Computers and Geotechnics 62 (2014) 164174

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Computers and Geotechnics

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Variation of limiting lateral soil pressure with depth for pile rows in clay
K. Georgiadis
School of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 541 24, Greece

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 27 April 2014
Received in revised form 18 July 2014
Accepted 19 July 2014

Keywords:
Piles
Pile groups
Lateral loads
Numerical analysis
Bearing capacity
Clays

a b s t r a c t
Pile group interaction effects on the lateral pile resistance are investigated for the case of a laterally
loaded row of piles in clay. Both uniform undrained shear strength and linearly increasing with depth
shear strength proles are considered. Three-dimensional nite element analyses are presented, which
are used to identify the predominant failure modes and to calculate the reduction in lateral resistance
due to group effects. A limited number of two-dimensional analyses are also presented in order to
examine the behaviour of very closely spaced piles. It is shown that, contrary to current practice, group
effects vary with depth; they are insignicant close to the ground surface, increase to a maximum value
at intermediate depths and nally reduce to a constant value at great depth. The effect of pile spacing and
pilesoil adhesion are investigated and equations are developed for the calculation of a depth dependent
reduction factor, which when multiplied by the limiting lateral pressure along a single pile, provides the
corresponding variation of soil pressure along a pile in a pile row. This reduction factor is used to perform
py analyses, which show that, due to this variation of group effects on the lateral soil pressures with
depth, the overall group interaction effects depend on the pile length. Comparisons are also made with
approaches used in practice that assume constant with depth reduction factors.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
A crucial parameter in the design of laterally loaded piles is the
limiting lateral soil resistance and its variation with depth. This is
commonly expressed in terms of the lateral bearing capacity factor
Np, which is dened as the limiting lateral load per unit pile length,
pu, normalised with respect to the pile diameter, D, and the
undrained soil shear strength, su. For single piles in clay, it is
well-established that Np starts form a small value at the ground
surface, increases non-linearly with depth in the upper part of
the pile, reaches an ultimate value at some depth and remains constant in the lower part of the pile [13]. Fig. 1 presents the variation of the bearing capacity factor Np with depth for uniform soil
strength and different values of the adhesion factor a (=limiting
interface shear stress/ undrained shear strength).
In the case of pile groups in clay, the limiting lateral soil pressures (and consequently also the lateral bearing capacity factor)
are generally reduced, due to group interactions effects, compared
to those that act on single piles. A lateral bearing capacity
reduction factor can be dened as:

fm

pu;g Np;g

pu;s Np;s

Address: School of Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki,

Thessaloniki 541 24, Greece. Tel.: + 30 2310 994 227; fax: + 30 2310 995 619.
E-mail address: kgeorg@civil.auth.gr
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compgeo.2014.07.011
0266-352X/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

where pu,s and pu,g are the limiting load per unit length for a single
pile and a pile in a pile group, respectively. Np,s (=pu,s/suD) and Np,g
(=pu,g/suD) are the lateral bearing capacity factors for a single pile
and a pile in a pile group, respectively.
Group interaction effects for laterally loaded piles have been
investigated by several researchers using large scale load tests,
model tests and numerical analysis. Large scale load tests have
been performed on pile groups in clayey [47], sandy [810] and
multi-layered soils [11,12]. Model tests have been reported for
both 1 g [13,14] and centrifuge conditions [15,16]. Numerical
investigations of group effects include two-dimensional plane
strain simulations of both active and passive loading of pile groups,
such as those reported by Chen and Poulos [17], [18], Bransby [19],
Bransby and Springman [20], Chen and Martin [21] and Georgiadis
et al. [2224], and three-dimensional studies [11,25,26].
In practice, a single reduction factor (called the p-multiplier in
conventional py analysis) is assigned to each pile of a pile group
[7,27,28], which depends solely on pile spacing and does not take
account of the variation of group effects with depth. As a consequence, a very wide range of reduction factors can be found in
the literature for the same pile spacing.
Georgiadis et al. [24] performed two-dimensional analytical
upper bound plasticity calculations, numerical limit analyses and
displacement nite element analyses for the determination of the
ultimate pu (lower part of a pile) for the case of an innite number
of laterally loaded piles in a row. This specic case is relevant to a

