Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 9 (2017) 291e304

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Journal of Rock Mechanics and

Geotechnical Engineering
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Full Length Article

Influence of vertical loads on lateral response of pile

foundations in sands and clays
Lassaad Hazzar a, *, Mahmoud N. Hussien a, b, Mourad Karray a
a
Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Sherbrooke University, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada
b
Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Although the load applied to pile foundations is usually a combination of vertical and lateral compo-
Received 5 July 2016 nents, there have been few investigations on the behavior of piles subjected to combined loadings. Those
Received in revised form few studies led to inconsistent results with regard to the effects of vertical loads on the lateral response
1 September 2016
of piles. A series of three-dimensional (3D) finite differences analyses is conducted to evaluate the in-
Accepted 4 September 2016
Available online 20 September 2016
fluence of vertical loads on the lateral performance of pile foundations. Three idealized sandy and clayey
soil profiles are considered: a homogeneous soil layer, a layer with modulus proportional to depth, and
two-layered strata. The pile material is modeled as linearly elastic, while the soil is idealized using the
Keywords:
Pile foundations
MohreCoulomb constitutive model with a non-associated flow rule. In order to confirm the findings of
Vertical loads this study, soils in some cases are further modeled using more sophisticated models (i.e. CYsoil model for
Lateral loads sandy soils and modified Cam-Clay (MCC) model for clayey soils). Numerical results showed that the
Finite differences lateral resistance of the piles does not appear to vary considerably with the vertical load in sandy soil
Mohr circle especially at the loosest state. However, the presence of a vertical load on a pile embedded in homo-
geneous or inhomogeneous clay is detrimental to its lateral capacity, and it is unconservative to design
piles in clays assuming that there is no interaction between vertical and lateral loads. Moreover, the
current results indicate that the effect of vertical loads on the lateral response of piles embedded in two-
layered strata depends on the characteristics of soil not only surrounding the piles but also located
beneath their tips.
Ó 2017 Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Production and hosting by
Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction The behavior of pile foundations under either vertical or lateral

Pile foundations are extensively used in many civil structures to
support vertical and lateral loads. In conventional design methods,
the vertical and lateral responses of piles are often evaluated
separately neglecting their possible interaction. This would lead to
an erroneous design, as pile foundations for several types of
structures are often subjected to simultaneous vertical and lateral
loadings. The separate consideration of the vertical and lateral
loadings therefore cannot be expected to account properly for the
pile behavior (Georgiadis and Saflekou, 1990; Zhang et al., 2002;
Hussien et al., 2014a, b).
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: Lassaed.Hazzar@USherbrooke.ca (L. Hazzar).
Peer review under responsibility of Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics,
Chinese Academy of Sciences.
loads has been investigated for more than a century through full-
scale tests (e.g. Brown et al., 1987, 1988; Rollins et al., 1998, 2005),
centrifuge model tests (e.g. McVay et al., 1995, 1998; Tobita et al.,
2004), and analytical (e.g. Matlock and Reese, 1960; Randolph and
Wroth, 1978; Zhu and Chang, 2002) as well as numerical solutions
(e.g. Ottaviani, 1975; Hussien et al., 2010, 2012; Hazzar et al., 2013)
among others. The procedures used for modeling soil range from
rigorous soil continuum discretization such as finite element (FE) or
finite differences (FD) formulation to simplified interaction models
such as the subgrade reaction approach. In the conventional sub-
grade reaction approach, soil is modeled by spring elements
attached to the pile at different depths. These springs generally have
nonlinear loadedisplacement characterizations called tez and pey
curves for vertical and lateral loadings, respectively. These two types
of springs are generally uncoupled and therefore soil reactions
along the corresponding degrees of freedom are also uncoupled. In
other words, the influence of load acting in one direction on the

