Investigation of the large lateral displacements behaviour of tubular piles in sand - Full scale and centrifuge modelling

The paper is aimed at presenting the results of full-scale large horizontal displacements tests carried out by the LCPC (Laboratoire Central des Pouts & Chaussees, France) on three pipe piles driven into a large pit filled in by the Fontainebleau sand. Furthermore, centrifuge tests at 25G were carried out on a pile model driven into sand, where top deflections of magnitude 2 to 4 diameters were reached in order to investigate the pile/soil response at large lateral displacements. Experimental results showed a significant influence of geometrical parameters such as pile diameter and slenderness ratio on lateral soil resistance. Moreover, instead of the ambiguous concept of the limit lateral load, it was shown it is possible to define a critical lateral load from displacements stabilisation curves. At last, comparative Study was undertaken by comparing the predictions of many currently used methods to the experimental Values of lateral loads at large displacements.