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Reese1997 - Analysis of Laterally Loaded Piles in Weak Rock
Reese1997 - Analysis of Laterally Loaded Piles in Weak Rock
ABSTRACT: The p-y method for the analysis of piles under lateral loading is extended here to the analysis of
single piles in rock. Rational equations are presented for developing a solution, but the method is termed
"interim" principally because of the meager amount of experimental data available to validate the equations.
Nonlinearity, both in the p-y curves and in the bending stiffness of the pile, must be considered in solving ~or
the loading that will cause a failure in bending, deflection, or buckling under combined loading. Two case studies
are presented whereby the analytical method is shown to agree well with results from experiments. However,
loading tests of full-sized piles are recommended at any site where a sizable number of piles are needed, to
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where p. = axial load on pile, (F); y = lateral deflection of to yield only approximate correlations between compres-
pile at point x, (L); P = soil resistance per unit length along sive strength and modulus. Fig. 3 (Bieniawski 1984)
pile, (F/L); EI = flexural rigidity (bending stiffness), (F - L 2); shows a correlation between Emus/Ecore and RQD. Values
and W = distributed load along pile, (F/L). of Emus may be estimated if tests have been performed
The equation is the standard beam-column equation where of cored specimens (Ems.. and E ir are assumed to be
the value of EI may change along the length of the pile and equivalent). Again, scatter is significant. The modulus for
may also be a function of the bending moment. The equation the mass of rock is assumed to be implemented in the
(1) allows a distributed load to be placed along the upper por- expressions that follow.
tion of a pile; (2) can be used to investigate the axial load at 5. The ultimate resistance Pur for the p-y curves will rarely,
which a pile will buckle; and (3) can deal with a layered pro- if ever, be developed in practice, but the prediction of
file of soil or rock. Pur is necessary in order to reflect nonlinear behavior.
Solutions may be developed readily using difference-equa- 6. The component of the strength of rock from unit weight
tion techniques and Gaussian elimination. The usual method is considered to be small in comparison to that from
of developing a solution is to increment the loading, employ- compressive strength quro therefore, unit weight is ig-
ing nonlinear p-y curves and a nonlinear EI curve, to find the nored.
failure loading from excessive deflection, a plastic hinge, or 7. The compressive strength of the intact rock qur for com-
axial buckling. Analytical methods are available for computing puting a value of Pur may be obtained from tests of intact
the values of EI as a function of bending moment and axial specimens.
load, and for computing the moment at which a plastic hinge 8. The assumption is made that fracturing will occur at the
will develop (Reese and Wang 1994). After finding the loading surface of the rock under small deflections; therefore, the
that will cause the governing type of failure, the loads may be compressive strength of intact specimens is reduced by
factored to find the design loading. With input data at hand, multiplication by a r to account for the fracturing. The
various parameters may be investigated, and an acceptable so- value of a r is assumed to be 1/3 for RQD of 100 and to
lution can be found with computer codes that are relatively increase linearly to unity at RQD of zero. If RQD is zero,
straightforward and easy to use.
Jlj 0.8 o
f 0.6
I
!l 0.4
o
YA Yrm r(l)
I
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the compressive strength may be obtained directly from Formulas for Family of p-y Curves
a pressuremeter curve, or approximately from Fig. 2, by With guidelines for computing Pu, and Kin the equations for
entering the value of the pressuremeter modulus. the three branches of the family of p-y curves for rock can be
presented. The characteristic shape of the p-y curves is shown
Ultimate Resistance of Rock in Fig. 4. The equation for the straight-line, initial portion of
The following expression for the ultimate resistance Pu, for the curves is given by (7) and, for the other branches, (8)-
rock is based on limit equilibrium and reflects the influence (10)
of the surface of the rock: p =KI,y; y ~ y" (7)
Analytical Procedure
Equations for the behavior of a slice from a beam or from
a beam-column under bending and axial load are formulated.
