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Pile Capacity For Eccentric Inclined Load in Clay
Pile Capacity For Eccentric Inclined Load in Clay
Pile Capacity For Eccentric Inclined Load in Clay
G. G. MEYERHOF
AND A. S. YALCIN
Department of Civil Engineering, Technical University ofNova Scotin, P.O. Box 1000, Hnlifnw, N.S., Canada B3J 2x4
Received November 3, 1983
Accepted February 2, 1984
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In connection with the design of offshore structures and bridge foundations, the ultimate bearing capacity of rigid piles and pile
groups in clay has been determined under various combinations of eccentricity and inclination of the load varying from the
vertical to horizontal directions. The results of load tests on single rigid model piles and freestanding groups are compared with
theoretical estimates. 'The influence of eccentricity and inclination of the load on the ultimate bearing capacity can be represented
by simple interaction relationships between the ultimate loads and moments and between the axial and normal components of the
ultimate load. The effect of a pile cap resting on the soil in piled foundations and the influence of pile flexibility on the ultimate
load are examined briefly.
Key words: bearing capacity, clay, eccentric load, inclined load, pile groups, pile-soil interaction, rigid piles, ultimate load,
ultimate moment.
Dans le cadre du dimensionnement des structures en mer et des fondations de ponts, la force portante i la rupture des pieux
rigides et des groupes de pieux dans l'argile a CtC determinee pour differentes combinaisons d'excentricitt et d'inclinaison de la
charge entre les directions verticale et horizontale. Les rksultats d'essais de chargement sur des modbles de pieux rigides isolts et
de groupes de pieux libres en t&tesont comparCs avec les Cvaluations thtoriques. L'influence de llexcentricitC et de l'inclinaison
de la charge sur la force portante i la rupture peut &trerepr6sentCe par de simples relations d'interaction entre les charges ultimes
et les moments et entre les composantes axiale et normale de la charge 2 la rupture. Les effets d'un massif de t&tede pieux en
contact avec le sol et l'influence de la flexibilitk du pieu sur la force portante sont bribvement examinks.
For personal use only.
Mots cle's: force portante, argile, charge excentrCe, charge inclinCe, groupe de pieux, interaction sol-pieu, pieu rigide, charge
limite, moment limite.
Can. Geotech. J. 21,389-396 (1984)
[Traduit par la revue]
T ESTS THEORY
3 o0 0O 3 0'
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( 190 mm)
k
pile diameters) at the steel cap. The piles were pushed curves for various eccentricities e of the load are,
For personal use only.
fairly rapidly into the clay and were then immediately approximately, geometrically similar to those for a
loaded to failure by a load that was generally applied at central load. Figure 2, which compares the experimental
the pile head or cap near the ground level. Some vertical component Q,, = Q, cos a of the eccentric
additional tests were made by applying a horizontal load inclined failure load Q, with the ultimate value Q,, of a
to the piles at various heights above the soil surface. pile under an eccentric vertical load for different load
The different eccentricities of the load varied from inclinations a, indicates that the decrease of the ratio
0 to 150 mm (maximum eccentricity/pile depth ratio Quv/Qevwith an increase of a is practically independent
e/D = 0.8), and in some special tests the were of the load eccentricity to pile depth ratio e/D.
subjected to a simple moment at the pile head or cap In order to study the effect of the ultimate moment Mu
without vertical load. The different inclinations of the = Quv.e at the pile head on the ultimate load Q, for
load comprised the whole range between vertical and various load inclinations a, it is convenient to use an
horizontal directions. The load was applied at a interaction diagram plotted in terms of ultimate loads as
displacement rate of about 2.5 mm/min with measure- ordinates and ultimate moments as abscissas. The
ments of horizontal and vertical disulacements and corresponding relationships for the test results on single
rotation at the head or cap of the Details of the piles are shown in Fig. 3 and indicate the rapid decrease
testing procedures used were given previously (Meyerhof of the ultimate load with greater moment and inclination
and Ranjan 1972, 1973). The load-displacement and of the load. These interaction diagrams are normalized
moment-rotation curves of the piles were similar to by using the ratios of Q,/Qo as ordinates and Mu/Mo as
those found previously for eccentric inclined loads in abscissas, where Qo and Mo are the maximum values of
sand (Meyerhof et al. 1983). The ultimate load at which Q, and Mu, respectively, for different load inclinations.