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165

Nomenclature
D
Ep
Eu
fm
fmu
Hug
Hus
k
Ko
L
Np
Npo
Np,g
Np,s
Npu
Npu,g
Npu,s
Npu(2D)
p
pu

pile diameter
modulus of elasticity of pile
undrained modulus of elasticity
lateral bearing capacity reduction factor
ultimate lateral bearing capacity reduction factor
lateral capacity of pile in pile group
lateral capacity of single pile
undrained shear strength increase with depth
lateral earth pressure coefcient at-rest
pile length
lateral bearing capacity factor
lateral bearing capacity factor at ground surface
pile in pile group lateral bearing capacity factor
single pile lateral bearing capacity factor
ultimate lateral bearing capacity factor
pile in pile group ultimate lateral bearing capacity factor
single pile ultimate lateral bearing capacity factor
two-dimensional failure ultimate lateral bearing capacity factor
lateral load per unit pile length
ultimate lateral load per unit length

number of practical problems, such as the analysis of landslide stabilising piles and soldier piles for earth retaining structures. Based
on these calculations, a practically exact (very close upper and
lower bounds of the exact values were achieved) design chart
was presented for the calculation of the limiting lateral pressure
at depth (Fig. 2) and an empirical equation was proposed for the
ultimate (at depth) lateral bearing capacity factor Npu.

pu,g
pu,s
s
su
suo
s1
y
z
Z
zo
zt

pile in pile group ultimate lateral load per unit length

single pile ultimate lateral load per unit length
centre-to-centre pile spacing
undrained shear strength
undrained shear strength at ground level
pile spacing beyond which Np = Nps
lateral pile displacement
depth
normalised depth
depth of no pile group interaction
tension crack depth
a
adhesion factor
b1, b2, b3 functions of pile spacing
c
soil bulk unit weight
cp
pile unit weight
k
non-dimensional factor
mp
Poissons ratio of pile
mu
undrained Poissons ratio
ra
active earth pressure
rp
passive earth pressure
sf
ultimate shear stress along discontinuity

This paper presents three-dimensional nite element analyses

of an innite number of laterally loaded piles in a row in clay.
The problem denition is shown in Fig. 3. The variation of group
effects with depth is investigated and depth dependent lateral
bearing capacity reduction factors are calculated. Both homogeneous strength and strength linearly increasing with depth proles
are considered. A limited number of two-dimensional plane strain
nite element analyses are also presented in order to investigate
the behaviour of pile rows with very closely spaced piles.
2. Finite element analyses
Two sets of nite element analyses are presented. The main set
involves three-dimensional analyses of laterally loaded rows of
piles, performed with the nite element program Plaxis 3D
Foundation V2.2 [29], in which several different centre-to-centre
pile spacings, s, normalised with respect to the pile diameter, D,

Fig. 1. Variation of Np with z/D for a single pile in homogeneous clay with different
interface adhesion factors a (after Georgiadis and Georgiadis [2]).

Fig. 2. Variation of Npu with s/D for a row of piles in clay (after Georgiadis et al.
[24]).

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K. Georgiadis / Computers and Geotechnics 62 (2014) 164174

s
H

CLAY
su = constant
or
su = suo + kz

Fig. 3. Problem geometry.

are considered. The same pile length L = 40 m is maintained in all

analyses, which is long enough to allow the determination of the
limiting load prole down to a sufcient depth. Preliminary analysis performed with three different pile diameters proved that the
effect of pile diameter D on the variation of the limiting soil
pressure with the normalised depth z/D is negligible. Therefore,
the same pile diameter of D = 1 m was adopted in the analyses
presented in the following sections. It is noted that for these pile
dimensions and typical pile and soil Youngs moduli, the piles
examined are exible according to the Broms [30] classication
since bL  2.5. However, the discussion and equations presented
in the paper are valid for both exible and rigid piles.
Taking advantage of the loading and geometrical symmetry,
only one pile needs to be modelled, as seen in Fig. 4, which shows
a typical nite element mesh for s/D = 6. 15-node wedge elements
were used for both the soil and the pile and 8-node quadrilateral
interface elements were used for the pilesoil interface. An average
of approximately 15,000 elements was used in all analyses. The
bottom boundary of the mesh was xed in all directions and
the vertical boundaries were xed only in the normal direction.
The pile was modelled as linear elastic with Youngs modulus
Ep = 2.9107 kPa, Poissons ratio vp = 0.1 and unit weight cp = 25
kN/m3. The soil was modelled as linear elastic perfectly plastic
with a Tresca failure criterion. Analyses were performed with
either uniform undrained shear strength su = 50 kPa and 100 kPa
or with linearly increasing with depth undrained shear strength

