The horizontal capacity of improved pile foundation on sand

This paper presents the vertical and horizontal capacities of improved pile foundation on sand. The improved pile foundation is a pile foundation whose pile cap is surrounded with sheet piles. A series of 1g physical model tests was conducted on sand by using a new combined loading apparatus. The purpose of these tests is to study how the sheet piles affect the capacity of the pile foundation subjected to vertical and horizontal loadings. The concept of swipe test was adopted in this study to find out the horizontal capacity and shape of failure surface in V-H load space. Three types of model pile foundations were used in experiments and their loads and settlements were measured by using load cells and linearly variable differential transducers (LVDTs). The results show the effective tendency that the vertical and horizontal capacities of sheet piles combined with the pile foundation can withstand more than those of the pile foundation.