Study on Piles Subjected to Axial and Lateral Loading

Piles are often subjected to combination of vertical and lateral loading in places like bridge piers, offshore structures, retaining walls, etc. The behaviour of piles under biaxial loading is much more complex when piles are embedded in layered soil system. In this paper, an attempt is made to study behaviour of pile subjected to vertical and lateral loading for varying soil layers. Model pile load tests have been conducted in a model tank filled with sand, clay and clay–sand medium to examine the behaviour of single pile and pile group under vertical and lateral loading. Both single and pile group (2 × 2) have been subjected to axial compressive loads and lateral loads, for varying type of soil medium, combinations of loading, number of pile and L/D ratio. Result indicated that the vertical load capacity of pile increases with L/D ratio and number of piles at any given settlement, but however, the vertical capacity of sand medium is always higher compared to clay or clay–sand medium. Similar trend is observed on the lateral load capacity also. At the given deflection, lateral capacity increases with L/D ratio and number of piles relatively on the higher magnitude for sand medium but less noticed for clay and clay–sand bed. Under the influence of ultimate vertical load, the lateral capacity of pile is much lower than the lateral capacity of pile without vertical load, for single pile irrespective of the settlement and for pile group at specified settlement values.