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrmge.2016.09.002
1674-7755 Ó 2017 Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-
NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
292 L. Hazzar et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 9 (2017) 291e304
characteristics of the spring in the other direction is neglected
(Hussien et al., 2014a). Anagnostopoulos and Georgiadis (1993) re-
ported through model tests supported by two-dimensional (2D) FE
analysis that the modified status of soil stresses and local plastic
volume changes in the soil continuum under combined vertical and
lateral loads cannot be accounted for in general by the subgrade
reaction and elastic half space methods of analysis. Therefore, they
suggested using a nonlinear three-dimensional (3D) FE or FD
technique for analyzing the problem.
Achmus and Thieken (2010) used 3D FE method to investigate
the behavior of piles in non-cohesive soil under combined lateral
and vertical loadings, and they reported that the combined loading
on piles induces interaction effects due to simultaneous mobiliza-
tion of passive earth pressure caused by lateral loads and pile skin
friction caused by vertical loads. Karthigeyan et al. (2006, 2007)
showed through a series of 3D FE analyses of piles that the pres-
ence of vertical loads increases the lateral load capacity of piles in
sandy soil and decreases it in clayey soil. Hussien et al. (2012, 2014a,
b), using simplified soil-pile interaction FE models, reported slight
increase in the lateral capacity of free-head piles installed in sandy
soil due to the presence of vertical loads and attributed this in-
crease to the increase in the confining pressures in the sand deposit
surrounding the upper part of the pile. In fact, the scopes of the
previous attempts examining this problem using 3D FE models
have been limited to the behavior of piles installed in homogeneous
sandy or clayey soils. Little work has been devoted to the behavior
of piles subjected to combined effects of vertical and lateral loads in
inhomogeneous and/or layered soils which are often encountered
in geotechnical projects. Moreover, the mechanisms regarding the
influence of vertical loads on the lateral response of pile founda-
tions in inhomogeneous and/or layered soils may be quite different
from those of piles in ideal homogeneous situations.
In view of the above-mentioned issues, this paper presents and
discusses the results of a series of 3D FD analyses carried out using
FLAC3D (Itasca, 2009) in order to recapitulate and evaluate the in-
fluences of vertical loads on the lateral response as well as internal
forces of piles installed in four idealized sandy and clayey soil pro-
files, i.e. a homogeneous sandy layer, a clayey layer with constant
Fig. 1. The general layout and meshing of the FD half model used for the analysis of the soil-pile system.
undrained shear strength, a clayey layer with undrained shear
strength proportional to depth, and two-layered strata. Numerical
models are validated and then analyses were carried out to inves-
tigate the influences of vertical loads on the lateral capacity and
bending moment of piles as affected by typical soil characteristics
such as relative density of sandy soil and undrained shear strength
as well as over-consolidation ratio (OCR) of clayey soils. Combined
load analyses were performed for vertical loads equal to 25%,
50%, 75%, and 100% of the ultimate vertical load capacity of the pile,
Vult.
2. Finite differences modeling and parameters identification
2.1. Finite differences
The 3D FD program FLAC3D (Itasca, 2009) was employed to study
the behavior of piles under lateral and vertical loadings. Full 3D
geometric models were used to represent the coupled soil-pile
system. Taking advantage of symmetry, only half of the actual
model was built, thus significantly reducing the computational
effort. Fig. 1 shows the general layout and meshing of the FD half
model used for the analysis of the soil-pile system. A floating pile
with a diameter, B, was embedded in the soil to a depth of L while
the total thickness of the soil stratum was selected as Lþ6B. The
soil-pile system was meshed with 8-node brick elements, and the
soil elements are fairly small adjacent to the pile and gradually
increase in size as they move away from it. The soil element size
was kept uniform at 0.5 m in the vertical direction. The total mesh
size was extended to a horizontal distance of 16B from the center of
the pile. This distance was decided after performing a number of
initial trial analyses with several horizontal distances until the
displacements and stresses of the pile did not change significantly
with further increase of the distance. All displacements were
restrained at the bottom of the meshes while those at the vertical
“external faces” were fully fixed in the X- and Y-directions. The
symmetry face (indicated in red in Fig. 1) was fixed against
displacement normal to the symmetry plane, but was free to move
on the surface of the plane.
 L. Hazzar et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 9 (2017) 291e304
2.2. Soil model
The MohreCoulomb model, extensively used in geotechnical
engineering practice, was adopted in this study to simulate the
nonlinear behavior of soil. In FLAC3D, six parameters are required to
effectively define the soil behavior. These parameters are the elastic
bulk modulus, K, the elastic shear modulus, G, the mass density, r,
the friction angle, f, the dilatancy angle, j, and the cohesion, c.
2.3. Pile model
The pile is modeled as linear-elastic material. Three parameters
are required to define the pile material behavior. These parameters
are the elastic bulk modulus, Kp, the elastic shear modulus, Gp, and
the mass density, rp.
2.4. Soil-pile interface model
The constitutive model of the soil-pile interface is defined in
FLAC3D by a linear Coulomb shear-strength criterion that limits the
shear force acting at an interface node. The shear-strength criterion
is given by (Itasca, 2009):
Fsmax ¼ ci A þ tan fi ðFn  pAÞ
where Fsmax is the limiting shear force at the soil-pile interface, Fn is
the normal force, ci is the cohesion along the interface, fi is the
friction angle of the interface, p is the pore pressure (interpolated
from the target face), and A is the area associated with an interface
node. The shear strength was defined with zero cohesion and 2/3 of
the friction angle for sandy soils. In the case of clayey soils, the
interfaces were assumed to have a zero friction angle and the same
cohesion of the surrounding soil. Separation would cause a signif-
icant increase in displacements and therefore the interface ele-
ments are allowed to separate if tension develops across the
interface and exceeds the tension limit of the interface. Once gap is
formed between the soil-pile interfaces, the shear and normal
forces are automatically set to zero (Itasca, 2009). The normal and
shear forces at the interface nodes are determined by
FntþDt ¼ kn un A þ sn A
FsitþDt ¼ Fsit þ ks Dutþ0:5
si
Dt A þ s A
si
where Fsi is the shear force; kn and ks are the normal and shear
stiffnesses, respectively; Dusi is the incremental relative shear
displacement vector; un is the absolute normal penetration of the
interface node into the target face; sn is the additional normal stress
added due to interface stress initialization; and ssi is the additional
shear stress vector due to interface stress initialization (Itasca, 2009).
In the current study involving nonlinear analysis, high soil-pile
interface stiffness is assigned to minimize the contribution of
soil-pile interface elements to the accumulated pile displacements.
