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The employed model has been extensively calibrated for clean Nevada Sand at
r
D
40%
(Elgamal et al. 2002). The calibration phase included results of monotonic and cyclic laboratory
tests, as well as data from level-ground and mildly inclined infinite-slope dynamic
centrifuge-model simulations.
RESULTS OF ANALYSIS
Linear 3D FEM Analysis
Abedzadeh and Pak (2004) presented a benchmark solution of laterally loaded piles. This
solution is a rigorous mathematical formulation for a flexible tubular elastic pile of finite length
embedded in a semi-infinite homogenous elastic soil medium under lateral loading in the
framework of three-dimensional elastostatics and the classical Bernoulli-Euler beam theory. A
series of 3D FEM analyses were conducted with various domain sizes for the case of a pure
pile-head horizontal load H using the following pile and soil properties:
Homogenous elastic soil: Youngs modulus E
s
= 50 MPa, Poisson ratio
s
= 0.4, and thus
shear modulus G
s
= 17.857 Mpa
7
Elastic circular solid pile: E
e
= 32 GPa, pile radius r = 0.6 m, pile length L = 25 m.
3D FEM analysis results are very close to Abedzadeh and Pak (2004) as compared in figures 4
and 5. Specifically, FIG. 4 compares the displacement and moment when the bottom boundary is
5, 10 and 25 times pile diameter from the pile tip while keeping the periphery boundary 100
times pile diameter from the pile. Both displacement and moment distributions show that lateral
pile response is insensitive to the bottom boundary distance from the pile tip employed in the 3D
FEM analysis. A bottom boundary of 10 times pile diameter from the pile tip may be appropriate
for both linear and nonlinear 3D FEM laterally loaded pile analysis. FIG. 5 compares the
displacement and moment when the periphery boundary is 10, 25, 50, and 100 times pile
diameter from the pile while keeping the bottom boundary 10 times pile diameter from the pile
tip. It shows that lateral pile displacement is sensitive to the periphery boundary distance from
the pile. A periphery boundary of 100 times pile diameter from the pile may be required for linear
3D FEM laterally loaded pile analysis. For nonlinear cases, a closer boundary may be used.
Moment distribution is however insensitive to the periphery boundary distance in this cases.
The moments in all cases (figures 4 and 5) are noticed to be smaller than Abedzadeh and Pak
(2004). This is due to the fact that beam element in FEM assumes a cubic displacement variation
which corresponds to zero distributed load. So, it should be of no big surprise that the bending
moments are off if computed without some analytical adaptation (Pak 2004, personal
communication).
A mesh with periphery boundary 100 pile diameters away and bottom boundary 10 pile
diameters away is then used to conduct a 3D FEM study on lateral piles with diameters ranging
from 0.15 m to 3.0 m (Youngs Modulus 20 GPa). The pile is embedded in a homogenous elastic
soil with Youngs Modulus 20 MPa and Poissons ratio 0.4999. A lateral load of 400 kN is
applied at 5.5 m above ground line. Pile displacements at ground line and critical moment from
the 3D FEM study are compared with the widely referred solutions of Davies and Budhu (1986)
in FIG. 6. The displacements and moments from the 3D FEM study on free head and fixed head
piles agree excellently with Davies and Budhu (1986).
The excellent agreement with Abedzadeh and Pak (2004) and Davies and Budhu (1986)
shown in above linear analysis ensures that the finite element procedure adopted is reliable. It
brings insights into the soil domain size and meshing for nonlinear 3D FEM analysis.
8
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
-0.2 0.2 0.6 1.0 1.4
Normalized Moment
M/(H0*r)
N
o
r
m
a
l
i
z
e
d
D
e
p
t
h
,
z
/
r
100d 5d
100d 10d
100d 25d
Abedzadeh and
Pak (2004)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
-0.04 0.00 0.04 0.08 0.12
Normalized Displacement
u/(H0/(r*Gs))
N
o
r
m
a
l
i
z
e
d
D
e
p
t
h
z
/
r
100d 5d
100d 10d
100d 25d
Abedzadeh and
Pak (2004)
FIG. 4. Comparisons between the 3D FEM study and Abedzadeh and Pak (2004) (In
FEM fixed bottom boundary is 5, 10, and 25 times pile diameters from pile tip and
periphery boundary is 100 times pile diameter from pile).
