Laterally Loaded Battered Piles in Sandy Soils

Abstract

A technique to predict the response of laterally loaded battered piles in sandy soils is developed based on soil–pile interaction. The proposed method employs the concepts of the strain wedge (SW) model, which were originally developed for laterally loaded vertical piles. Unlike current practices that use a multiplier for the p–y curve of the vertical pile, the suggested technique accounts for soil and pile properties and the direction and magnitude of the pile batter angle from the vertical position in the calculation of the pile lateral response and the assessment of the p–y curves. The developed model shows the effect of pile battering on the predicted p–y curve at varying depths compared to the p–y curve of the vertical pile (i.e., a varying p–y multiplier). The model has been validated through comparisons with full-scale and model-scale pile load tests.