Effect of Sand-Pile Interaction on the Response of Battered Piles Subjected to Lateral Loads

This paper presents a parametric study on the effect of pile batter angles and soil/pile properties on the response of laterally loaded battered piles in sand using the Strain Wedge (SW) formulation. The SW model determines the lateral behavior of battered piles and the corresponding p-y curves based on soil-pile interaction. The methodology employed is validated using battered piles in sand by centrifuge model tests. The results showed that change of soil and pile properties has a significant influence on the response of laterally loaded battered piles. The lateral capacity of battered piles is highly affected by the batter angle and sand relative density. Negatively battered piles maintain a significantly higher bearing capacity than vertical piles in the range from zero to minus seven degrees of pile battering, followed by a less rate of increase in the lateral capacity with larger angels of battering. However, the bearing capacity of positively battered piles is generally less than that of vertical piles. In addition, the calculated response of laterally loaded piles was significantly affected by the pile flexure rigidity and the shape of the pile cross-section.