Effect of Slope on p-y Curves for Laterally Loaded Piles in Soft Clay

• Published in: Geotechnical and geological engineering Vol. 36; no. 3; pp. 1509 - 1524
• Main Authors: Rathod, Deendayal, Muthukkumaran, K., Sitharam, T. G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.06.2018; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Bending moments; Civil Engineering; Clay; Curve fitting; Deflection; Deformation; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; High rise buildings; Hydrogeology; Lateral loads; Mechanical properties; Model testing; Offshore engineering; Offshore structures; Original Paper; Pile foundations; Piles; Power plants; Railway stations; Scale models; Slope; Slopes; Soft clay; Soil; Soil resistance; Soils; Terrestrial Pollution; Transmission towers; Waste Management/Waste Technology; curves; Soft clay; Sloping ground; Bending moment; Model pile; Lateral static loads; -
• ISSN: 0960-3182; 1573-1529
• DOI: 10.1007/s10706-017-0405-7

Pile foundations are often subject to lateral loading due to various forces on a variety of structures like high rise buildings, transmission towers, power stations, offshore structures and highway and railway structures. The present investigation is to study the effect of slopes on p - y curves (where p is the static soil reaction and y is the pile deflection) due to static lateral loading in soft clay (Consistency index I c  = 0.42). A series of laboratory model tests were carried out on the instrumented model pile on sloping ground (slopes of 1V:1H, 1V:1.5H, 1V:2H, 1V:3H and 1V:5H) and with varying embedment length to diameter ratio (L/D) of 20, 25 and 30. From the experimental results, the bending moment curves along the pile shaft are double differentiated to obtain the soil resistance (p) and double integrated to obtain the deflection (y) using curve fitting method. New p - y curves for piles located on crest of soft clay with different sloping ground surface under static lateral loading are developed. Moreover, the effect of sloping angles on proposed p-y curves was studied.