According to the results of trial numerical analyses conducted to
identify an appropriate stiffness value, a value of 105 kPa/m for both
kn and ks was found to be sufficient to ensure that no additional
Table 1
Geotechnical properties of soil layers from Comodromos (2003)’s study.
Soil layer Depth (m) Unit weight,
g (kN/m3)
Soft silty clay 0e36 20
Medium stiff clay 36e48 20
Very dense sandy gravel 48e70 22
293
deflections were attributed to the pile due to the deformation of the
springs representing the interface. The use of such considerably
higher values is tempting as it could be considered as more
appropriate, but in that case the solution convergence would be
very slow. In that way, the interface elements behave practically as
a slider with a rigid/plastic behavior.
2.5. Analysis scheme
The model is brought to an equilibrium stress state under
gravitational loading before the installation of the pile. In the next
stage of analysis, the model is brought into equilibrium after the
installation of the pile. The installation is modeled by changing the
properties of the pile zones from the properties representing the
soil material to those representing the pile material. The pile is then
loaded vertically. The ultimate vertical capacity (Vult) of the pile is
evaluated by applying a vertical velocity at the pile head while the
pile load and settlement are monitored. According to CGS (2013),
the value of Vult is defined as the vertical load corresponding to the
point with the maximum curvature on the vertical load-vertical
displacement curve. After the pile is loaded vertically, the pile top
is then displaced laterally for a deflection of 0.1B, a value that was
fixed in all studied cases to minimize the number of parameters
(1) involved. The vertical load is kept constant while applying the
lateral displacement. It is fair to mention that the pile is assumed to
be in a stress-free state at the beginning of the analysis, and thus
the effect of the pile installation is ignored in the analysis.
3. Validation of the FD model
Before describing the numerical results on the influence of
vertical loads on the lateral response of pile foundations, the
applicability of the adopted model was verified by predicting the
pile response in three published pile loading tests. The first case
corresponds to a full-scale pile loading test under pure lateral load;
the second case corresponds to a full-scale test on a pile installed in
sandy soil and subjected to the combined action of vertical and
lateral loads; and the third case corresponds to a laboratory test on
a model pile embedded in clay under combined vertical and lateral
loadings. Details of these three cases will be discussed next.
(2)
3.1. Case study 1
(3)
Comodromos (2003) reported the response of a 52 m long and
1 m diameter bored pile under pure lateral loads installed at a bridge
site in Greece. The subsoil at the site consists of a thick soft silty clay
layer extending to a depth of 36 m, overlying a medium stiff clay
layer of 12 m thickness and followed by a very dense sandy gravel
layer. Geotechnical properties of soil layers in the test site are sum-
marized in Table 1. In the current analysis, the behavior of the test
pile is analyzed by FLAC3D as well as the pey method according to
Matlock (1970). Properties of various soil layers and the pile adopted
in the 3D FD analyses are identical to those reported by Comodromos
(2003). The same sequence of load application used in the field test
was followed in the current FD analysis. The lateral load-lateral
deflection curve obtained using the current FD analysis is
Undrained shear Friction Shear modulus,
strength, cu (kPa) angle, f ( ) G (MPa)
27 0 2.43
110 0 3.35
0 40 24
294 L. Hazzar et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 9 (2017) 291e304
compared to both the measured and the estimated pey responses in
Fig. 2a. The present numerical results overestimate the lateral ca-
pacity of the pile at all deflection levels compared to the pey results,
and the difference reaches to 15% at the maximum lateral deflection
of 100 mm. In spite of this, the 3D numerical result is fully consistent
with the experimental result reported by Comodromos (2003).
3.2. Case study 2
The validity of the FD model to the analysis of pile in sandy soil,
subjected to both vertical and lateral loads, was verified by back
analyzing the pile response from the test data reported by Karasev
et al. (1977). The length and diameter of the test pile were 3 m
and 0.6 m, respectively. The pile was embedded in a soil stratum
consisting of very stiff sandy loam with shear strength parameters of
c ¼ 18 kPa and f ¼ 18 . The soil shear modulus considered by
Karasev et al. (1977) (9295 kPa) was used in the current analysis. The
Poisson’s ratio of the soil was assumed to be 0.35. The field tests
were conducted by loading the pile in the vertical direction and then
the lateral loads were applied while the vertical load was kept
constant. The sequence of the load application used in the current FD
analysis is the same as that followed during the pile test. The FLAC3D
results are in accordance with the reported test as shown in Fig. 2b.
3.3. Case study 3
The validity of the FD model to the analysis of pile in clayey soil,
subjected to both vertical and lateral loads, was verified by back
analyzing the pile response from the test data reported by
Anagnostopoulos and Georgiadis (1993). This case study pertains to
Fig. 2. Comparison between the present 3D FD results and (a) test data of Comodromos (2003) and pey method, (b) test data of Karasev et al. (1977), (c) test data of vertical loaded
pile of Anagnostopoulos and Georgiadis (1993), and (d) test data of combined vertically and laterally loaded pile of Anagnostopoulos and Georgiadis (1993).
laboratory model tests on aluminium closed-ended piles of 19 mm
outside diameter and 1.5 mm wall thickness, jacked 500 mm into a
prepared soft clay bed (cu ¼ 28 kPa). The laboratory test was per-
formed on a single pile under both vertical and lateral loads applied
to the pile head at ground elevation through dead weights. The
combined vertical and lateral loads were applied in two stages. In the
first stage, a vertical load of 160 N was applied and in the second
stage the lateral load of 130 N was applied incrementally while the
vertical load was kept constant. In the current analysis, the Young’s
modulus (Es) of the soil was selected at 7500 kPa following the
empirical relation Es z 250  400cu (Poulos and Davis, 1980). The
Poisson’s ratio of the clayey soil was selected at 0.49 assuming an
undrained response during the load test. The comparison between
the test data and the predicted results of piles under pure vertical
load and combined vertical and lateral loads is shown in Fig. 2c and d.
The FD prediction in both the cases matched well with the test data.
Based on the comparative results shown in Fig. 2, it could be
concluded that the numerical scheme adopted in the present
investigation is capable of modeling the soil-pile interaction under
vertical, lateral, and a combination of vertical and lateral loads.
4. Parametric studies
FLAC3D was employed to study the behavior of piles under
combined vertical and lateral loadings in different soil profiles. Four
idealized sandy and clayey soil profiles were considered: a homo-
geneous sandy layer, a clayey layer with constant shear strength, a
clayey layer with shear strength proportional to depth, and a two-
layered medium. Due to the abundant number of parameters
involved, this study focuses on a selected number of parameters.
 L. Hazzar et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 9 (2017) 291e304 295

