Effects of Relative Density on the Measured Response of Piles under Combined Uplift and Lateral Loading

Abstract

Due to the movement of waves, a backwater or dock is primarily affected by two types of external forces: horizontal and uplift forces. Because of wind and waves, port and harbor structures are subjected to high lateral stress and enormous uplift loads. However, limited experimental investigations are reported on piles subjected to uplift-lateral loading, which is investigated in the present work. Specifically, the effects of the relative density of sand on the combined loading behavior of the pile are a focus to cover the wide range of conditions of sand. According to the findings, coupled loading significantly impacted the pile capacity in both lateral and uplift modes. The effect is pronounced for piles of shorter length embedded in loose to medium dense sand conditions and found to diminish for very dense conditions because of the initially mobilized high resistance on piles subjected to independent loading. Equations are developed for estimating the capacity of piles under combined loading.