OTCD-ROM DOCUMENT REPORT

OTC 1204
Correlations for Design of Laterally Loaded Piles in Soft Clay
Hudson Matlock, the U. of Texas at Austin
Copyright 1970, Offshore Technology Conference

Offshore Technology Conference on behalf of American Institute of

Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Inc., The
American Association of Petroleum Geologists, American Institute
of Chemical Engineers, American Society of Civil Engineers, The
American Society of Mechanical Engineers, The Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., Marine Technology
Society, Society of Exploration Geophysicists, and Society of
Naval Architects & Marine Engineers.

This paper was prepared for presentation at the Second Annual

Offshore Technology Conference to be held in Houston, Tex., April
22-24, 1970. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of
not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. Such
use of an abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of
where and by whom the paper is presented.

ABSTRACT

A program of research on laterally loaded piles for offshore

structures has included field tests with an instrumented pile,
laboratory model testing, and development of correlations for
design. The work has been sponsored by a group of five oil
companies.

Three loading conditions are considered to be particularly

pertinent to the design of laterally loaded piles in soft
normally consolidated marine clay. These are (1) short-time
static loading, (2) cyclic loading such as would occur during the
progressive build-up of a storm, and (3) subsequent reloading
with forces less than previous maximums.

Good general agreement exists between conventional static-loading

ultimate-resistance concepts and experimental results, provided
due allowances are made for the reduced vertical restraint at
shallow depths, where it is insufficient to confine plastic flow
to horizontal planes. Force-deformation characteristics based on
approximate theory produce satisfactory agreement between
computed and experimental behavior of the pile-soil system.

The mechanisms of cyclic loading characteristics are

qualitatively illustrated by typical results from laboratory
model studies. Deterioration in resistance because of cyclic
loading is most severe at shallow depths and with large lateral
deflections of the pile. A correlation based primarily on results
with the instrumented pile tested at Sabine, Texas, gives
satisfactory predictions of pile deflections and moments over a
wide range of loading conditions.

Estimates of response for reloading after cycling at a higher

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load are made by considering that most of the lateral soil

resistance is eliminated for deflections smaller than those
previously attained.