k = 1, 1.5 and 2 kPa/m. It is noted that the lateral bearing capacity

factor Np (=pu/suD), which is used to subsequently calculate the
p-multiplier through Eq. (1), is independent of the value of su. In
the majority of the analyses in which the undrained shear strength
was taken to increase linearly with depth, a nominal strength
intercept of suo = 1 kPa was assigned at the ground surface. Analyses, however, were also performed with greater values of the
strength intercept, suo. In all cases, an undrained Poissons ratio
of vu = 0.49 and an undrained Youngs modulus over shear strength
ratio, Eu/su = 200 were selected. The bulk unit weight was taken as
c = 18 kN/m3. Analyses were also performed with c = 16 kN/m3 and
20 kN/m3, which showed that the results are not affected by c for
this range of values. The interface behaviour was modelled as elastic Coulomb plastic with tension cut-off [29]. A zero interface
friction angle, a limiting shear stress, sf = asu and zero tensile
strength were assigned to the soilpile interface. Several values
of the adhesion factor at the pilesoil interface were considered
a = 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 1.
All analyses were performed by rst generating initial stresses
through a Ko procedure. Different values of Ko were initially considered in order to verify that the limiting lateral soilpile pressure
prole, which is of interest in this study, is independent of the
selection of Ko. All results presented in the following sections were
obtained with Ko = 1. After the generation of initial stresses, the
pile was wished-in-place by changing the material properties
of the appropriate volume elements from soil to concrete and
nally a horizontal load was applied at the pile head. The distribution of pu along the length of the pile was determined in each case
from the py curves at various depths. These were obtained by
combining the rst derivative of the shear force versus depth
diagrams with the deection versus depth diagrams at several
applied lateral load levels (more details on this procedure are given
in Georgiadis and Georgiadis [2]).
As mentioned above, a limited number of two-dimensional
plane strain nite element analyses were also performed. The inplane geometry and material properties of the three-dimensional
analyses were maintained, with the exception of the pile row
(vertical wall in 2D) which was modelled as a plate element with
equivalent axial and bending stiffness. Interface elements with
various adhesion factors were also used in this case. The
two-dimensional nite element mesh is shown in Fig. 5.
3. Uniform soil strength prole
The variation of the lateral bearing capacity factor Np with
depth, obtained from the numerical results for adhesion factor
a = 0.3 and several normalized pile spacings s/D, is presented in
Fig. 6. Similar results were obtained for all the adhesion factors
considered in this section (a = 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7). It can be seen that,
as expected, similar to the pattern observed in single piles (Fig. 1),
the lateral resistance increases with depth and reaches an ultimate

50D

80D

Y
X

Fig. 4. Typical nite element mesh for s/D = 6.

50D

80D
Fig. 5. Two-dimensional analyses nite element mesh.

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K. Georgiadis / Computers and Geotechnics 62 (2014) 164174

Fig. 7. Variation of Npu with s/D for a = 0.3. Comparison of three-dimensional

analysis results to Eq. (2).





s=D  1
s=D  1
Npu;g Npu;s 1 0:13ln
0:24  0:02a ln
for s < s1
s1 =D  1
s1 =D  1
2

where s1 is the pile spacing beyond which group effects on the

ultimate lateral capacity diminish (Npu,g = Npu,s for s P s1), which
depends on the value of the adhesion factor a:

s1 =D 3:1 1:4a
Fig. 6. Variation of Np with z/D for various pile spacings and a = 0.3.