the increase in the rate of dis~lacementfirst reached the Figure 4 shows that the experimental ultimate load-
maximum occurred at a displacement of the resultant moment relationships depend on the inclination of the
load at the pile head of about 2-4% of the pile length and load. A similar interaction diagram for ultimate load and
at a rotation of about 1-2" under eccentric inclined moment at the pile head is given in Fig. 4 for the special
loads. tests in which a horizontal load was applied to single
The test results for single piles under various piles at various heights h above the ground surface.
eccentricities and inclinations of the load are shown in These test results show that the horizontal failure
Fig. 1 in the form of polar bearing capacity diagrams, load Q, decreases linearly with greater applied moment
which give the ultimate loads of the piles for different Mu = Q;h.
directions of the applied load. While the ultimate The test results for the 2 x 2 model pile groups are
bearing capacity e l - d o e s not vary much with the shown in Fig. 5 in the corresponding polar bearing
inclination a of the load, it is of interest to note that the capacity diagrams. It is found that the ultimate bearing
MEYERHOF AND YALCIN 39 1
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for tests.
TESTS THEORY
30°
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Cohesion
c = 20 kPa
FIG.5. Polar bearing capacity diagrams for pile groups under eccentric inclined loads.
For personal use only.
found to be practically identical to those of similar . addition, the adhesion forces C l and C2 act
1 9 8 1 ~ )In
freestanding pile groups. on the shaft, while the point resistance Q, is mobilized at
the toe of the pile (Fig. 8). The forces P1 and P2 act in a
Analysis of test results horizontal direction and the resistance Q, is inclined at
Single piles an angle 6 to the vertical. As the load inclination cx
If a rough rigid vertical pile with a free head and partly increases, the forces P1 and P2 increase, while the
embedded in clay is subjected at the head (at a distance h forces C 1and C2decrease and the angle 6 increases. The
above the ground surface) to an ultimate load Q, with an values of the forces and of 6 depend also on the
eccentricity e and inclination cx to the vertical (Fig. 8), movements of the pile and the deformation characteris-
the net lateral earth pressures P , and P2 on the tics of the soil. An estimate of the ultimate load Q, has
embedded shaft of the pile can be assumed to have so far only been obtained for a central inclined load in
roughly rectangular and triangular distributions, respec- clay (Meyerhof 198 1) and for a vertical eccentric load in
tively, as for a horizontal applied load (Meyerhof et al. sand (Kishida and Meyerhof 1965). However, on the
MEYERHOF AND YALCIN
INCLlNATlON OF LOAD d
0O 30'
1.0
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Pile groups
from which Qu can be determined in any given case. The above analysis of single piles can be extended to
However, in practice it is often more convenient to use pile groups with a customary pile spacing of about three
the vertical component Quv of the ultimate eccentric pile diameters by considering the smaller ultimate
inclined load with an approximate overall reduction bearing capacity of either the sum of the individual pile
factor, obtained by combining [5]and [ 9 ] ,of capacities and of the pile cap, if resting on the soil, or the
'"I "=dm
Quv cos a
1+ -
ultimate capacity of an equivalent pier consisting of the
piles and enclosed soil mass. General expressions for the
ultimate bearing capacity of rigid pile groups under
eccentric and inclined loads had been derived previously
(Meyerhof 1960 and 1979a) and detailed estimates were
This overall reduction factor for eccentric inclined loads made for the special cases of eccentric vertical loads in
appears to be fairly satisfactory, as shown in Fig. 1 . sand (Kishida and Meyerhof 1965) and central inclined
For the special case of a rigid, vertical, partly loads in clay (Meyerhof 1981). Thus, it was shown that
embedded pile with a horizontal load applied at a height at individual pile failure the ultimate moment of the
h above the ground surface it has been shown (Meyerhof point resistance Q , of the compression piles and of the
MEYERHOF PiND YALCIN 395
between the axial and normal components of the bridges. Proceedings, Seminar of International Association
ultimate load. The ultimate bearing capacity of rigid pile for Bridge and Structural Engineering, Madras, Vol. 1, pp.