Table 2 by volume variation. In fact, the MCC model may be used to

Model parameters of sandy soil used in the parametric study. represent materials when the influence of volume change on bulk
Soil type r (kg/m3) G (MPa) K (MPa) cu (kPa) f ( ) property and resistance up to failure should be taken into consid-
Very loose 1600 4.6 10 0 26 (Dr ¼ 0%)
eration. In this study, the MCC model is used to model the case of
Loose 1800 7.7 16.7 0 30 (Dr ¼ 40%) medium clay (cu ¼ 39 kPa). Eight material parameters were required
Dense 2000 19.2 41.7 0 36 (Dr ¼ 60%) to specify the soil model, including either the elastic bulk modulus,
Very dense 2200 26.9 58.3 0 42 (Dr ¼ 87%) K, or elastic shear modulus, G, the mass density, r, the Poisson’s
ratio, n, the slope of the normal consolidation line, l, the slope of the
Table 3 elastic swelling line, k, the frictional constant, m, the pressure of
Model parameters of clayey soil used in the parametric study. reference, p1, and the specific volume at pressure of reference, p1, on
the normal consolidation line, vl. The material properties adopted
Clay type r (kg/m3) G (MPa) K (MPa) cu (kPa) f ( )
in the analyses for medium clay case are presented in Table 4.
Soft 1600 6 58 20 0
Medium 1 1600 9 87 30 0
Medium 2 1600 11.7 113.1 39 0
Stiff 1600 19.2 185.6 64 0
5. Results and discussions

5.1. Sandy soils

These parameters include relative density of sandy soil, shear
strength and shear stiffness as well as OCR of clayey soil. A floating
concrete pile, conformed to a grade M25, with a diameter B of 1 m
was embedded in the soil to a depth L of 10 m while the total
thickness of the soil stratum was selected at 16 m. The elastic
modulus (Ep) and Poisson’s ratio (np) of the pile were set to be
25 GPa and 0.15, respectively. Soil parameters considered in the
analyses are summarized in Tables 2 and 3 for sandy and clayey
soils, respectively. For each sand density, the adopted friction angle
and the corresponding relative density (Dr) were chosen referring
to Skempton (1986) and API RP2A-LRFD (1993). Elastic shear
modulus (G) was taken as 300cu within the typical range for a clay
(CGS, 2013). A gravitational acceleration vector (g) of 10 m/s2 was
applied in the negative z-direction. Stresses within the model were
initialized with an in situ earth pressure coefficient, K0 ¼ 1.
The response of piles to pure lateral loads was first evaluated for
each case considered. Then, the response of piles to combined
vertical and lateral loads was examined for different values of
vertical loads ranging from 25% to 100% of Vult. The combined loads
were applied in two stages. In the first stage, vertical loads were
applied and then in the second stage, lateral loads were applied
while the vertical load was kept constant. The numerical results
under pure lateral loads and combined lateral and vertical loads on
piles are presented and discussed separately for sandy layer, clayey
layer, and two-layered strata.
In order to confirm the finding of this study, soils in some cases
(dense sand and medium clay) were further modeled using more
sophisticated models, i.e. a friction hardening/softening elasto-
plastic constitutive (CYsoil) model for sandy soils and the modi-
fied Cam-Clay (MCC) model for clayey soils.
The CYsoil model is characterized by a frictional MohreCoulomb
shear envelope (zero cohesion) and an elliptic volumetric cap in the
(p0 , q) plane, where p0 and q are the effective mean stress and the
deviator stress, respectively. The input parameters are elastic
tangent shear modulus, Geref , at reference effective pressure pref
(100 kPa), failure ratio, Rf, which is a constant and smaller than 1
(0.9 in most cases), ultimate friction angle, ff, and calibration factor,
b. The material properties adopted in the analyses for dense sand
case are presented in Table 4.
The MCC model (Roscoe and Burland, 1968) was adopted as quite
appropriate, particularly for materials whose behavior is influenced
The ultimate vertical capacities of piles installed in sandy soils
with different states of density were evaluated by applying vertical
velocities at the piles heads and monitoring the piles loads variation
with their settlements as plotted in Fig. 3. The value of Vult is selected
as the vertical load corresponding to the point with maximum cur-
vature on the vertical load-vertical displacement curve as defined by
CGS (2013). Fig. 3 indicates that the ultimate bearing capacity of the
pile is approximately 162 kN, 180 kN, 200 kN, and 246 kN for very
loose, loose, dense, and very dense sands, respectively.
Fig. 4 shows the influence of a vertical load of Vult on the lateral
response of piles installed in sandy soils. Each graph in Fig. 4 corre-
sponds to a different state of sand density including very loose, loose,
dense, and very dense. We can see from Fig. 4 that the lateral capacity
of the pile is slightly affected by the presence of the vertical load in all
states of density considered. At lateral deflection of 0.1B (100 mm),
the presence of a vertical load of Vult slightly increases the lateral
capacities of piles by 0.1%, 3.7%, 4.6% and 4.8% in very loose, loose,
dense, and very dense sands, respectively. This result is full consis-
tent with those reported earlier by Hussien et al. (2012, 2014b).
The influence of Vult on the lateral response of a pile installed in
dense sand layer (Fig. 4c) is further investigated using the CYsoil
model and the results are shown in Fig. 5. Although there are some
differences in the initial slopes of the lateral load-deflection curves
as well as the values of the pile ultimate capacities between Figs. 4c
and 5, both figures indicate a slight increase in the pile lateral ca-
pacity due to the presence of vertical loads.
An attempt to identify the mechanism of the slight increase in
the lateral capacities of piles installed in sandy soil due to the
vertical load application was made by plotting the stress state
(Mohr circle) of a soil element adjacent to the pile and at a depth of
3 m. The major (s1) and the minor (s3) principal stresses corre-
sponding to the stress state of the soil element after 0.1B lateral
deflection of a pile installed in dense sand are plotted in Fig. 6a for
both the cases with (V ¼ Vult) and without (V ¼ 0) vertical loads. As
expected, Fig. 6a shows that the inclusion of a vertical load in-
creases the major principal stress relative to that corresponds to the
case of a pile under pure lateral load. On the other hand, the cor-
responding s3 slightly increases. The increase in the major stress
then increases the mobilized shear strength, sfm of the soil ac-
cording to following equation:

Table 4
Parameters of sandy and clayey soils used in CYsoil and MCC models.

