Behavior of Pile Groups Subject to Excavation-Induced Soil Movement

Centrifuge model tests have been conducted on free-head and capped-head pile groups consisting of two, four, and six piles located adjacent to an unstrutted deep excavation in sand. It is found that when two free- or capped-head piles are arranged in a row parallel to the retaining wall, the interaction effect between piles is insignificant. When two piles are arranged in a line perpendicular to the wall, the existence of a front pile would reduce the detrimental effect of excavation-induced soiled movement on the rear pile. In addition, the provision of a pile cap for two piles arranged in a line would exert a significant influence on the behavior of the pile group. For free-head four- or six-pile groups, the induced bending moment decreases as the number of piles increases. Moreover, the interior piles of the pile group always experience lower bending moments than those of peripheral piles as the latter have more exposure to the excavation-induced soil movement and are thus more adversely affected. For the capped-head four- or six-pile groups, it can be established that the provision of a pile cap would help to moderate the pile-group deflection against soil movement as the rear piles, that are located farther away from the wall and thus less affected by the soil movement, would drag the front piles back.