EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON THE BEHAVIOR OF A DEFECTIVE PILE SUBJECT TO A LATERAL LOAD

摘要

This paper investigates the lateral loading of a single pile with a necking defect under different conditions in sandy soil. The behavior of the pile was studied by introducing necking defects to a model pile and changing the position of the defect, the length of the defect, the cross-sectional area of the defect, the relative denseness of the soil medium around the pile, and the ratio of the embedded length to diameter of the pile. Model experiments were carried out at 1g in a laboratory using a test tank with sandy soil and a scaled model pile. The lateral load corresponding to a displacement of 20% of the diameter of the pile was taken as the ultimate lateral load. The lateral load-carrying capacity of the defective pile was observed for the different pile configurations and compared with that of the intact (nondefective) pile. It was found that the ultimate lateral capacity of the pile was reduced by the presence of a necking defect along the pile. Additionally, it was observed that the lateral capacity of the pile was greatly reduced when the necking defect was in the top portion of the pile and less so when the defect was in the bottom portion of the pile. The capacity of the pile depended on the length of the defect, the position of the defect, the cross-sectional area of the defect, the relative denseness of the soil, and the ratio of the embedded length to diameter of the pile.