Laterally Loaded Deep Foundation

• Laterally loaded vertical piles

– Deep foundations must also commonly support lateral
loads in addition to axial loads.
– Sources include:
• Wind loads
• Impacts of waves & ships on marine structures
• Lateral pressure of earth or water on walls
• Cable forces on electrical transmission towers
• A large number of load tests have fully validated that
vertical piles can carry lateral loads via shear, bending,
and lateral soil resistance rather than as axially loaded
members.
• It is also common to use superposition to compute pile
stresses when both axial and lateral loads are present.
 From Karl Terzaghi, 1943

• “The problems of soil mechanics may be

divided into two principal groups – the
stability problems and the elasticity
problems.”
• Ultimate lateral load capacity is a stability
problem, load-deformation analysis is similar
to an elasticity problem.
 Commonly used methods
• Elastic solution for single piles
• P-y method of nonlinear behavior for lateral
load analysis; and
• Characteristic load method.
 Elastic solution for single piles
• Consider a pile of length L subjected to a lateral
force Qg and a moment Mg at the ground surface
=0), the soil reaction in the direction opposite to the
pile deflection can be written as
d 4x
EpI p 2  p
dx
Pile embedded in granular soil
For L  5T  long pile  use Table 9.9  Z
z
T
For L  2T  rigid pile
Table 3.1 The A and B coefficients as obtained by Reese and Matlock
(1956) for long vertical piles on the assumption Es = nhz
Normally we need deflection and slope at ground level. The
corresponding equations for these may be expressed as:

Qg T 3 M gT 2
x z ( z  0)  2.43  1.62
EpI p Ep I p

Qg T 2 M gT
 z ( z  0)  1.62  1.75
EpI p Ep I p

For fixed head case:

Qg T 3
x z ( z  0)  0.93
EpI p
M z z  0  0.93 Qg T  
Pile embedded in cohesive soil
(Davisson and Gill 1963)
 Vesic (1961a, 1961b) proposed
that the modulus of subgrade
reaction could be computed
using the stress-strain modulus
Es as :

Es B 4 Es
k s  0.6512 (units Es )

E f I f 1  2 
where Es, Ef = modulus of soil
and footing, respectively, in
consistent units
B, If = footing width and its
moment of inertia based on
cross section (not plan)
in consistent units
 Example-1
• A steel pipe pile of 61 cm outside diameter with a wall
thickness of 2.5 cm is driven into loose sand under submerged
conditions to a depth of 20 m. The submerged unit weight of
the soil is 8.75 kN/m3and the angle of internal friction is 33°.
The El value of the pile is 4.35 x 1011 kg-cm2(4.35 x 102 MN-
m2). Compute the ground line deflection of the pile under a
lateral load of 268 kN at ground level under a free head
condition using the non-dimensional parameters of Matlock
and Reese. Assume the nh value as 6 MN/m3 for a submerged
condition.
 Solution
Qg T 3
x z z   2.43 for M g  0
EpI p

EpI p 4.35 *102

T 5  5  2.35 m
nh 6

0.268 * 2.353
xz z   2.43  0.0194 m
4.35 *10 2
 Example 2

• If the pile in Ex. 1 is subjected to a lateral load

at a height 2 m above ground level, what will
be the ground line deflection?
Solutions:

Qg T 3 M gT 2
x z z   2.43  1.62 , M g  0.268 * 2  0.536 MN  m
EpI p EpI p
* 0.268 * 2.353 0.536 * 2.352
x z z   2.43 2
 1.62
4.35 *10 4.35 *10 2
 0.304 m
 Example 3
• If the pile in Ex. 1 is fixed against rotation,
calculate the deflection at the ground line.
• Solutions :
Qg T 3
x z z   0.93
EpI p
0.268 * 2.353
 0.93
4.35 *102
 0.0075 m
 Ultimate Lateral Load

• Dependent on the diameter and length of the

shaft, the strength of the soil, and other
factors.
• Use Broms method (1964, 1965)
• Divide world into:
– cohesive & cohesionless
– free & fixed head
– 0, 1, or 2 plastic hinges
Cohesive Soil Diagrams
Cohesionless Soil
Diagrams
Summary Instructions for Laterally Loaded Piles
by B. Broms
Broms’ graph
 Example -1

• A steel pipe pile of 61 cm outside diameter

with 2.5 cm wall thickness is driven into
saturated cohesive soil to a depth of 20 m.
The undrained cohesive strength of the soil is
85 kPa. Calculate the ultimate lateral
resistance of the pile by Broms' method with
the load applied at ground level. Assume the
yield strength of the pile material as 2800
kg/cm2.
 Solutions
• The pile is considered as a long pile. Use Fig. 3.5 (handout)
to obtain the ultimate lateral resistance Qu of the pile.
My
• The non-dimensional yield moment =
Cu D 3
• My = Yield resistance of the pile section
= 1.3 fy Z
• fy = yield strength of the pile material
= 2800 kg/cm2
• Z = section modulus = 
d  d 
4
o i
4

64 R
• do = outside diameter = 61 cm,
• di = inside diameter = 56 cm,
• R = outside radius = 30.5 cm
 Z = 6,452.6 cm3
• My = 1.3x2,800x6,452.6 =23.487 x 106 kg-cm.

