Effect of free field displacements on passive piles to control lateral soil movements

Passive piles are installed in unstable slopes or close to embankments on soft soils, to arrest or reduce lateral soil movements and to increase the stability of the slopes or the embankments. They permit the installation of the stabilisation system without endangering the existing slope or the soil structure. An anlysis of the problem of a row of piles subjected to lateral soil movements is presented, treating the piles as elastic beams and the ground as a layered deposit. The results are presented for the displacements, lateral stresses and bending moments developed in the pile for different free field displacements of the moving soil - varying both their magnitude and distribution with depth. A parametric study quantifies the effects of pile spacing, relative pil-soil stiffness and head restraint.