Lateral resistance of single pile near slopes of sand

A series of lateral loading tests on a single pile near a slope of an embankment made of dry sand was carried out in a geotechnical centrifuge using divided pile loading system which can directly measure the relationships between the subgrade reaction, p, and the lateral displacement, y, of the pile at different elevations from shallow to deep depths. Effects of slope height and angle, and distance of pile from the slope shoulder on p-y curves were discussed from the test results. It was found that the obtained p-y curves near the slope could be modeled by the hyperbolic curves which can be expressed by the coefficient of initial subgrade reaction, k(hi), and the ultimate subgrade reaction, p(max), The effects of a slope were more significant on p(max) than k(hi) especially at the shallower depth, showing smaller reduction factors on the former than the latter.