by means of p-y curves in series to a multi-layered elastic half-space. The non-linearity of reinforced concrete pile sections, also considering the influence of tension-stiffening, has been considered. The model reproduces the influence of suction by increasing the stress state and hence the stiffness of shallow soil-layers. Suction is modeled using the Modified-Kovacs model. The hybrid BEM-py curves method was validated by comparing results from data of 22 load tests on single piles. In addition, a detailed comparison is presented between measured and computed data on a large-diameter reinforced concrete bored single pile.

Keywords

• laterally loaded piles
• single pile
• boundary element method
• p-y curves
• tension stiffening
• suction