TERM PAPER LEADING TO THESIS ON

Some Studies on the Lateral Capacity of Vertical and

Battered Piles

 By
Shilak Bhaumik
Class Roll No: - 001910402030

Under the Guidance of

Dr. Sibapriya Mukherjee
Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
Jadavpur University
 Introduction

Pile foundations are generally preferred when heavy super-structure

loads have to be transferred through weak subsoil to hard strata. These
foundations in some situations are subjected to considerable amount of
lateral loads besides vertical loads.

Piles are used as a common foundation solution for high-rise buildings,

high retaining walls, offshore structures, etc., and are normally subjected
to lateral loads in addition to their own vertical loads. When the
horizontal load per pile exceeds the allowable value for a vertical pile,
battered piles are used in conjunction with vertical piles to improve the
overall efficiency of the pile–soil system as they transmit the applied
lateral loads partly in axial compression, rather than through shear and
bending when only vertical piles are used (Hazzar et al. ,2016).
 Battered Piles

Battered piles can be classified depending on their direction of inclination

with lateral loads to: ‘Pile battered reverse’, if the lateral load acts opposite
to the direction of pile inclination (negative batter angle), and ‘Pile battered
forward’, if the lateral load acts in the direction of the pile inclination
(positive batter angle). This is illustrated in Fig. 1

Pile with negative and positive batter

 Application of Piles

Use of vertical and battered pile in different cases after Prakash and Sharma,1980
Basic equation of Pile Bending based on Elastic Beam
Theory
•
• Several researchers have developed the speculation on (p–y) curves for sand to
 explain the connection between soil resistance and the lateral displacement of the
pile below lateral load . In this curve, the (p) denotes the soil reaction and (y) is a
deflection of the pile. The bending of the pile is described in equation 1,2,3, 4and 5
for beam bending.
𝑑4𝑦 𝑑2𝑦
𝐸𝑝 𝐼𝑝 + 𝑄𝐴 + 𝐸𝑠 𝑦 = 0……………..(1) Where,
𝑑𝑧4 𝑑𝑧2
y = Deflection of the pile
s= Slope of deflected pile
M= Moment of the pile
• ……………………………(2) V = Shear
𝑑 2𝑦 P= Soil Reaction
𝑀 = 𝐸𝐼 …………………………..(3)
𝑑𝑧2 Ep= Elastic Modulus of pile
𝑑3𝑦
𝑉 = 𝐸𝐼
𝑑𝑧3
……………………………(4) Es= Horizontal Subgrade modulus
𝑃 = 𝐸𝐼
𝑑4𝑦
……………………………(5)
Ip= Moment of Inertia of the pile
𝑑𝑧4
QA= Load
Z= Depth below pile top
 Analytical Models for Static Lateral Loading of Piles

(a) Beam on Elastic Foundation Method after Winkler(1867)

Subgrade Reaction Modulus (a) Soil and Pile Reaction (b) Soil model and influence of
a partial uniform pressure over it after Poulous & Davis, 1980
• The equation of equilibrium of the beam (pile) under the influence of
•  distributed load (w) is shown in Equation 6 and 6.1
• …………….. (6)
• ……………………………….(6.1)

• Where,
• Ep= Pile Modulus of Elasticity
• Ip= Pile cross section Moment of Inertia
• D= Pile diameter
• W= Soil Reaction per unit length over pile (distributed load)
• P= Soil pressure over the pile
• Kh= Soil lateral sub grade reaction modulus
• V= Lateral displacement of pile  
 
(b) The p-y Method after Reese and Matlock (1956)
The original Beam on Elastic Foundation (BEF) model does not explain the nonlinear reaction
of the soil by itself. P-y method is the most common model to consider the non-linear
nature of soil reaction. In this approach the spring stiffness value is variable, allowing
consideration of a non-equivalent relationship between the soil resistance per unit pile length
(p) and the lateral displacement (y).

