Evaluation of Lateral Interpretation Criteria for Drilled Shaft Capacity

Representative interpretation criteria are examined to evaluate the capacity of nonrigid drilled shaft foundations under lateral loading. A wide variety of lateral load test data are used for analysis, and these data are divided into drained and undrained databases. The interpretation criteria are applied to these load test data to establish consistent lateral interpretation criteria. Among these criteria, the results are generally comparable for both drained and undrained loading. The statistical results show that the smaller the displacement or rotation is, the higher the coefficient of variation. Moreover, the undrained load test results present somehow less variability than the drained results. Based on these analyses, the relative merits and interrelationships of these criteria are established, and specific design recommendations for the interpretation of lateral drilled shaft load test are given in terms of capacity, displacement, and rotation.