A reinforced-concrete section is assumed in the presentation, -----Jr--:L-----------'E
but the concepts can be applied to a steel shape. The EI of the
concrete member will experience a significant change when
cracking occurs. In the procedure described herein, the as-
sumption is made that the tensile strength of concrete is rela-
tively small and that cracks will be closely spaced when they
appear. Actually, such cracks will initially be spaced at some
distance apart, and the change in the EI will not be so drastic FIG. 6. Streu.straln Curve for Steel
as computed. Therefore, the EI for a reinforced-concrete pile
will change more gradually in practice than in the computa- from the American Concrete Institute (ACI) (1989) and is for
tions by the suggested analytical method. concrete with normal weight.
Because the nonlinear stress-strain curves for steel and con- The stress-strain curve for steel is shown in Fig. 6, and there
crete do not indicate a condition for collapse, values of the is no limit to the amount of plastic deformation. The curves
ultimate strain of these materials are selected to reflect their for tension and compression are identical. The yield strength
failure. For concrete, the ultimate value of strain is 0.003; for of the steel h is selected according to the material being used,
reinforcing steel, the ultimate value of strain is 0.015. These and E is the initial modulus of the steel. The following equa-
values appear to be consistent with those frequently used in tions apply:
practice.
The curve for the deformational characteristics of concrete
implemented in the procedure is shown in Fig. 5. The values (19)
of f~, the compressive strength, and E e , the modulus of elas-
ticity, are found from standard tests of cylinders or from other E = 200,000 MPa (20)
appropriate tests. The following equations are for concrete of
normal weight, and apply to the branches of the curve: The derivation adopts the concept that plane sections in a
beam or beam-column remain plane after loading. Thus, an
fc = Eee; 0::5 fc ::5 J, (12) axial load and a moment can be applied to a section with the
result that the neutral axis will be displaced from the center
fc =f~ [2 (t) - (t)1 O::5fc ::5f~ (13)
of gravity of a symmetrical section.
The equations to be solved are as follows:
0.15£0) ; fe,,~
h
where h
f~ = 0.85f: (15) b
f
-h,
'
ay dy =M (22)
= (~:r Ig + [I - (~:r] was assumed to be close to zero and a r was taken as unity.
I. Ier (24) The bored pile was 1.22 m in diameter and penetrated 13.3
m into the limestone. A layer of sand over the rock was re-
where tained by a steel casing, and the lateral load was applied at
3.51 m above the surface of the rock. A maximum lateral load
Mer =g (25) of 667 kN was applied, and the resulting curve of load versus
Ye deflection was nonlinear.
f, = 19.7Vjf (for normal-weight concrete) (26) Nyman (1980) recommended p-y curves for the vuggy rock
at Islamorada. A key feature of the recommendations was that
and where I. = effective moment of inertia for computation of the rock was assumed to fracture and lose all strength after a
deflection; I g = moment of inertia of gross concrete section small amount of deflection. Such a failure was not observed
about centroidal axis, neglecting reinforcement; Ye = distance -only postulated. In the absence of other recommendations,
from centroidal axis of gross section, neglecting reinforce- Nyman's suggestions were used for other kinds of rock (Reese
ment, to extreme fibers in tension; I er = moment of inertia of and Wang 1989).
cracked section; and M a = maximum moment in pile. In the absence of details on the strengths of the concrete
The value of I er may be computed by the analytical method, and steel and on the amount and placement of the rebars, the
using standard mechanics. In computing bending stiffness, the bending stiffness of the gross section was used for the initial
value of E is assumed to remain constant. solutions. The following values were used in the equations for
The absence of a term for axial load in (24) means that the p-y curves; qur = 3.45 MPa; a r = 1.0, ETI = 7,240 MPa; krm =
approximate method or ACI method is limited in scope. How- 0.0005; b = 1.22 m; L = 15.2 m; and EI = 3.73 X 106 kN·
ever, a comparison of results from (24) with those from the m 2•
analytical method with no axial load and with a specified axial The comparison of pile-head deflection for results from ex-
load will reveal a trend that should prove useful in solving a periment and from analysis is shown in Fig. 7. The figure
practical problem. shows excellent agreement between the two methods up to
In applying the ACI method, the difference between the re- about 350 kN, using unmodified values of the bending stiff-
sponse of a beam and a pile to lateral loading may be great. ness. A sharp change in the load-deflection curve occurs at a
For many practical cases, the computed bending-moment lateral load of about 350 kN.
