EVALUATION OF NUMERICAL APPROACHES FOR ANALYSING LATERALLY LOADED PILES

Abstract

In order to properly analyze a laterally loaded pile foundation in soil/rock, a nonlinear relationship needs to be applied that provides soil resistance as a function of p-y curves or pile deflection. This thesis indicates that p-y curves are not unique and change according to any variation in soil and pile properties. This thesis evaluates one of the most popular softwares known to analyze laterally loaded piles, LPILE and compares between its performances and that of less known but more sophisticated software, SWM. Those programs which employ unique p-y curves (such as LPILE) do not provide realistic solution for varying soil pile condition. This thesis presents several case studies to highlight the problems with conventional p-y analysis, advantages of strain wedge(SW) model analysis, and factors affecting lateral performance (such as generic condition, depth effect, the shadow effect of adjacent piles in group, and behavior in liquefiable soil).