CYsoil model MCC model

Soil type Geref (MPa) ref

p (kPa) Rf ff ( )

b Soil type G (MPa) n l k m p1 (kPa) vl

Dense sand 19.2 100 0.9 36 2.35 Medium 1 clay 9 0.45 0.13 0.05 0.77 1 5.3
296 L. Hazzar et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 9 (2017) 291e304

other case (V ¼ 0) for the soil to reach its shear strength. A slight
increase in the confining pressure of the soil in the vicinity of the pile
installed in very dense sand is also shown in Fig. 6b. This little in-
crease in the confining stress of soil, then, slightly increases the
resistance of the soil-pile system to lateral loading. Fig. 6d shows the
stress paths of soil elements attached to the pile installed in dense
sand and at different depths for both the cases with (V ¼ Vult) and
without (V ¼ 0) vertical loads. For all considered depths, Fig. 6d
confirms that the soil element in the case of V ¼ Vult reached the
failure surface earlier than that in the case of V ¼ 0. Moreover, the
soil element located at 1 m reached the failure surface before the
other soil elements at deeper depths due to the load transfer from
the pile to the adjacent soil. A little curvature in stress paths of soil
elements at different depths due to the interaction with other soil
elements can be observed. The variations of stresses (major, minor,
vertical, horizontal) of a soil element adjacent to the pile, installed in
dense sand and at a depth of 3 m, with lateral deflections are plotted
for both the cases with (V ¼ Vult) and without (V ¼ 0) vertical loads in
Fig. 6c. Fig. 6c indicates that the presence of vertical load slightly
increases the soil stresses compared to the corresponding stresses in
the case of pure lateral loading. Fig. 6c shows also that the orienta-
tion of the minor principal stress s3 and the major principal stress s1
Fig. 3. Vertical load-vertical displacement of piles installed in sandy soils with
in both analyses with and without vertical loads are similar up to the
different densities.
maximum lateral deflection of 100 mm. In addition, Fig. 6c illus-
trates a principal stress rotation after 8 mm lateral deflection since
s1  s3 the horizontal stress sx becomes larger than the vertical stress sz.
sfm ¼ sinð90 þ fÞ (4)
2 The slight increase in lateral soil stresses sxx is further examined
Fig. 6a also confirms that the soil shear strength is reached in the through the contours of normal stresses around the pile under pure
case of V ¼ Vult, while more lateral pile deflection is needed in the lateral load and in the presence of a vertical load corresponding to