My 23.487 *10 6
  122
Cu D 3 0.85 * 613
e My Qu
From Fig . 3.5 for  0& 3
 122 , 3
 35
d Cu D Cu D
Hence, Qu  35 * 85 * 0.612  1,107 kN
 Load-Deformation Method

• Due to the large lateral deflection required to

mobilize full lateral capacity, typical design requires a
load-deformation analysis to determine the lateral
load that corresponds to a certain allowable
deflection.
• Considers both the flexural stiffness of the
foundation and the lateral resistance from the soil.
• Main difficulty is accurate modeling of soil
resistance.
 p-y Method
• Can handle:
– any nonlinear load-deflection curve
– variations of the load-deflection curve w/ depth
– variations of the foundation stiffness (EI) w/ depth
– elastic-plastic flexural behavior of the foundation
– any defined head constraint
• Calibrated from full-scale load tests
• Reese (1984, 1986) are good references.
• Requires computer program
 COM624P

• COM624P -- Laterally Loaded Pile Analysis Program for the

Microcomputer, Version 2.0. Publication No. FHWASA-91-
048.
• Computer program C0M624P has been developed for
analyzing stresses and deflection of piles or drilled shafts
under lateral loads. The technology on which the program is
based is the widely used p-y curve method.
• The program solves the equations giving pile deflection,
rotation, bending moment, and shear by using iterative
procedures because of the nonlinear response of the soil.
 Sign convention and units for COM624P

The user can specify SI units as kN

and m or any other F and L units for
that matter but consistent.
 Preparation of inputs
1. Decide which units are used for force and length.
2. Decide into up to what increment the pile to be divided (300 max allowed).
3. Decide whether p-y curve will be input or generated internally. For input, pick the
depth for each curve.
4. If p-y is to be generated internally, divide the soil profile into from one to nine
layers; decide which of the following p-y criteria will be used for each layer.
5. Select the length of the pile, L; the x-coordinate at the
ground surface (x = 0 @ pile top).
6. Divide the pile into from 1 to 10 segments with uniform
cross sections. For each segment, tabulate the x-coordinates
of the top of the segment, the dia of the segment, Ip and Ap.
7. If there are distributed lateral loads on the pile, specify their
locations.
8. Tabulate upto 10 points on a plot of effective unit weight of
soil versus depth.
9. Tabulate upto 10 points on a plot of c,  and 50 vs. x.
(skip step 8 & 9, if no p-y generated internally).
10. Determine the loads to be applied on the top of the pile.
 Selecting boundary conditions at the pile head

• 4 case are implemented into the program:

– Pile head is free to rotate (KBC = 1).
– Pile head is fixed against rotation (KBC = 2)
– Pile head is restrained against rotation (KBC = 3)
– Pile head deflection is restrained against lateral movement
(KBC = 4).
 Pile head is free to rotate (KBC = 1)

• The lateral load (Pt), the bending moment (Mt)

and the axial force (Px) at the top of the pile
are known.
• No rotational restrain is provided by the super
structure – rotation depends on flexural
rigidity of the pile.
• E.g. pile used to support overhead sign.
 Pile head is fixed against rotation (KBC = 2)
• Pile head is frequently embedded into a
monolithic reinforced-concrete cap.
• For such a case, the pile-head connection is
defined as completely fixed and the rotation
of the pile head within the monolithic
concrete cap is assumed to be 0 (mostly, St =
0, if any should be given in radians).
• Inputs in this case: Pt, St,Px.
 Pile head is restrained against rotation (KBC = 3)

• Connection of pile head with the supper

structure as steel frame may not always be
perfectly rigid.
• If the magnitude of the restraint can be
estimated and expressed as a function Mt/St,
the elastic restrained condition can be
selected.
• Inputs in this case: Pt, Mt/St, Px.
 Pile head deflection is restrained against lateral movement
(KBC = 4)

• If the pile head deflection (yt), Mt and Px are

given, the used can use case 4 B.C.
• The deflection of the pile head can be
restrained in either direction. The reaction
force at the pile head (restrained point) will be
one of the outputs of the program.
• This B.C. can be applied to piles which support
a bridge abutment that has 0 or very small
allowable movement.
 SOIL PROPERTIES (LPILE & COM624P)

• p-y Curve Criteria

– Soil Modulus Parameter k
– Soil Strain Parameter 50
– 50 = Strain at 50% Stress Level of Clay
• These criteria are used by LPILE1 to calculate p-y
curves internally:
– Option 1 – Soft Clay (Matlock, 1970)
– Option 2 – Stiff Clay Below the Watertable (Reese et al.,
1975)
– Option 3 – Stiff Clay Above the Watertable (Reese &
Welch, 1975)
– Option 4 – Sand (Reese et al., 1974)
 p-y Method: Chart solutions

• Evans & Duncan (1982) developed chart solutions

from p-y computer runs.
• Advantages:
– no computer required
– can be used to check computer output
– can get load vs max moment and deflection directly
(a) Batter piles, (b, c) Winkler's hypothesis and (d) the concept of
laterally loaded pile-soil system