EFFECT OF ORIENTATION OF SINGLE PILE AND PILES IN PILE GROUP UNDER LATERAL LOADING

Abstract

Pile is a type of deep foundation and is generally used when the top ground surface has low bearing capacity. It is used to transfer heavy axial and lateral load to the deeper soil having high bearing capacity. In present investigation experiments has been carried out to find the effect of orientation of pile on lateral load deflection resistance of piles. Experiments were carried out on the physical model to investigate the behaviour of single pile and pile group under lateral load. The orientation of the pile is changed from vertical to inclined both positive and negative to the loading direction to study the effect of inclination on the lateral load deflection resistance of the pile and piles in pile group. The model pile is made up of steel and has outer diameter and inner diameter of 20mm and 19mm, respectively. The batter angle of inclined pile was kept 150 initially. The testing tank dimensions are chosen such that boundary effects are eliminated. The size of tank is 750 x 600 x 400 mm. Experiments were conducted on single pile and pile groups embedded in sandy soil under lateral loading. Load versus deflection curves results indicate lateral load deflection resistance of pile groups containing batter pile mainly depends upon the direction of inclined pile with respect to lateral loading application direction. The experimental investigation shows that the pile inclined in the direction of lateral load application i.e., negative battered pile offers greater lateral load deflection resistance followed by vertical pile and positive battered pile. Positive battered pile are those piles which have inclination in opposite direction of lateral load application. After finding out the effect of inclination direction of pile on lateral load deflection resistance, the effect of increasing batter angle on lateral load deflection resistance of the pile is studied. In the current investigation batter angle of +20o, +15o, +10o, 0o,-10o,-15o& -20o is taken into consideration. Lateral load does not act continuously on structures therefore effect of reloading is also considered and investigated on single pile to find which orientation is best suitable for countering reloading effect caused by wind, sea waves, etc.