Fig. 4. Lateral load-lateral deflection curves of piles for the analyses with and without vertical loads: (a) very loose, (b) loose, (c) dense, and (d) very dense sands.
 L. Hazzar et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 9 (2017) 291e304
Fig. 5. Lateral load-lateral deflection curves of pile installed in dense sand for the
analyses with and without vertical loads adopting the CYsoil model.
V ¼ Vult in Fig. 7a and b. These contours are plotted for a lateral
deflection equal to 0.1B and at a depth of 3 m from the ground
surface (i.e. the depth where the maximum difference in lateral soil
stresses occurs, Fig. 6b). Similarly, the slight increase in shear
stresses, sxy, over the pile’s frictional face is also examined through
the contours of shear stresses around the pile under pure lateral
Fig. 6. Analyses of pile installed in dense sand with and without vertical loads: (a) Mohr circles of a soil element adjacent to the pile and at a depth of 3 m, (b) variation of the
confining pressure along the pile, (c) stresses of a soil element adjacent to the pile at a depth of 3 m, and (d) stress paths of soil elements attached to the pile at different depths.
297
load and in the presence of a vertical load corresponding to V ¼ Vult
in Fig. 7c and d. These contours are plotted at a lateral deflection of
0.1B and at a depth of 3 m from the ground surface. It is clear that
the lateral soil stress and the mobilized shear stresses of soil around
the pile are almost the same in the presence of vertical load as
compared to the pure lateral load case.
5.2. Clayey soils with constant cu
In the analyses of piles installed in clayey soils, two main cases
have been considered. In the first case (S1), the shear modulus of
the soil was evaluated according to the value of cu (G ¼ 300cu). In
the second case (S2), the shear modulus was assumed to be con-
stant (G ¼ 38.5 MPa) for all clayey soils considered in Table 3.
Similar to sandy soil cases, the ultimate vertical capacities of
piles installed in clayey soils with different cu are evaluated by
applying vertical velocities at the piles heads and monitoring the
piles loads variation with their settlements as plotted in Fig. 8. Fig. 8
shows that Vult of the pile installed in clayey soil (S1) is approxi-
mately 255 kN, 410 kN, 550 kN and 1000 kN in soft (cu ¼ 20 kPa),
medium 1 (cu ¼ 30 kPa), medium 2 (cu ¼ 39 kPa) and stiff
(cu ¼ 64 kPa) clays, respectively.
Fig. 9 shows the variation of the lateral load as a function of
lateral deflection of piles in clayey soils (S1). A different trend is
observed than that in the case of sandy soils. In the presence of
vertical loads, the lateral capacities developed at all deflections are
less than the corresponding load developed under pure lateral load.
Karthigeyan et al. (2006) reported similar findings for piles in
clayey soils through 3D FE analysis of single pile under combined
loads and attributed the reduction in the pile capacity to the early
failure of soil-pile interfaces in the presence of vertical loads.
298 L. Hazzar et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 9 (2017) 291e304
Fig. 7. Normal and shear stresses contours in xy plane at 3 m depth from ground surface in dense sands: (a) sxx contours for pure lateral loading case, (b) sxx contours with vertical
load of Vult, (c) sxy contours for pure lateral loading, and (d) sxy contours with vertical load of Vult.
Similar to the sand case, the influence of Vult on the lateral
response of a pile installed in medium clay (cu ¼ 39 kPa, S1) (Fig. 9c) is
further investigated using the MCC model as shown in Fig. 10. Both
the lateral load-lateral deflection curves presented in Fig. 10 and the
corresponding curves presented in Fig. 9c show a decrease in the pile
lateral capacity due to the application of vertical loads with per-
centages of decrease at 0.1B lateral deflection of 16.21% and 13.92%,
respectively. The differences in the initial slopes of the lateral load-
deflection curves as well as in the values of the pile ultimate ca-
pacities may be attributed to the differences in soil modeling.
The bending moment (M) developed in each pile section was
calculated by the summation of the product of the vertical stress (szz,i)
at each element, the plan area of that element (Ai) and the x-distance
from the center of the pile to the centroid of the element (xci):
X
n   Mmax V¼0  Mmax V¼v
M ¼ szz;i Ai xci (5)
i¼1
Fig. 8. Vertical load-vertical displacement of piles installed in clayey soils with
different cu values.
Similar decreases were induced in the maximum bending
moment in the pile for both studied cases considered (S1 and S2).
The percentage of decrease in lateral capacity (DLC) has been
defined to measure the influence of vertical loads on the lateral
capacity of the piles:
PV¼0  PV¼v
DLC ¼ 100 (6)
PV¼0
where PV¼v is the lateral capacity with vertical loads, and PV¼0 is the
lateral capacity under pure lateral loads. In the same context, the
percentage of decrease in maximum moment (DMM) has been also
defined:
DMM ¼ 100 (7)
Mmax V¼0
where Mmax V¼v is the maximum bending moment with vertical
load, and Mmax V¼0 is the maximum bending moment under pure
lateral load. The variations of the DLC and DMM values with cu for
V ¼ 0.5Vult, V ¼ 0.75Vult and V ¼ Vult at 0.1B lateral deflection are
presented in Fig. 11 for the two cases (S1 and S2).
Fig. 11a and c (S1) shows that up to cu of 16 kPa, the DLC and
DMM values are equal to 0 (the vertical load has no effect below this
value). With the increase in soil cohesion (cu > 16 kPa), the DLC and
DMM values increase with the increase in cu as well as with the
increase in vertical loads. Fig. 11b and d (S2) shows that the in-
creases in DLC and DMM are more affected by Vult than cu. The
comparative results shown in Fig. 11 confirm that the estimation of
the soil shear modulus, G, based on the undrained shear strength,
cu, is as important as the value of the undrained soil shear strength
in the design of pile foundation under the combined action of
vertical and lateral loadings.
The mechanism of the decreases in both lateral capacity and
bending moment of a pile installed in clayey soil under the action of
vertical loads has been also examined by plotting the stress state
(Mohr circle) of a soil element adjacent to the pile and at a depth of
3 m. The ultimate shear stress, sult, corresponding to the failure, can
be calculated by
s1  s3
sult ¼ ¼ cu (8)
2
 L. Hazzar et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 9 (2017) 291e304
Fig. 9. Lateral load-lateral deflection curves of piles installed in clayey soil (S1) for (a) cu ¼ 16 kPa, (b) cu ¼ 30 kPa, (c) cu ¼ 39 kPa, and (d) cu ¼ 64 kPa.
Fig. 10. Lateral load-lateral deflection curves of pile installed in medium clay for the
analyses with and without vertical loads adopting the MCC model.
299
The s1 and s3 corresponding to stress state of the soil element
before and after the application of a vertical load on a pile installed
in clay are plotted in Fig. 12 for both the cases with (V ¼ Vult) and
without (V ¼ 0) vertical loads and for all cu values considered in the
S1 case. When Vult is applied to the pile, it is clear that the Mohr
circles will have larger radii than those corresponding to V ¼ 0. Thus,
the presence of the vertical load decreases the lateral resistance of
soil and subsequently leads to the development of lower resistance
to the lateral pile deformation. Fig. 13a shows the stress paths of soil
elements attached to the pile in medium clay (cu ¼ 39 kPa, S1) at
different depths for both the cases with (V ¼ Vult) and without
(V ¼ 0) vertical loads. For all considered depths, the soil element in
the case of V ¼ Vult reached the surface failure earlier than the soil
element in the case of V ¼ 0. The variations of stresses (major, minor,
vertical, horizontal) of a soil element adjacent to the pile, installed in
medium clay (cu ¼ 39 kPa, S1) at a depth of 3 m, with lateral de-
flections are plotted for both the cases with (V ¼ Vult) and without
(V ¼ 0) vertical loads in Fig. 13b. Fig. 13b indicates that the inclusion
of vertical load decreases the soil stresses compared to the corre-
sponding stresses in the case of pure lateral loading. Fig. 13b shows
also that the orientations of the minor principal stress s3 and the
major principal stress s1 in both analyses with and without vertical
loads are similar up to the maximum lateral deflection of 100 mm.
Also, Fig. 13b shows a principal stress rotation after 8 mm lateral
deflection since the horizontal stress sx becomes larger than the
vertical stress sz.
300 L. Hazzar et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 9 (2017) 291e304

Fig. 11. DLC and DMM versus cu at 0.1B lateral deflection: (a) DLC (S1), (b) DLC (S2), (c) DMM (S1), and (d) DMM (S2).