Soil-spring model for P-y method

 
Contact Stresses Distribution against the Pile Before and After Lateral Bending after
Reese & Van Impe,2001
(C ) The Wedge Model after Ashour (1998)
• This method allows relating the stress-strain-strength acting of the layered soil in the 3D
wedge approach to the 1D BNWF (Beam on Non-linear Winkler foundation) model
parameters. So, the non-linear reaction may be achieved from the analysis that looks at the
actual conditions of soil-pile system (soil layers classification, pile diameter etc.)

Schematic of Strain Wedge Model for Analyzing Lateral Load Pile after Ashour and
Norris ,2000
(d) Elastic Continuum Theory after Broom(1964)
The modelling of the soil as a homogeneous elastic continuum has been suggested for
the analysis of the soil-pile interaction. For the analysis of limit pile capacity, Plane
Strain Models were developed with some authors like Davis and Booker (1971). For
modelling the 3D system as a series of parallel horizontal planes in plane strain, the
Plane Strain Models are used which are related to the case of shallow-embedded
sheet piling.
(e) The Finite Element Theory after Poulous and Davis (1980)
Poulous and Davis (1980) included two-dimensional finite element models in the
horizontal plane .Beguiling and Frank (1979); general 3D finite element analysis
recommended by Desai and Appel (1976), and axis-symmetric geometries by
Banerjee and Davis (1978). Some recent work such as Yang and Jeremic (2002)
used 3D Finite Element Methods of a laterally loaded pile driven in layered and
uniform soil profiles so that numerically achieve p-y curves and compare them to
experimental ones
 Literature Review
Valsangkar et al.( 1973) Provided generalized solution of axially and laterally loaded piles in
Elasto –Plastic soil. Here elasto plastic nature of soil for both
cohesive and cohesion less soils were considered. The result
indicated that the flexural behaviour of laterally and axially loaded
pile in an elasto plastic soil is considerably influenced by the type of
variation of plastic resistance ,soil modulus variation and boundary
condition at the top. Non linear relationship between soil reaction
and deflection were taken into account.
Meyerhof et al.(1980) The ultimate lateral resistance and the lateral deflection at working
loads of rigid vertical walls and piles with a free head subjected to
horizontal load and embedded in two-layered soils of sand and clay
had been investigated. The analyses for laterally loaded walls in
layered soils had been extended to rigid vertical piles by determining
shape factors for the ultimate lateral resistance of piles in sand and
clay.
Patra et al.(2001) Analytical methods had been proposed to predict the ultimate
lateral capacity of single pile and pile groups. The proposed
methods account for pile friction angle, embedment length-to-
diameter ratio, the spacing of piles in a group, pile group
configuration, and soil properties. These methods were capable of
predicting the lateral capacity of piles and pile groups reasonably
well as noted and substantiated by the comparison with the
experimental results .
Salgado et al.(2014) The approach was based on tying the displacement at any point of the soil
mass around a pile or group of piles to the displacements experienced by the
piles themselves. This was done by multiplying the pile displacements by decay
functions. Application of the principle of minimum potential energy and
calculus of variations to the resulting displacement field formulation leads to
the differential equations for the soil and piles. Solution of these differential
equations using finite differences and the method of eigenvectors leads to the
desired displacement field in the soil and deflection profiles of the piles.
Hazzar et al. (2016) Numerical results showed that when the lateral load acts in the opposite
direction of the pile inclination (negative batter angle), the lateral response of
the piles increases substantially with the batter angle as well as the sand packing.
The response of piles at positive batter angles, however, does not appear to vary
considerably with the batter angle or the sand density. The effect of the vertical
loads on lateral response of battered piles in sands is found to be very
pronounced. On the other hand, the lateral response of piles embedded in a
clayey soil at negative batter angles increased greatly with the inclination angle
and did not vary with its undrained shear strength. The lateral response of the
piles with positive inclination angles was independent of the batter angle and
the soil stiffness.
Reddy et al.(2016) Experiments were carried out in the laboratory to investigate the behaviour of
single pile in sand under combined uplift and lateral load. Results indicated that
the load-deflection behaviour is nonlinear for independent uplift and lateral load
tests, as well as in the case of combined loading. It was also observed that the
behaviour of piles under independent loading was substantially different when
compared to combined loading. It was found that the ultimate lateral/uplift load
capacity under combined loading increased considerably ; however, the pile
head deflection/displacement at safe lateral/uplift load was found to increase
under combined loading.
Ratnam et al.( 2017) It was based on the assumption that vertical pile with central inclined
load is equivalent to batter pile inclined and subjected to vertical load.
The load carrying capacities were calculated based on numerically and
analytically and the results have been found out. The theory of ultimate
bearing capacity Qult of batter piles were computed using the theory
suggested by Meyerhof and Ranjan et al 1981, When pile was placed at
5° battered angle it offered 30% to 40% more resistance compared to the
vertical pile. When pile was placed at 10° battered angle it offered 8% to
10% more resistance compared to the vertical pile. Optimum angle of
battered pile under for vertical loading was for 5°.Negative batter single
piles (-10° to -30°) offered 20-25% more resistance and positive batter
piles (+10° to +30°) offered 25-30% less resistance than vertical pile