curve for a pile changes rapidly with depth, and the region of
the maximum bending moment may be a small fraction of the
length of the pile. Therefore, the engineer may wish to apply TABLE 1. Results of Grout-Plug Tests by Schmertmann (Un-
(24)-(26) point-by-point along the length of the pile rather published Report, 19n)
than to the entire length. Depth range Ultimate resistance
(m) (MPa)
CASE STUDIES (1 ) (2)
Islamorada 0.76-1.52 2.28
0.76-1.52 1.31
The test was performed under sponsorship of the Florida 0.76-1.52 1.15
Department of Transportation and was carried out in the Flor- 2.44-3.005 1.74
ida Keys (Nyman 1980). The rock was a brittle, vuggy, coral 2.44-3.005 2.08
limestone, allowing a steel rod to be driven into the rock to 2.44-3.005 2.54
5.49-6.10 1.31
considerable depths, apparently because the limestone would 5.49-6.10 1.013
fracture and the debris would fall into the vugs. Cavities in
10141 JOURNAL OF GEOTECHNICAL AND GEOENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING 1NOVEMBER 1997
5 0:
o
_0:':
I
v6~5~F~
Q
,
_ .,_
8 .- -b"--:- --;-S.ifril-
6 - - - -: - --
8000 ___ . L • • • • • _ .
35
......
--- .. ~ .. -- .. --- ------- ~ . ----
' • •• ACI
~ ..
30 ._~~._ .....
_ Experimental
:G .... -:'.
, ..
, , ,
8000 - .. - - ~ - . - . i .. - . - - - j - - - - - - , 25 .. .- ..... _ .. -
,
1'! Z
.¥
..... ,,. ..
,
,
_ Analytical
....
1:. 20 .
4000 ........ Unmodlfled EI ,
lC
~
,
- l' - Anelytical
": 15 -. - r e . . .; ...... .............. ~ ;. - .
2000
--G-
__
ACI
Expartmental
iii
10 ........ ;.
, .;.- .
,..
...... L .. ~
,
L ..
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0
0 10 20 30 40 50 o-t-T""'T""T"'t"""........"T"",.............,...,.""T".,...,,.....,.."T"".......-1
Qroundllne denectlon, mm o 4000 8000 12000 16000 20000
strength of the rebars was 496 MPa, there were 40 bars with - - Unmodilled EI
- K - Analytical
a diameter of 43 mm, and cover thickness was 0.18 m. : -e- ACI
The curve for pile B (see Fig. 10) exhibited a large increase 2000 .•••. ~ : .. , -lil- Experimental
in pile-head deflection at the largest load, which suggests that
a plastic hinge developed. Therefore, the assumption was made
that the ultimate bending moment, 17,740 m . kN, was reached. o.................-r-...............-r-..............-r-..............-r-...............-I
Analysis of the previously reviewed Islamorada test showed o 4000 6000 12000 18000 20000
that the bending stiffness of a reinforced-concrete member de-
Maximum bending moment, kN-m
creases significantly with increased bending moment; however,
previous work showed that the computation of bending mo- FIG. 12. Comparison of Experimental and Computed Values
ment is not strongly dependent on the specific value of EI. of Maximum Bending Moments for Different Values of EI, San
Therefore, the beginning computations for the solution of (1) Francisco Test
were based on the initial values of EI. Values of qu" from
results from the pressuremeter (see Fig. 2), were found to pre- at a smaller strain than 0.003, there may be some crushing of
dict MUll with reasonable accuracy. the concrete in compression, or the analytical theory may not
Then, attention was given to the probable reduction in the faithfully reflect the real behavior of the reinforced-concrete
values of EI with increasing load, and three methods were used section in some other ways. The next step was to investigate
to predict the reduced values. The methods were the analytical the influence of the values of I (and El) on the computations
method, the approximate method (or ACI method, used since of deflection and maximum bending moment.