5.3. Clayey soils with cu proportional to depth
According to Mesri (1993), cu can be defined as a function of OCR
and effective overburden stress, s0v :
cu ¼ as0p ¼ aOCRs0v
Mesri (1993) demonstrated also that the value of the constant a
is about 0.24 for Champlain clay (Quebec, Canada). In the analyses,
different values of OCR are considered. For each value of OCR (1.5,
2.5 and 4), cu is assumed to be proportional to depth and the pile
responses under combined load obtained are compared to the
corresponding responses for constant cu.
The lateral load-lateral deflection curves at constant cu of 16 kPa
(9)
and 20 kPa are compared to those obtained from the case of cu
proportional to depth with an OCR of 1.5 in Fig. 14 for both the
analyses with and without vertical loads. In particular, Fig. 14a and

Fig. 12. Mohr circles of a soil element adjacent to the pile and at a depth of 3 m in a clayey soil (S1) for: (a) cu ¼ 20 kPa, (b) cu ¼ 30 kPa, (c) cu ¼ 39 kPa, and (d) cu ¼ 64 kPa.
 L. Hazzar et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 9 (2017) 291e304 301

Fig. 13. Analyses of pile installed in a medium clay (cu ¼ 39 kPa) with and without vertical loads: (a) stress paths of soil elements attached to the pile, and (b) stresses of a soil
element adjacent to the pile at a depth of 3 m.

b corresponds to S1 case while Fig. 14c and d corresponds to S2
case. For piles subjected to pure lateral loads presented in Fig. 14a
and c, the curve corresponding to OCR of 1.5 (denoted C1) is located
between the two other curves corresponding to cu of 16 kPa
(denoted C2) and cu of 20 kPa (denoted C3). For piles subjected to
the combined action of vertical and lateral loads with V ¼ Vult
presented in Fig. 15b and d, the curve C1 is located between the two
other curves C2 and C3 for S1 case only.
Based on the above comparisons, it is clear that the percentage
decrease in lateral capacity, DLC, of pile subjected to combined

Fig. 14. Lateral load-lateral deflection curves of pile installed in clayey soil for (a) V ¼ 0 (S1), (b) V ¼ Vult (S1), (c) V ¼ 0 (S2), and (d) V ¼ Vult (S2).
302 L. Hazzar et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 9 (2017) 291e304

Fig. 15. DLC variation with the ratio of V/Vult at lateral deflection of 0.1B: (a) case S1 and (b) case S2.

loads in clayey soil with constant cu is different from those corre-
sponding to analyses of piles with cu proportional to depth. This
difference depends basically on: (1) the choice between the cases
S1 and S2, and (2) the ratio of vertical load to ultimate vertical load
of the pile as portrayed in Fig. 15.
It is interesting to compare the results obtained from the case of
cu proportional to depth to that of a constant cu. For example, it is
possible to compare the results corresponding to OCR of 1.5 with an
average value of 30 kPa (when OCR ¼ 1.5, cu varies from 14.4 kPa at
ground surface to 43.2 kPa with average value of 30 kPa) to that of a
constant cu of 30 kPa (Fig. 15). At lateral deflection of 0.1B and for
the case S1, Fig. 15a shows that the maximum DLC is of the order of
8.3% at constant cu of 30 kPa and 5.7% at OCR of 1.5. At the same
lateral deflection and for the case S2, Fig. 15b shows that the
maximum DLC is of the order of 9.1% for cu of 30 kPa and 17.4% for
OCR of 1.5. For OCR ¼ 2.5, cu varies from 20 kPa at ground surface to
52.8 kPa with an average value of 39 kPa. At lateral deflection of
0.1B and for the case S1, Fig. 15a shows that the maximum DLC is of
the order of 16.2% at uniform cu of 39 kPa and 9.2% at OCR of 2.5. At
the same lateral deflection and for the S2 case, Fig. 15b shows that
the maximum DLC is of the order of 14.4% for cu of 39 kPa and 7.5%
for OCR of 1.5. These results indicate that the behavior of piles in
clayey soil under combined action of vertical and lateral loads when
cu is assumed to vary with depth significantly differs from the pile
behavior when cu is assumed constant.
5.4. Two-layered strata
In this section, the effect of vertical loads on the lateral re-
sponses of piles embedded in two-layered strata consisting of a
combination of medium clay (cu ¼ 39 kPa, S1) (Table 3) and dense
sand (Table 2) is studied. Different thicknesses (H) of the sand and
clay layers are considered. The results of the study case (S1) with
and without vertical loads are presented and compared for two
different configurations of the two-layered strata in Fig. 16a and b.
Under pure lateral loads, Fig. 16a shows that the increase in clay
thickness from 2B to 10B leads to a significant decrease in lateral
capacity of the pile. With further increase in clay thickness, the
lateral capacity of the pile is not affected. In the same context,
Fig. 16b shows that the increase in sand thickness from 2B to 10B
leads to a significant increase in lateral capacity of the pile and with
further increase in sand thickness, the lateral capacity of the pile is
slightly affected. These results support the earlier recommendation
of Reese and Van Impe (2001) who suggest that the shallower
depth up to 10B is of predominant importance in soil-pile inter-
action due to lateral loading. On the other hand, Fig. 16a shows that
the effect of vertical loads on the lateral capacity of the pile
embedded in two-layered strata with a clay layer thickness (H)
ranging from 2B to 10B is not significant and almost similar to that
observed in dense sand (i.e. the end bearing stratum). When the
clay thickness increases (H ¼ Lþ6B), the effect of vertical loads