value at some depth. Pile spacing has a signicant inuence on

both the calculated ultimate lateral bearing capacity factor Npu
and on the variation of Np at smaller depths. It can also be observed
that the inuence of pile spacing on the bearing capacity factor
reduces as the pile spacing increases. Group interaction effects
on the lateral resistance diminish at s/D = 10.
As seen in Fig. 6, with the exception of very closely spaced piles
(s/D = 1.1 and 1.2), there are no group interaction effects on the
lateral resistance close to the ground surface; the Npz/D curves
coincide close to the pile head and start deviating at a critical depth
which increases as the pile spacing increases. For s/D P 4, the
Npz/D curves converge again to a single curve and to the same
ultimate lateral bearing capacity factor Npu, which corresponds to
that of a single laterally loaded pile. For s/D < 4, lower Npu values
are reached which decrease as s/D decreases. The depth at which
Npu is reached can be seen to vary signicantly with s/D, from 6D
for a single pile (s/D P 10) to 16D for s/D = 2. The ultimate lateral
bearing capacity factor Npu is further discussed below. It can also
be seen in Fig. 6, that for closely spaced piles, a maximum is
reached at a depth of between 9 and 11 pile diameters and then
Np gradually reduces with depth until it reaches its ultimate value
Npu. This feature is also discussed in more detail below.
4. Ultimate lateral bearing capacity factor
Based on two-dimensional plane strain (in a horizontal plane
perpendicular to the piles axis) analytical plasticity calculations,
numerical limit analyses and displacement nite element analyses,
Georgiadis et al. [24] showed that the following equation (which is
plotted in Fig. 2) provides a practically exact theoretical solution
for the calculation of the ultimate lateral bearing capacity factor
of a pile in a row of innite piles:

Npu,g is the ultimate lateral bearing capacity factor for a pile in a

pile row and Npu,s is the associated factor for a single pile, which
can be calculated from the following equation [31]:

Npu;s

pu;s
su D

p 2 arcsin a 2 cosarcsin a





arcsin a
arcsin a
sin
4 cos
2
2

Eq. (2) is compared to the three-dimensional analysis results for

a = 0.3 in Fig. 7. As seen, the 2D analysis-based Eq. (2) compares

excellently with the 3D numerical results for pile spacings greater
than approximately two pile diameters. However, for s/D < 2 the
Npu,g values calculated from the three-dimensional analyses deviate from the values obtained from the 2D-based equation. In the
two-dimensional problem, it is not possible for a failure mechanism to develop in the soil in the limiting case in which the piles
are in contact with each other (s/D = 1). Consequently, Npu,g
increases sharply as s/D decreases and tends to innity as s/D tends
to unity. In contrast, in the three-dimensional problem, the limiting case of s/D = 1 corresponds to a different two-dimensional
plane strain (in the vertical plane) problem of a laterally loaded
vertical wall, where the net load per unit length at a sufciently
large depth is equal to the difference between the passive and
the active pressure at the same depth. It is straightforward, using
Mohrs circles of stress, to derive the following stress eld solution
for Npu,g (for s/D = 1) as a function of the adhesion factor a:

pu s=D 1 rp  ra

su D
su D
p
21 arcsina 1  a2 

Npu;g s=D 1

If it is now assumed that for low normalised pile spacings a pile row
behaves as an equivalent vertical wall, then:

Npu;g 21 arcsina

p
1  a2 s=D

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K. Georgiadis / Computers and Geotechnics 62 (2014) 164174

The ultimate lateral bearing capacity factor for the whole range of
s/D values can therefore be expressed as follows:

Npu;g minN1 ; N2 6 Npu;s

where N1 and N2 are the values of Npu,g calculated from Eqs. (2) and
(6), respectively. Eq. (7) is compared with the three-dimensional
nite element analysis results in Fig. 8 for adhesion factors
a = 0.1, 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7. As seen in this gure, the transition from
Eq. (6) (equivalent vertical wall behaviour) to Eq. (2) (individual
pile failure mechanisms with pilepile interaction) takes place at
approximately s/D = 2; the exact value depends on the adhesion
factor.
5. Lateral bearing capacity reduction factor
Similarly to the ultimate lateral bearing capacity factor Npu, a
reduction factor constant with depth can also be dened below a
certain depth:

