P-Y Curves for Single Piles in Sand from the Standard Penetration Test (SPT)

Abstract

It is nowadays recognized the P-Y curves-based methods are the most commonly used methods for the analysis and design of pile foundations under lateral loads. Such methods have the advantage to account for the non-homogeneity of soil properties and the non-linear pile/soil interface behavior as well. The paper aims at presenting a practical method to define a hyperbolic function describing the P-Y curves along the pile whose parameters, namely the initial reaction modulus and the limit lateral soil resistance, are correlated with the SPT N-value. The study is based on an extensive interpretation of several full-scale pile loading tests; the test piles being fully instrumented by strain gauges to derive the bending moment profiles along the pile. Finally, the predictive capability of the proposed method was demonstrated by comparing the predicted load-deflection curves by the software SPULL to the experimental ones obtained from lateral loading tests on simply instrumented full-scale piles.

Keywords

• single pile
• sandy soils
• p-y curves
• standard penetration test