no axial load was applied during the testing), and the experi- The computed pile-head deflections, using the values of I
mental method. The three plots of the values of EI as a func- for the three cases in Fig. 11, are shown in Fig. 10. The ex-
tion of M are shown in Fig. 11. perimental values agree well with computations, of course,
The experimental method employed the average of the ob- because of the fitting noted earlier. The computations with the
served deflections, the applied loading, and iteration to find ACI equations fit the experimental values better than do the
the values of EI and the corresponding values of maximum computations with the analytical method. However, if load fac-
bending moment that fitted the results. In these computations, tors of 2.0 and greater are selected, the computed deflections,
and for those that follow, the value of EI was changed for the taking into account the methods for reducing the value of EI,
entire length of the pile for ease in computations. Errors in would be about 2 or 3 mm, with the experiment showing about
using constant values of EI in the regions of low values of M 4 mm. The differences are probably not very important in the
are thought to be small. range of the service loading.
All three curves exhibit a sharp decrease in the value of EI Also shown in Fig. 10 is a curve showing deflection as a
with increase in bending moment, but the analytical method function of lateral load with no reduction in the values of EI.
yielded a precipitous drop, for the reason noted earlier. All of The necessity of employing a reduced value of EI is clear.
the values of EI start from 35.15 X 106 kN· m 2 , (the value of The values of I in Fig. 11 were used to compute the max-
EI from the analytical method was slightly higher because of imum bending moment as a function of the applied load. The
the presence of the steel). The values of I from ACI were curves are given in Fig. 12, and the close agreement among
multiplied by a constant value of E of 28.05 X 106 kPa to get all three methods is striking. Also shown in Fig. 12 is the plot
the values of EI. Surprisingly, the values of I from the exper- of maximum bending moment using the gross EI. The curve
iment and from ACI fall below the value from analysis for is reasonably close to the curves from adjusted values of EI,
over half of the range of values. The concrete may be cracking indicating that the computation of bending moment is not very
1016/ JOURNAL OF GEOTECHNICAL AND GEOENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING / NOVEMBER 1997
2. The subsurface investigation for the characteristics of Nyman, K. J. (1980). "Field load tests of instrumented dril1ed shafts in
rock at a particular site is critical because secondary coral limestone," MS thesis, Grad. School, The Univ. of Texas at Aus-
structure can dictate the behavior of a pile under lateral tin, Tex.
loading. Special geotechnical studies are necessary for O'Neill, M. W., and Murchison, J. M. (1983). "An evaluation of p-y
cases whereby joints are filled with weak soil. relationships in sands." Rep. PRAC 82-41-1 Prepared for American
3. The analytical method for computing the value of Muir is Petroleum Institute, Univ. of Houston, University Park, Houston, Tex.
Peck, R. B. (1976). "Rock foundations for structures." Proc., Spec. Con/.
essential to the analysis of reinforced-concrete piles un- on Rock Engrg. for Found. and Slopes, ASCE, New York, N.Y.
der lateral loading in order to compute the loading at Reese, L. C. (1984). Handbook on design ofpiles and drilled shafts under
which failure will occur in bending. lateral load. FHWA-1P-84-11, Fed. Hwy. Admin., U.S. Dept. of
4. The interim method of computing p-y curves, employed Transp., Washington, D.C.
in the solution of (1), using unadjusted values of EI, can Reese, L. C., and Wang, S.-T. (1989). "Documentation of computer pro-
be used to determine the combined loading that will de- gram LPILE." Ensoft, Inc.
Reese, L. C., and Wang, S.-T. (1994). "Analysis of piles under lateral
velop the ultimate bending moment Muir in the pile. loading with nonlinear flexural rigidity." Proc., U.S. FHWA Int. Con/.