fmu minN1 ; N2 =Npu;s 6 1

Closer to the ground surface, where Np varies with depth, group

effects also vary with depth, contrary to the common assumption
of a unique reduction factor fm for each pile in a pile group. Fig. 9
shows the variation of the reduction factor fm with depth, obtained
from the numerical results through Eq. (1) for a = 0.3. It can be
observed that in accordance with the observations made in
Fig. 6, there is no pile group interaction (fm = 1) at the ground surface for any pile spacing. In fact, for s/D P 2 the reduction factor
remains equal to unity up to a critical depth, zo. Below this depth
a sharp drop is observed, fm reaches a minimum value at an intermediate depth of 46.5 diameters and gradually tends towards the
ultimate value which can be determined through Eq. (8). Based on
the numerical results, the critical depth zo can be computed as
follows:

zo =D 0:5s=D  1

As seen in Fig. 9, pile group interaction effects on the lateral

resistance are more pronounced at intermediate (relatively small)
depths of 46.5 pile diameters, for all pile spacings. For large pile
spacings of s/D P 4 no group effects are detected at depths greater
than 12 pile diameters.
It is also seen in Fig. 9 that fm reaches the nal value fmu at a
depth that depends on s/D.

16
14

= 0.7

12

= 0.5

N pu

10

= 0.3

= 0.1

8
6

Equaon (7)
= 0.1 (FEA)

= 0.3 (FEA)
2
0

= 0.5 (FEA)
= 0.7 (FEA)
1

s/D
Fig. 8. Variation of Npu with s/D for various pilesoil adhesion factors. Comparison
of three-dimensional analysis results to Eq. (7).

Fig. 9. Variation of reduction factor with depth for various pile spacings and a = 0.3.
Comparison of three-dimensional analysis results to Eq. (10).

Based on the numerical results of Fig. 9, the following equation

is proposed for the calculation of the distribution of fm along the
length of a pile as a function of pile spacing:

h
i
2
fm 1  1  fmu 1  e0:075Z=D  b1 Z=Db2 eb3 Z=D

10

where

b1 0:6D=s  0:1

11

b2 0:6s=D

12

h
i
b3 b2 0:251 es=D 0:07s=D3

13

Z z  zo

14

Eq. (10) is compared to the numerical results in Fig. 9.

The effect of the adhesion factor, a, on the ultimate reduction
factor fmu is examined in Fig. 10, which compares the fmu values
obtained from the numerical analysis results to Eq. (8). The effect
of a on the distribution of fm along the length of a pile is examined
in Fig. 11 for s/D = 2 and 4. It is evident from these gures that
although, as discussed above, the adhesion factor has an important
effect on the lateral bearing capacity factor, this is not reected on
the reduction factors. The adhesion factor has a small inuence on
fmu (it mainly affects the critical pile spacing beyond which group
effects diminish), while the variation of fm along the length of a pile
is largely independent of the pilesoil adhesion. Noting that Eq.
(10) accounts for the effect of a on fmu through Eqs. (2)(8), it
can be considered valid for any value of a.
As noted in the introduction, available p-multiplier approaches
assign a single fm value to the whole length of a pile and therefore
do not take account of the variation of group interactions with

K. Georgiadis / Computers and Geotechnics 62 (2014) 164174

169

1.2
1

= 0.5

= 0.7

0.8

fmu

= 0.3

= 0.1

0.6
0.4

Equaon (8)
= 0.1 (FEA)
= 0.3 (FEA)
= 0.5 (FEA)
= 0.7 (FEA)

0.2
0

s/D
Fig. 10. Variation of ultimate reduction factor with pilesoil adhesion and pile
spacing.

depth. Fig. 12a and b compares the fm values calculated with Eq.
(10) to the constant with depth values proposed by Reese and
Van Impe [28], Mokwa and Duncan [27] and Rollins et al. [7], for
pile spacings s/D = 2 and 4, respectively. It can be seen in these gures that appropriate choice of an average p-multiplier, to be
applied over the whole length of a pile, depends on the pile length.
In order to investigate the effect of the variation of fm with
depth on the overall behaviour of a pile in a row of piles, py analyses were performed with the nite difference beam on non-linear
springs computer code LPILE [32], using the single pile py curves

Fig. 11. Variation of reduction factor with depth for various pilesoil adhesions and
s/D = 2 and 4.

