1Postdoctoral Researcher, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Yonsei Univ., Seoul, 120-749, Korea. 2Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Yonsei Univ., Seoul, 120-749, Korea (corresponding author). E-mail: soj9081@yonsei.ac.kr
Abstract:
A fundamental study of pile-soil systems subjected to lateral loads in clay soil was conducted by using experimental tests and a lateral load-transfer approach. The emphasis was on an improved wedge failure model developed by considering three-dimensional combination forces and a new hyperbolic p-y criterion. A framework for determining the p-y curve on the basis of both theoretical analysis and experimental load test results is proposed. The proposed p-y method is shown to be capable of predicting the behavior of a large-diameter pile under lateral loading. The proposed p-y curves with an improved wedge model are more appropriate and realistic for representing a pile-soil interaction for laterally loaded piles in clay than the existing p-y method.