9
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
-0.04 0.00 0.04 0.08 0.12
Normalized Displacement
u/(H0(Gs*r))
N
o
r
m
a
l
i
z
e
d
D
e
p
t
h
,
z
/
r
10d
25d
50d
100d
Abedzadeh and
Pak (2004)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
-0.20 0.20 0.60 1.00 1.40
Normalized Moment
M/(H0*r)
N
o
r
m
a
l
i
z
e
d
D
e
p
t
h
,
z
/
r
10d
25d
50d
100d
Abedzadeh and
Pak (2004)
FIG. 5. Comparison between the 3D FEM study and Abedzadeh and Pak (2004) (In
FEM fixed bottom boundary is 25 times pile diameters from pile tip and periphery
boundary is 10, 25, 50 and 100 times pile diameter from pile).
10
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
0 1 2 3 4
Pile Diameter (m)
P
i
l
e
D
i
s
p
l
a
c
e
m
e
n
t
a
t
G
r
o
u
n
d
L
i
n
e
(
m
m
)
Free-head by Davies and Budhu (1986)
Free-head by 3D FEM
Fixed-head by Davies and Budhu (1986)
Fixed-head by 3D FEM
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
0 1 2 3 4
Pile Diameter (m)
M
a
x
i
m
u
m
M
o
m
e
n
t
i
n
F
r
e
e
-
H
e
a
d
P
i
l
e
o
r
M
o
m
e
n
t
i
n
F
i
x
e
d
P
i
l
e
-
H
e
a
d
(
k
N
*
m
)
Free-head by Davies and Budhu (1986)
Free-Head by 3D FEM
Fixed-head by Davies and Budhu (1986)
Fixed-head by 3D FEM
FIG. 6. 3D FEM results compared with Davies and Budhu (1986).
Nonlinear 3D FEM Analysis
An effort to model a full-scale field lateral-load pile test was attempted in this study. The test
modeled herein was conducted at Mustung Island near Corpus Christ, Texas (Cox et al. 1974;
Reese and Impe 2001). The pile was a steel-pipe pile with a 0.61m outside diameter and a
0.095m wall thickness. It was driven open-ended into the ground leading to an embedded length
of 21m. The mechanical properties of the pile were: moment of inertial I
p
= 8.084510
-4
m
4
;
bending stiffness E
p
I
p
= 163,000 kN-m
2
; yield moment = 640 kN-m; and ultimate moment M
ult
=
828 kN-m. The soil at the site was uniformly graded, fine sand with a friction angle of 39 degrees.
The submerged unit weight was 10.4 kN/m
3
. The water table was maintained at 0.15 m or so
above the ground line throughout the tests. Lateral load was applied at 0.305 m above the ground
line (Cox et al. 1974; Reese and Impe 2001).
In the 3D FEM modeling, the pile was modeled as a linear elastic beam with above
mechanical properties. Lateral load at increment of 1 kN was applied at 0.305 m above the
ground line. The final lateral load was 280 kN, below which the pile behaved linear (Cox et al.
1974; Reese and Impe 2001). Table 2 lists the soil constitutive parameters in addition to above
soil properties used in the nonlinear modeling of the soil.
11
Table 2 Soil Constitutive Parameters for Mustung Island Lateral Pile Test Analysis
Parameter Value
Number of yield surfaces 18
Submerged unit weight 10.4 kN/m
3
Reference mean pressure p
0
90,000 kPa
Reference shear modulus G
0
80 kPa
Poissons ratio 0.42
Pressure dependence coefficient n
p
0.5
Friction angle 39
Phase transformation angle
PT
16
Residual strength pressure a 2 kPa
Contraction parameter c
1
0.07
Contraction parameter c
2
0.03
Dilation parameter d
1
0.5
Dilation parameter d
2
1.0
FIG. 7 shows the deformed mesh 2 at lateral load 200 kN exaggerated 25 times. Soil heave in
front of the pile and settlement behind the pile are observed, which is consistent with field
observation. It is also noted that the soil very close to the pile, about 3 pile diameters in lateral
direction and 5 pile diameters in depth, has significant deformation.