Fig. 16. Lateral load-lateral deflection curves of piles in two-layered strata (S1) for both analyses with and without vertical loads: (a) higher medium clay and lower dense sand, and
(b) higher dense sand and lower medium clay.
 L. Hazzar et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 9 (2017) 291e304
Fig. 17. Stress conditions for soil elements at H ¼ L: (a) end bearing stress versus V/Vult, and (b) major principal stress with and without vertical loads adjacent to pile shaft at 3 m
depth.
becomes pronounced and leads to a significant reduction in the
lateral capacity of the pile. This difference in vertical loads effects
on the lateral capacities of piles (e.g. the dependence of vertical
load effect on the characteristics of the soil layer under pile tip) may
be attributed to the difference in pile function in terms of load
transfer. For H ranges from 2B to 10B, the pile serves as an end
bearing pile with higher end bearing capacity (reaction) as shown
in Fig. 17a. This high end bearing capacity is associated with smaller
settlement as well as smaller transfer of stress from pile to adjacent
soil (Fig. 17b). In other words, the vertical loads have minor effects
on the soil surrounding the pile. With further increase in clay
thickness (H ¼ Lþ6B), the pile no longer serves as an end bearing
type. It serves primarily as a friction pile that has lower end bearing
reaction (Fig. 17a) and a significant stress transfers along its shaft
(Fig. 17b).
Fig. 16b shows that the effect of vertical loads on the lateral
capacity of the pile embedded in two-layered strata with a sand
layer thickness of 2B is similar to that observed in medium clay.
With the increase in sand thickness, the effect of vertical loads
becomes similar to that observed in dense sand (i.e. the end
bearing stratum). These results imply that although the above
recommendation of Reese and Van Impe (2001) works well in
situations where pile foundations are subjected to pure lateral
loads, it cannot be applied if the piles are under the action of both
vertical and lateral loadings. More specifically, the current results
indicate that the effect of vertical loads on the lateral response of
piles embedded in multi-layered strata depends on the character-
istics of soil not only surrounding the piles but also located beneath
their tips.
6. Conclusions
The influence of vertical loads on the behavior of laterally loaded
pile in sand and clay was investigated by means of numerical
modeling. The numerical models were conducted using the com-
puter program FLAC3D and the models were verified using full-scale
load and laboratory model testing data. The verified numerical
model was then used to perform a parametric study considering
different soil configurations and parameters to evaluate the lateral
capacities and bending moments of concrete piles subjected to both
lateral and vertical loads. The results of the lateral capacities and
the bending moments of piles were determined and compared for
piles subjected to pure lateral loads and to combined vertical and
lateral loads for several values of vertical loads corresponding to
303
25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of the pile ultimate vertical capacity. Based
on this comparison, the following conclusions can be drawn:
(1) The response of the piles in sandy soils under lateral loads is
not influenced by the presence of vertical loads. Indeed, the
lateral load capacities is not changed for very loose sand and
slightly increased for loose, dense and very dense sands.
(2) The presence of vertical loads decreases the lateral load ca-
pacity by as much as 20% and the maximum bending
moment by as much as 30% of piles in clayey soil depending
on the level of vertical load and the value of the lateral
deflection.
(3) The dependence of the lateral response of piles under com-
bined loading on the clay shear strength, cu, is also investi-
gated, and the shear modulus, G, is evaluated in two different
ways. In the first case S1, G is considered dependent on cu
while in the second case S2, G is assumed constant irre-
spective of the adopted cu value. The maximum percentage
decreases in lateral capacity reach 20.3% and 13.6% for S1 and
S2, respectively.
(4) The effect of vertical loads on the lateral capacity of a pile
embedded in two-layered strata with a clay layer thickness
(H) ranging from 2B to 10B is not significant and almost
similar to that observed in the sandy soil. When the clay
thickness increases (H ¼ Lþ6B), the effect of vertical loads
becomes pronounced and leads to a significant reduction in
the lateral capacity of the pile. The dependence of vertical
load effect on the characteristics of the soil layer under the
pile tip may be attributed to the difference in pile function in
terms of load transfer.
Conflict of interest
We wish to confirm that there are no known conflicts of interest
associated with this publication and there has been no significant
financial support for this work that could have influenced its
outcome.
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Lassaad Hazzar obtained his Ph.D. from Sherbrooke Uni-
versity, Canada in 2014. He is postdoctoral fellow of
Geotechnical Engineering at the Department of Civil En-
gineering of Sherbrooke University. The main topics of
research interests are deep foundations, soil-interaction,
soil improvement, and numerical modeling in geotech-
nical engineering. He is the co-author of about 25 scientific
papers, 1 book chapter and 2 software.
Mahmoud Nasser Hussien graduated from Kyoto Univer-
sity, Japan in 2011 and he is currently a postdoctoral fellow
at Sherbrooke University, Canada. His principle research
interests lie in the field of soil mechanics and geotechnical
earthquake engineering, with emphases on seismic soil-
structure interaction and soil characterization using shear
wave velocity. He is also pursuing research in shear wave
velocity measurements using new laboratory technique
(P-RAT) as well as developing correlations between shear
wave velocity of soils and their penetration resistances.
His research effort has been reported in more than 60 pub-
lished journal and conference papers.
Mourad Karray received a B.Sc, a M.Sc and a Ph.D. degrees
from Sherbrooke University, Canada. Actually, he is full
professor of Geotechnical Engineering at Sherbrooke Uni-
versity. He has been involved in geotechnical research,
consulting and education for more than 25 years. His
research interests include soil dynamics, soil-structure
interaction and geophysical methods for soil characterisa-
tion. Dr. Karray published around 100 papers related to soil
dynamics and soil characterisation since 2000. He also has
a patented method developed for soil characterisation us-
ing surface waves at the end of 1990s. This method has
been used for the control of compaction and dynamic
soil characterisation in the most important Hydro-Québec
dam project (Péribonka, LaRomaine II, IIII, etc.).