Hazzar et al. (2017) A three-dimensional numerical study performed to evaluate the effects of
vertical loads on the response of laterally loaded piles in both
homogeneous and layered soils. Piles were treated as linear elastic
materials, where as soils were idealized using the Mohr-Coulomb
constitutive model Vertical loads, corresponding to several percentages of
the ultimate pile load, were imposed prior to the application of lateral
loads. In a homogeneous sandy soil, numerical results showed that the
lateral resistance of the pile did not vary considerably with vertical loads.
However, the presence of vertical loads on a pile embedded in clayey soil
was found to be detrimental to its lateral capacity. In layered soil media, it
was found that the effect of vertical loads depends on not only the
characteristics of soil surrounding the piles but also those located beneath
their tips.

Rezazade et al. (2017) A series of model pile on sand was analysed using the finite element
method. Obtained results from this research indicated that; as the
inclination angle of piles increase, lateral load bearing capacities of piles
are increase as well. Also, Lateral load bearing capacities of negative
battered piles were higher than positive battered piles and effects of
diameter were more than the effect of length increase
Albusoda et al.(2017) Single and pile group model tests subjected to lateral loads in multi
layered sand. Results revealed that the performance of single negative
(Reverse) Battered piles with inclination of 10° and 20° showed a gain
of 32% and 76 % in the ultimate lateral capacity over the regular ones.
For pile groups, the use of a combination of regular, negative and
positive battered piles in different angles of inclination within the
same group showed a significant increase in the ultimate lateral load
carrying capacity. Increasing the spacing between piles in groups of the
same category showed an increase in the group efficiency, also
changing the piles number within the group by using different patterns
influenced the ultimate lateral resistance of the pile group.

Al‑Shamary (2018 A three-dimensional finite element approach was used to assess the
lateral pile and pile group response subjected to pure lateral load. The
study evaluated three pile group configurations (i.e. 2 × 1, 2 × 2 and 3 ×
2 pile groups) with four values of pile spacing (i.e. 2D, 4D, 6D and 8D,
where D is the pile diameter). The results of the influence of load
intensities, group configuration, pile spacing are discussed in terms of
response of load vs. lateral displacement, load vs. soil resistance and
corresponding p–y curves.