groups under eccentric inclined loads can be estimated 1-16.
from the same interaction relationships. Although these 19796. Soil-structure interaction and foundations.
General Report, 6th Panamerican Conference on Soil
proposed methods of analysis are approximately sup-
Mechanics, Lima, Vol. 1, pp. 109- 140.
ported by the present model tests, it is hoped that 1981. The bearing capacity of rigid piles and pile
corresponding field load tests b e made o n driven and groups under inclined loads in clay. Canadian Geotechnical
bored piles for further investigation of pile behaviour Journal, 18, pp. 297-300.
Can. Geotech. J. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by San Francisco (UCSF) on 09/12/14
under eccentric inclined loads, including the effect of MEYERHOF,G. G., and RANJAN,G. 1972. The bearing
pile flexibility on the load capacity. capacity of rigid piles under inclined loads in sand. I:
Vertical piles. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 9, pp.
Acknowledgement 430-446.
The research at the Technical University of Nova 1973. The bearing capacity of rigid piles under inclined
Scotia was carried out with the financial support of the loads in sand. 111: Pile groups. Canadian Geotechnical
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Journal, 10, pp. 428-438.
MEYERHOF, G. G., and SASTRY, V. V. R. N. 1978. Bearing
Canada. capacity of piles in layered soils. Part I. Clay overlying
KISHIDA,H., and MEYERHOF, G. G. 1965. Bearing capacity sand. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 15, pp. 17 1-182.
of pile groups under eccentric loads in sand. Proceedings, MEYERHOF, G. G., MATHUR, S. K., and VALSANGKAR, A. J.
6th International Conference on Soil Mechanics, Montreal, 1 9 8 1 ~Lateral
. resistance and deflection of rigid walls and
Vol. 2, pp. 270-274. piles in layered soils. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 18,
MEYERHOF, G. G. 1960. The design of Franki piles with pp. 159-170.
special reference to groups in sand. Proceedings, Interna- 1981b. The bearing capacity of rigid piles and pile
tional Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering, groups under inclined loads in layered sand. Canadian
For personal use only.
Symposium on Pile Foundations, Stockholm, pp. 105- 123. Geotechnical Journal, 18, pp. 514-519.
1963. Some recent research on the bearing capacity of MEYERHOF, G. G., YALCIN, A. S., and MATHUR, S. K. 1983.
foundations. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 1 , pp. 16-26. Ultimate pile capacity for eccentric inclined load. ASCE
1973a. Uplift capacity of foundations under oblique Journal of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, 109(GT3),
loads. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 10, pp. 64-70. pp. 408-423.
1973b. Uplift resistance of inclined anchors and piles. SAFFERY, M. R., and TATE,A. P. K. 196 1. Model tests on pile
Proceedings, 8th International Conference on Soil Mechanics, groups in a clay soil with particular reference to the behaviour
Moscow, Vol. 2.1, pp. 167-172. of the group when it is loaded eccentrically. Proceedings,
1976. Bearing capacity and settlement of pile 5th International Conference on Soil Mechanics, Paris, Vol.
foundations. ASCE Journal of the Geotechnical Engineer- 2, pp. 129-134.
ing Division, 102(GT3), pp. 195-228. TERZAGHI, K., and PECK,R. B. 1967. Soil mechanics in
1979a. Pile foundations with special reference to engineering practice. Wiley, New York.