IMPACT OF FAILURE WEDGE VOLUME ON TOP DEFORMATION OF LATERALLY LOADED PILE IN SAND – 3D FEA

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Fayoum University, Fayoum, Egypt

Abstract

The laterally loaded pile is soil-structure interaction problem. The failure mechanism is governed by the lateral deformation that intern affects the soil deformation pattern. Many design methods proposed to study this problem, i.e. case of laterally loaded pile capacity and its deformation. These approaches have lack information regarding deformation patterns of the effective zone of soil failure around the pile. The soil's behavior in front of the pile is important factor for analyzing pile-soil interaction under lateral loading. The pile resists lateral loads by mobilizing a passive zone ahead of the pile. Thus, the pile's lateral capacity and deformation could be determined based on the shape and volume of the passive strain wedge mobilized by the lateral loaded pile. This study aims to investigate the effective zone of failure for pile subjected to lateral load, regarding, the shape, volume, and dimensions of this zone. The numerical analysis has been conducted using PLAXIS 3D, with the investigated soil being dense sand and two soil models have been applied. Three different shapes of failure zones have been suggested herein based on previous studies. The volume of each suggested zone has been changed by increasing its dimensions. The analysis results indicated that the pile deformation increases with increasing the volume of the failure zone to a certain limit then stops. This behavior was typical for all shapes. The pile head displacement and the wedge volume deformation effect have been vanished after the range of 8 to 12 times pile diameter in loading direction.

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Journal of Al-Azhar University Engineering Sector
Volume 20, Issue 75
April 2025
Pages 556-567

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