Fig. 12. (a) Reduction factor: comparisons for s/D = 2. (b) Reduction factor: comparisons for s/D = 4.

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K. Georgiadis / Computers and Geotechnics 62 (2014) 164174

Np
4

FEA

Equaon (15)

z/D

10

12

14

= 0.5
16

= 0.3
= 0.1

18

= 0.7
= 1

20
Fig. 14. Variation of Np with depth for various pilesoil adhesions from twodimensional analyses. Comparison of numerical and analytical results.

Fig. 13. Inuence of pile length on the reduction of lateral pile capacity due to
group interaction effects for: (a) s/D = 2 and (b) s/D = 4.

developed by Georgiadis and Georgiadis [2] for clay and the reduction factor of Eq. (10). Fig. 13a and b presents the reduction of
lateral capacity of rigid piles due to group interaction effects,
expressed in terms of the calculated ratio of the lateral pile capacity of a pile in a pile row, Hug, to the lateral capacity of a single pile,
Hus, for different pile length to diameter ratios, adhesion factor
a = 0.3 and pile spacing s/D = 2 and 4. It can be seen that the reduction in lateral capacity is small for short piles, which is consistent
with the small pile group interaction effects observed in the reduction factor plot of Fig. 9. The reduction in lateral capacity becomes
more signicant as the normalised pile length L/D increases.
Fig. 13a and b also compares the py analysis results to the lateral
capacity reduction according to Reese and Van Impe [28], Mokwa
and Duncan [27] and Rollins et al. [7]. As expected, the constant
with depth p-multiplier approach fails to capture the variation of
group interaction with pile length, especially for short piles. The
accuracy of each of the constant multiplier approaches examined
depends on the L/D ratio.

lateral bearing capacity factor can be determined from a lateral

earth pressure calculation. A similar calculation can be performed
to determine the variation of the lateral resistance with depth and
subsequently the reduction factors fm for closely spaced piles.
Fig. 14 shows the Npz/D curves determined through twodimensional nite element analyses for various values of the adhesion factor. It can be seen that the normalised lateral resistance
increases linearly with depth up to a certain depth (zt), then drops
sharply and gradually stabilises at a constant value. This behaviour
occurs due to the development of a tension crack along the back
side of the wall. Because of this tension crack, only passive
pressures act on the upper section of the wall (z < zt) and therefore
the normalised lateral resistance is a function of soil weight and
consequently of depth. In the lower part of the wall (z > zt), both
active and passive pressures act on the wall and the contribution
of soil weight cancels out. The following relationship is proposed
for the determination of the normalised lateral resistance
(Np = p/su), based on conventional earth pressure calculations:

(
Np

cz
su

Npu2D
2

Npu2D

for z 6 zt
for z > zt

where Npu(2D) is given from Eq. (5) and zt is the depth of the tension
crack, which depends on the adhesion factor (Fig. 14). The following
equation provides a good t of the numerically obtained zt values:

zt =D 4:3 0:35 ln a
6. Two-dimensional analyses
In the previous section it was shown that for s/D < 2 the ultimate lateral capacity (at depth) is associated with a laterally
loaded vertical wall deformation mode and that the ultimate

15

16

As seen in Fig. 14, Eq. (15) provides an excellent lower bound of

the numerical results. It is noted that, according to Fig. 6, the above
two-dimensional calculations are valid for small pile spacings of
s/D < 1.5. For greater pile spacings the pile row behaviour deviates
from that of a continuous vertical wall.

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K. Georgiadis / Computers and Geotechnics 62 (2014) 164174

Np
0

10

12

14

z/D

10

12

14

16

18

FEA

= 0.5

= 1

Equaon (17)
20
Fig. 15. Variation of Np with depth for single piles with a = 0.5 and various suo/kD
ratios.

