Pile-soil interaction determined by laterally loaded fixed head pile group

Abstract

This paper summarizes the results of small-scale laboratory modelling of pile behavior under lateral loading, considering the parameters such as short or long, single or group, spacing and rigidity or flexibility of piles. The head of piles was fixedly connected to the cap. In addition, the PIV method has been used to examine the effect of the mentioned parameters on the failure mechanism and pile-soil interaction more accurately. The results show that the short piles have a rigid movement, the displacement of the surrounding soil has occurred along the total length of the pile and the piles rotate around a point but the long piles have a flexible movement at the part of the pile length. It seems that the group effect be more obvious for long piles than short piles. Also, the effective depth of total soil displacement vectors around the trail pile is more than the lead one in long pile group, while this depth for trail pile is less than the lead pile in short pile group. Due to the sharper angles of total displacement vectors around the trail pile, the intensity of soil shear strains around the trail pile is greater than the lead pile.