Laterally Loaded Pile Behaviors in Clay with Uncertainty in Strain ε_(50)

摘要

Uncertainty in soil strengths and lateral loads have been the main foci of the probabilistic analyses of laterally loaded piles in clay. Very little attention has been paid to the uncertainty in strain ε_(50), while it apparently governs the slope of p-y curves and affects the lateral behaviors of piles in clay. This study develops a probability model for strain ε_(50) based on a recently published database, and conducts a probabilistic analysis for a pile design case. The strain ε_(50) was taken as the single random variable that is independent of undrained shear strength. A spreadsheet was developed to perform extensive calculations from the Monte Carlo approach in the probabilistic lateral pile analyses. The probabilistic analysis results demonstrated that the variability in strain ε_(50) has substantial impacts on the lateral displacements and the pile stresses. The uncertainty in strain ε_(50) should be carefully considered in the laterally loaded pile analysis.