Single Piles and Pile Groups Under Lateral Loading

The complexities of designing piles for lateral loads are manifold as there are many forces that are critical to the design of big structures such as bridges, offshore and waterfront structures and retaining walls. The loads on structures should be supported either horizontally or laterally or in both directions and most structures have in common that they are founded on piles. To create solid foundations, the pile designer is driven towards finding the critical load on a certain structure, either by causing overload or by causing too much lateral deflection. This second edition of Reese and Van Impe’s course book explores and explains lateral load design and procedures for designing piles and pile groups, accounting for the soil resistance, as related to the lateral deflection of the pile. It addresses the analysis of piles of varying stiffness installed into soils with a variety of characteristics, accounting for the axial load at the top of the pile and for the rotational restraint of the pile head. The presented method using load-transfer functions is currently applied in practice by thousands of engineering offices in the world. Moreover, various experimental case design examples, including the design of an offshore platform pile foundation are given to complement theory. The rich list of relevant publications will serve the user into further reading. Designed as a textbook for senior undergraduate/graduate student courses in pile engineering, foundation engineering and related subjects, this set of book and CD-ROM will also benefit professionals in civil and mining engineering and in the applied earth sciences.

Techniques for designIntroductionOccurrence of laterally loaded pilesNature of the soil responseResponse of a pile to kinds of loadingModels for use in analyses of a single pileModels for groups of piles under lateral loading Status of current state-of-the-art Derivation of equations and methods of solutionIntroductionDerivation of the differential equationSolution for Epy =kpyx Validity of the mechanicsModels for response of soil and weak rockIntroductionMechanics concerning response of soil to lateral loadingInfluence of diameter on p-y curvesInfluence of cyclic loadingExperimental methods of obtaining p-y curves Early recommendations for computing p-y curves p-y curves for clays p-y curves for sands above and below the water tablep-y curves for layered soilsp-y curves for soil with both cohesion and a friction angleOther recommendations for computing p-y curves Modifications to p-y curves for sloping ground Effect of batterShearing force at bottom of pilep-y curves for weak rock Selection of p-y curvesStructural characteristics of piles IntroductionComputation of an equivalent diameter of a pile with a noncircular cross sectionMechanics for computation of Mult and EpIp as a function of bending moment and axial loadStress-strain curves for normal-weight concrete and structural steelImplementation of the method for a steel h-sectionImplementation of the method for a steel pipeImplementation of the method for a reinforced-concrete sectionApproximation of moment of inertia for a reinforced-concrete sectionAnalysis of groups of piles subjected to inclined and eccentric loadingIntroductionApproach to analysis of groups of pilesReview of theories for the response of groups of piles to inclined and eccentric loadsRational equations for the response of a group of piles under generalized loadingLaterally loaded pilesAxially loaded pilesClosely-spaced piles under lateral loadingProposals for solving for influence coefficients for closely-spaced piles under axial loadingAnalysis of an experiment with batter pilesAnalysis of single piles and groups of piles subjected to active and passive loading Nature of lateral loadingActive loadingSingle piles or groups of piles subjected to active loadingPassive loadingSingle piles or groups of piles subjected to passive loadingCase studiesIntroductionPiles installed into cohesive soils with no free waterPiles installed into cohesive soils with free water above ground surfacePiles installed in cohesionless soilsPiles installed into layered soilsPiles installed in c-f soilPiles installed in weak rockAnalysis of results of case studiesComments on case studiesTesting of full-sized pilesIntroductionDesigning the test programSubsurface investigation Installation of test pileTesting techniquesLoading arrangements and instrumentation at the pile headTesting for design of production pilesExample of testing a research pile for p-y curvesSummaryImplementation of factors of safetyIntroductionLimit statesConsequences of a failurePhilosophy concerning safety coefficientInfluence of nature of structureSpecial problems in characterizing soilLevel of quality controlTwo general approaches to selection of factor of safetyGlobal approach to selection of a factor of safetyMethod of partial factors (psf)Method of load and resistance factors (LRFD)Concluding commentSuggestions for designIntroductionRange of factors to be considered in designValidation of results from computations for single pileValidation of results from computations for pile groupAdditional steps in designAPPENDICESBroms method for analysis of single piles under lateral loadingNondimensional coefficients for piles with finite length, no axial load, constant Ep/Ip, and constant EpyDifference equations for step-tapered beams on foundations having variable stiffnessComputer Program COM622Non-dimensional curves for piles under lateral loading for case where Epy =kpyxTables of values of efficiency measured in tests of groups of piles under lateral loadingHorizontal stresses in soil near shaft during installation of a pileUse of data from testing uninstrumented piles under lateral loading to obtain soil responseEurocode principles related to geotechnical designDiscussion of factor of safety related to piles under axial load

Professor Van Impe received his MSc and PhD degree in civil engineering at the Ghent University in Belgium where he has been professor of Geotechnics since 1982 and full professor since 1991. Prof. Van Impe has been an emeritus professor since March 2011 but remains active as a consultant and as manager of AGE bvba. He has been also a full professor at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. He has a 35+ years long career in geotechnics. He is a member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Overseas Sciences. He was elected Vice-President for Europe of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) in 1994, World President of ISSMGE in 2001 and the President of the umbrella society of the 3 geo-engineering sister societies FedIGS (Federation of the International Geo-Engineering Societies) in 2008. His main field of experience is deep foundations, ground improvement and soil parameter analysis, currently dealing mostly with crushable soils.