Lateral behavior of single pile in cohesionless soil subjected to both vertical and horizontal loads

Abstract

A numerical investigation based on 3D finite element analysis of the behavior of single pile under pure lateral and combined loadings is presented in this paper with different water table elevations. The linear elastic model is used for modeling of the pile material while the Mohr-Coulomb model is used to simulate the surrounding soil. The pile - soil interaction composed of 16-node interface elements. Assessments are made on the lateral soil pressures with respect to pile width and depth. The results have shown that the lateral pile response influenced by the water table elevation is to significantly increase the capacity in dry soil condition and marginally decrease the capacity in fully saturated soil. It was found that the axial load intensity affects on the lateral pile response; the great lateral pile displacement occurred at vertical load increment 12 and 16 which means that the lateral response is sensitive under the influence of large amount of vertical load.