Effect of cyclic lateral loads on p-y curve for pile foundations in saturated sand

摘要

In this paper, a series of cyclic lateral load tests on preinstalledaluminum flexible piles were performed to examine the cyclic p-ybehavior of piles under different soil conditions. Model piles wereembedded in saturated Jumoonjin sand (SP) with relative densities of40% and 70% and saturated Saemangeum sand (SM) with a relativedensity of 70%, being subjected to static as well as cyclic lateral loads.Test results showed that the horizontal subgrade modulus increased forthe model pile installed in saturated sand of 40% relative density,whereas the modulus decreased in case of relative density of 70%,differing from the American Petroleum Institute (API) p-y curve whichis generally adopted and contains a reduction factor for the horizontalsubgrade modulus. In addition, cyclic response of the Saemangeumsand (Dr=70%) was similar to that of the medium dense Jumoonjinsand (Dr=70%) even though its friction angle was similar to that of theloose Jumoonjin sand (Dr=40%), which indicated that the relativedensity was a governing factor to determine the cyclic loads effects.