Ashour et al.(2018 The Strain Wedge (SW) model, LPILE and Finite Element program
(MIDAS GTS-NX) were used to study pile and soil typical parameters
impact on the lateral response of single battered piles. The influence of
pile battering angle, sand relative density, and pile cross sectional shape
were presented in addition to the prediction of the soil wedge
geometry in front of the pile. The used approaches have been
compared with field test results. Negative battered piles sustained
greater resistance compared to the piles with positive battered angles.
The larger the sand relative density the more the battered pile ability to
withstand lateral loads. The three techniques were used to predict the
pile lateral deflection, bending moment, and shear force along the pile
length.
Bajaj et al.(2019) Model tests on fixed head single vertical and batter piles were
carried out in the laboratory under different non-cohesive sub-
soil conditions Vertical and batter piles made of mild steel were
placed in a model tank and lateral loads were applied. It was
observed that the negative batter pile offered maximum
resistance to lateral loads as compared to vertical and positive
batter pile. Increase in thickness of fine sand layer overlaid on
coarse sand caused a decrease in load-carrying capacity of the
pile. Hence, top layer sand of a particular height controlled the
deflection of the pile in the case of layered sand. Further, a
model was developed using artificial neural networks (ANN) to
predict the deflection of the pile. The results obtained from
ANN model were compared with the experiment and
theoretical solutions available in the literature and found in
close agreement.
Rajeswari et al. (2020) Load imposed by laterally spreading soil increases the
vulnerability of pile foundations to seismic damage. A
probabilistic investigation has been carried out for evaluation of
behaviour of single piles, with different batter angles (0°, ± 10°, ±
20°) and slenderness ratios (15,20, 25), subjected to laterally
spreading ground displacements through Beam on Nonlinear
Winkler Foundation approach. Effect of shapes of p–y curves of
liquefiable soil layer on the response of piles had been
evaluated. It was inferred that the conventional concave p–y
curves underestimate the pile response compared to the convex
p–y curves. Prediction models for maximum bending moment
and pile head displacement are proposed for piles with different
batter angles.
Research Gap and Motivation
After presenting the literature review of all the available resources , It is found that
certain points are not well addressed in available literatures such as battered pile in
layered sandy soil. This area will be addressed in this study with variation in
Length/Diameter ratio , sandy soil frictional angle (Ø) , battered angel.

Objective:
To find the Lateral response of vertical and battered pile under axial load through
Numerical Modelling in ABAQUS 3-D software .In the present study attempt will be
made to check the lateral response by varying the
• (a) Length/Diameter ratio (L/d)
• (b) Sandy soil frictional angle (Ø)
• (c) Battered angel with vertical (β)
• (d) Soil layer height ratio (H1/H2)

Scope:
The study would be done by generating model in ABAQUS 3D software and validating
it with previous research papers. Numerical modelling and parametric study will be
done with battered angle of +300 , +200, +100, 00, -100, -200, -300 and with axial load of
0 %, 50% and 75% of ultimate load the battered pile can carry.

 
 Consideration for model study
In this study maximum depth of soil will be
considered up to 25 m below ground level, length
of pile will be taken as 20 m and diameter of pile
will be taken as 1m. The horizontal extent will be
found out by trial and error method. In this study
L/d ratio will be taken as constant and H1/H2 ratio
will be taken for three cases 1/3 , 1/2, 2/3
• Total number of models for homogenous soil will
be 21
• And Total number of models for layered soil will
also be 21
 List of Numerical Studies
Serial No. Soil Type Nomenclature

1 Angle of internal friction(Ø)

2 Slenderness Ratio (L/d)

Homogenous soil
3 Battered angel (β)

4 Angle of internal friction(Ø)

5 Slenderness Ratio (L/d)

6 Layered Soil Battered angle (β)

7 Ratio of Layered Depth(H1/H2)

 Parameters
Serial No. Soil Type
L/d H1/H2 Ø β

1 250 300 200 100 00 -100 -200 -300

2 Homogenous 310 300 200 100 00 -100 -200 -300
20  
3 soil 360 300 200 100 00 -100 -200 -300

For upper
layer 250
and for
1/3 lower 300 200 100 00 -100 -200 -300
layer
360

For upper
layer 250
and for
Layered Soil 20 1/2 lower 300 200 100 00 -100 -200 -300
layer
360

10

For upper
layer 250
and for
2/3 lower 300 200 100 00 -100 -200 -300
layer
360
Current Status of Study
Literature review for initial work has been done. Started the work on
numerical modelling by ABAQUS and planning in this respect is going on.

 Work Programme
The total time required for the proposed research work has been envisaged as eight months.

SL NO Particulars Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May

1.   Literature Review                

1.   ABAQUS Modelling and Validation                

1.   Numerical Modelling of Specific cases and                

data compilation

1.   Data Analysis                  

1.   Thesis writing and submission                

 Expected Outcome

It is expected that from the results of the

numerical study attempt will be made to
generate some curves with non-dimensional
forms of parameters, which will be helpful for
practical design of battered piles by geotechnical
professionals
 
 References
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in cohesionless and cohesive soils”, International Journal of Geo- Engineering
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 Thank You
Have a nice day.