FIG. 8 shows the comparisons of experimental and computed values of maximum moment
and ground line deflection. FIG. 9 shows the comparisons of experimental and computed moment
distribution along the pile at lateral load 210 kN. Good agreement between experimental and
computed response is observed. FIG. 8 shows that mesh 1 is somewhat softer than the mesh 2 as
expected, since mesh 1 has a larger lateral domain size and also has more beam elements size for
the pile. FIG. 10 shows the lateral pile response computed using meshes 1 and 2, where the soil
pressure is determined by differentiating the shear forces with respect to depth. Figures 8-10
show that the difference in results using mesh 1 and 2 is insignificant. Mesh 2 was used afterward
to study p-y curves in order to save computing cost.
12
FIG. 7. Deformed mesh 2 at lateral load 200 kN.
13
FIG. 8. Comparison of experimental and computed maximum moment and ground
line deflection.
FIG. 9. Comparison of experimental and computed moments along the pile at
lateral load 210 kN.
14
(a) Mesh 1
(b) Mesh 2
FIG. 10. Computed response at lateral load 20, 60, 100, 140, 180, 220, and 260 kN.
15
P-y curve from Nonlinear 3D FEM Analysis
As mentioned earlier, p-y curve is the force-deformation relationship of the springs
representing soil-pile interaction. In this relationship, p is lateral soil pressure per unit pile length
and y is pile displacement. The lateral soil pressure p can be determined by differentiating the
shear forces obtained from 3D FEM with respect to depth. The associated pile displacement can
be directly obtained from 3D FEM. As a matter of fact, p and y obtained from 3D FEM nonlinear
analysis have been shown in FIG. 10 for the Mustung Island lateral load test. The corresponding
p-y curves are easily obtained (FIG. 11 denoted as L1).
Using the same 3D FEM procedure, another set of p-y curves is also obtained for the case
where the lateral load is applied right at ground line. This set of p-y curves is denoted as L2 in
FIG. 11.
FIG. 11 shows that at greater depth, p-y curves show somewhat dependence on loading
conditions. The p-y curves are softer when lateral load was applied above ground line than
applied at ground line, while commonly used p-y curves do not distinguish loading conditions
(e.g, Reese and Impe 2001). Near ground surface, p-y curves show no apparent difference from
loading conditions, in agreement with traditional p-y curves. FIG. 11 also shows that the initial
slope of the p-y curves is about the same for different depths, different from commonly used ones
(e.g, Reese and Impe 2001). The p-y curve yields at smaller pile displacement near ground
surface. In the two cases, L1 and L2, the p-y curves above half pile diameter depth yielded
completely. From half to two pile diameter depth, the p-y curves yielded first and displayed
dilatance when associated displacement reached 0.015 m. The p-y curves at greater depth did not
fully yield at studied load levels.
16
FIG. 11. p-y curves derived from 3D FEM analysis.
CONCLUTIONS
This study used 3D FEM to laterally loaded piles. A framework is presented using 3D FEM
nonlinear analysis to obtain p-y curves for sand. The following conclusions can be drawn:
1. 3D FEM linear elastic lateral pile analysis is sensitive to lateral domain size; a
boundary 100 times pile diameter from the pile is needed. The bottom boundary is not
critical; 10 times pile diameter from the pile tip is appropriate.
2. When conduction 3D FEM nonlinear analysis, the domain size can be smaller than
linear case; a boundary 25 times pile diameter from the pile is appropriate.
3. At greater depth, p-y curves show somewhat dependence on loading conditions. Near
ground surface, p-y curves show no apparent loading conditions dependence.
4. 3D FEM nonlinear analysis shows that the initial slope of the p-y curves is about the
same for different depths, different from commonly used ones (e.g, Reese and Impe
2001).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was supported by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) Center,
under the National Science Foundation Award Number EEC-9701568.
17
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