5. Adjusted values of bending stiffness are necessary in on Des. and Constr. of Deep Found., Fed. Hwy. Admin., U.S. Dept. of
computing pile-head deflection. The ACI equations are Transp., Washington, D.C.
recommended for the computation of adjusted values of Welch, R. C., and Reese, L. C. (1972). "Laterally loaded behavior of
EI. dril1ed shafts." Res. Rep. no. 3-5-65-89, Center for Highway Research.
6. The computation of maximum bending moment is much
less affected by the selection of appropriate values of EI APPENDIX II. NOTATION
than is the computation of deflection. The following symbols are used in this paper:
7. The deflection under service (unfactored) loads of the
pile head for piles in rock, even for relatively soft rock, Symbols Relating to p-yCurves
will be relatively small. b = diameter of pile, (L);
8. Field-load tests with instrumented piles in rock are EI = flexural rigidity (bending stiffness), (F - L 2 );
strongly desirable for improving the design at a particular E tT = initial modulus of rock, (FIL 2
);
site, especially if a large number of piles are to be used, kiT = dimensionless constant;
and to add to the experimental-data base. The method k rm = dimensionless constant, ranging from 0.0005-0.0005,
presented herein may be used in interpreting the results that serves to establish overall stiffness of p-y curves;
from the particular experiment. L = length of pile (L);
Pr = lateral load on pile, (F);
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Px = axial load on pile, (F);
p = soil resistance per unit length along pile, (FIL);
The writer wishes to acknowledge the contributions of the Florida
Department of Transportation and the California Department of Trans-
qUT = compressive strength of rock, usually lower bound, as
2
function of depth, (FIL );
portation in performing the experiments that aIlowed for the development
of the method presented herein. In particular, Tom PoIlack, acting chief,
W = distributed load along pile, (FIL);
Division of Structures, Caltrans, is thanked for providing a copy of the x = axial coordinate along pile, (L);
first draft of an unpublished report (1996), entitled "Shaft lateral load XT = depth below rock surface, (L);
test terminal separation." K. J. Nyman is acknowledged for the data y = lateral deflection of pile at point x, (L); and
acquisition and the preliminary analysis of the results of the experiment lXT = strength reduction factor.
at Islamorada. Dr. Michael W. O'Neill, University of Houston, and Paul
D. Passe, Florida Department of Transportation, read an early draft and Symbols Relating to Bending Stiffness
made valuable suggestions. The writer's coIleagues, Dr. Shin-Tower
Wang and Jos6 Arrel1aga, made significant contributions. Both read the b = depth of section, (L);
drafts and offered useful suggestions about the method of analysis. Dr. f, = modulus of rupture of concrete, (F/L 2
);
Wang coded some of the techniques for solution by computer, and JostS hh h2 = distance from neutral axis to extreme fibers, (L);
Arr611aga prepared the drawings. leT = moment of inertia of cracked section, (L4);
I. = effective moment of inertia for computation of deflec-
APPENDIX I. REFERENCES tion, (L4 );
I, = moment of inertia of gross concrete section, (L 4
);
American Concrete Institute. (1989). "Building code requirements for M = moment on section, (F - L);
reinforced concrete." ACI 318-89, Detroit, Mich. M. = applied maximum bending moment, (F - L);
Bieniawski, Z. T. (1984). Rock mechanics design in mining and tunneling.
A. A. Balkema, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
MeT = cracking bending moment, (F - L);
Canadian Foundation engineering manual. part 3. deep foundations. Px = axial load, (F);
(1978). Can. Geoteeh. Soc., Montreal, Quebec, Canada. y = distance from neutral axis, (L);
Carter, J. P., and Kukhawy, F. H. (1987). "Analysis and design of dril1ed Ye = distance from centroidal axis of gross section, neglecting
shafts socketed into rock." Res. Rep. 1493-4, Geotech. Engrg. Group, reinforcement, to extreme fibers in tension, (L); and
Cornell Univ., Ithaca, N.Y. (J' = normal stress, (F/L 2
).