Bearing capacity of a single pile in saturated and drained clay

In this study the pile-soil interaction behavior of single, long, laterally loaded, embedded piles was investigated in both saturated and drained clay. The piles were hollow steel pipes with a diameter of 114 mm, a thickness of 2.5 mm, and a length-to-diameter ratio of 35. The piles were installed in inhomogeneous, saturated clay and laterally loaded to test their mechanical behaviors in saturated and drained soil. The soil-pile interaction force-displacement relationships (p-y curves) were calculated from the soil reaction and combined with the directly measured lateral displacement. The results indicate that the lateral load-bearing capacity of the pile in drained clay is up to 27% greater than the initial value. Furthermore, the ultimate soil resistance in both types of clay increases linearly with depth. There is a large difference between drained clay and unsaturated loose clay. The soil resistance in drained clay is nearly two times larger than that in unsaturated clay. This study also compares and analyzes the difference between the measured p-y curves and the back-calculated values.