7. Non-homogeneous soil strength prole

7.1. Single piles
In order to extend the study to consider normally consolidated
soils, a series of three-dimensional nite element analyses was
performed in which the soil shear strength increased linearly with
depth. In the majority of the analyses, a nominal strength intercept
of suo = 1 kPa was assumed at the ground surface, while the adhesion factor was set equal to one, which is typical for normally
consolidated soils. However, in order to rst investigate the effect
of strength non-homogeneity on the limiting lateral pressures on a
single pile, a limited number of analyses were performed with
higher values of suo and a = 0.5. Fig. 15 illustrates the Npz/D relationship for a single pile with pilesoil adhesion factor a = 0.5 and
four different strength uniformity ratios suo/kD = 0.5, 5, 10, (innite
for uniform strength). It can be seen that the ultimate lateral
bearing capacity factor Npu is the same in all four cases and that
the effect of increasing strength with depth is that Npu is reached
at a smaller depth. Consequently, the transition from the surface
wedge-type failure mechanism to the deeper two-dimensional
ow around mechanism in the ground (according to the commonly
used conceptual behavioural model) takes place closer to the
ground surface as the shear strength prole becomes less uniform.
This feature can be attributed to the different depth of the tension
crack that develops at the back of the piles. If no tension crack
develops (which is the case for suo/kD = 0), then both an active
and a passive wedge form and both active and passive pressures

Fig. 16. Comparison of Eq. (17) to numerical results for suo/kD = 0.5.

act even at very small depths. It is straightforward to show using

simple limit equilibrium calculations that in the case of a simplied 2D laterally loaded vertical wall problem, this leads to a
constant with depth normalized load (Np), i.e. the ultimate value
of Np is reached at z = 0. This was also veried using two-dimensional nite element analyses. On the other hand, if the maximum
tension crack depth develops (which is the case for uniform
strength suo/kD = ), then only a passive wedge forms and passive
pressures act at the top part of the pile, which leads to a lateral
resistance that increases with depth and consequently so does Np.
Fig. 16 shows the calculated Npz/D relationship for a single pile
in normally consolidated soil (linearly increasing strength with
depth, nominal 1 kPa strength at ground surface and a = 1). This
is compared to the relationship proposed by Georgiadis and
Georgiadis [2] for uniform soil strength:

Np Npu  Npu  Npo ekz=D

17

where Npo is the bearing capacity factor at the ground surface:

Npo 2 1:5a

18

Npu is the ultimate bearing capacity factor calculated from Eq. (4)
and k is a non-dimensional factor set equal to 1 for normally consolidated clay, while for uniform clay is a function of a.
Also shown for comparison is the curve for a = 0.5. In both
cases, k = 2 kPa/m. Fig. 17 compares the Npz/D relationships for
three values of k = 1, 1.5 and 2 kPa/m. As seen, the inuence of k
on the lateral bearing capacity factor is small and therefore is not
investigated further.

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K. Georgiadis / Computers and Geotechnics 62 (2014) 164174

Np

10

12

14

0.2

0.4

fm

0.6

0.8

1.2

4
6

s/D = 1.5

2 2.5 3 4

6,10

z/D

z/D

10

10

12

14

12

16

14
18

16

k = 1 kPa/m

20

k = 1.5 kPa/m

18

FEA
Equaon (20)

Fig. 19. Normally consolidated soil: variation of reduction factor with depth for
various pile spacings. Comparison of three-dimensional FEA results to Eq. (20).

k = 2 kPa/m
20
Fig. 17. Normally consolidated soil: Inuence of k on the lateral bearing capacity
factor.

1.2
Equaon (2)

consolidated soil prole with k = 2 kPa/m is illustrated in Fig. 18.

Also shown is the theoretical variation according to Eqs. (2) and
(6) with a = 1. It can be observed that the numerically obtained
results compare excellently with the ultimate reduction factors
calculated using the Npu values that correspond to the two twodimensional failure modes considered in the previous section:
laterally loaded vertical wall (for very closely spaced piles:
Eq. (6)) and ow around failure for a laterally translating row of

0.8

fmu

Equaon (19)

0.6
Equaon (6)

0.4

FEA

0.2

Equaons
0

s/D
Fig. 18. Normally consolidated soil: variation of ultimate reduction factor with pile
spacing.

7.2. Lateral bearing capacity reduction factors for linearly increasing

strength with depth
The variation of the ultimate reduction factor with s/D obtained
from the three-dimensional analysis results for the normally

Fig. 20. Wedge-type failure mechanisms (incremental displacement plots) for s/

D = 4: (a) uniform shear strength and (b) linearly increasing strength with depth.

K. Georgiadis / Computers and Geotechnics 62 (2014) 164174

piles (for larger pile spacings: Eq. (2)). However, the transition
between the two mechanisms appears to be gradual in this case,
unlike the case of uniform soil strength. This transition can be
computed through the following empirical equation:

fmu 1  1:5es=D

19

Fig. 19 shows the variation of the calculated reduction factors

with depth for several normalised pile spacings. It is evident that
the ultimate reduction factor is reached at a much smaller depth
(approximately 4 diameters) than in the case of uniform strength.
As discussed above, this indicates that the depth at which the transition from wedge-type failure (where Np and fm vary with depth)
to two-dimensional ow-around failure (where Np and fm reach
their constant nal values, Npu and fmu, respectively) takes places,
depends on the strength prole. This is illustrated in Fig. 20, which
compares the nal incremental displacements obtained with the
two different strength proles for s/D = 4. The depth of the
wedge-type failure mechanism is approximately equal to 12D in
the case of uniform strength (Fig. 20a), which is consistent with
the fmz/D plot of Fig. 9, and close to 4D in the case of linearly
increasing shear strength (Fig. 20b), which is consistent with
Fig. 19. It can also be observed in Fig. 20 that while in the case of
uniform strength a wedge type mechanism develops on the front
side of the pile, in the case of linearly increasing strength with
depth a wedge also forms on the back side of the pile. This is due
to the different depth of the tension cracks that develop at the back
of the piles, which as discussed above, is signicant in the case of
uniform strength and close to zero in the case of linearly increasing
strength with depth.
It can also be seen in Fig. 19 that pile group interaction diminishes at a smaller pile spacing (approximately 6 pile diameters).
The following modication of Eq. (10) provides a good approximation (Fig. 19) of the numerical results:

h
i
2
fm 1  1  fmu 1  e0:7zzo =D

20

where fmu is the minimum of the values calculated through Eqs. (8)
and (19). Reduction factors were calculated for three different
values of k = 1, 1.5 and 2 kPa/m. It was found that the inuence of
k on the fmz/D relationship is very small, as it was found to be
on the Npz/D relationship for single piles (which was discussed
above). Therefore Eq. (20) is considered to be valid for any value
of k.
8. Conclusions
Three-dimensional nite element analyses of laterally loaded
rows of piles in clay were presented. Both uniform strength and
linearly increasing strength with depth proles were considered.
The numerical study investigated the limiting lateral soil pressures
that act on a pile in a row of piles and the reduction of these
pressures due to group interaction effects.
The nite element results showed that pile group interaction
effects are not constant along the pile length. No group effects on
the lateral resistance exist close to the ground surface. The reduction in lateral resistance starts below a certain depth, which is a
function of pile spacing, and reaches a maximum at depths ranging
from 4D (for s/D = 1.1) to 6.5D (for s/D = 8) for uniform soil strength
and 3.5D (for s/D = 1.5) to 5.5D (for s/D = 6) for soil strength
linearly increasing with depth. The ultimate constant with depth
values of the lateral resistance are reached at a greater critical
depth that is also a function of pile spacing. Below this depth,
two distinct two-dimensional failure mechanisms in the ground
are identied: a laterally loaded vertical wall failure mode for
closely spaced piles and a ow around failure mode for greater pile
spacings.

173

The critical pile spacing beyond which there are no group

effects on the lateral resistance was found to be at approximately
10 pile diameters for uniform shear strength and 6 pile diameters
for shear strength linearly increasing with depth. For smaller pile
spacings, group interaction effects were found to increase with
the decrease in pile spacing. For very closely spaced piles, a twodimensional laterally loaded vertical wall failure mode was
identied for the whole length of the piles.
Reduction factors were calculated for all cases analysed and it
was shown that they are not constant with depth, as commonly
assumed in practice. Equations were proposed for the calculation
of the reduction factor and its variation with depth for both uniform undrained shear strength and linearly increasing with depth
shear strength proles. Py analyses performed using these equations showed that, because of the variation of the reduction factor
with depth, the overall group interaction effects, depend on the
pile length. Comparisons were also made with three constant with
depth p-multiplier approaches, which are adopted in practice.
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