Experiment on Lateral Load Capacities of LargeDiameter Rigid Pile Against Toppling Moment and Shear Forces Under Soft Soil Site Conditions

Abstract:

Two steel piles with an embedded depth of 6.47 m and diameters ranging from 0.9 m to 1.09 m were constructed under soft soil site conditions against toppling moment and shear forces by using the oneway singlecycle quickmaintain load method. The pile bending moments and the horizontal displacements of pile top were recorded for different load levels. The lateral bearing capacities with and without the soil stabilization were then compared and the accuracy of the rigidshortcolumn (RSC) method was evaluated. The test results show that the recorded bending moment quickly increases to the maximum at 0.06 to 0.15 times of the embedded depth, and then decreases along the pile depth. When the load is less than 0.23, the displacements decrease by 20% to 30%, which are lower than those before soil stabilization, indicating that the soil stabilization improves the lateral loadbearing capacities of the piles. However, the positive influence of soil stabilization is not present when the load level is larger than 0.6. The steel consumption of piles designed by using the RSC method is 37% more than what is practically needed, indicating that this design method could be improved.

Key words:largediameter rigid pile; latera load capacity; prototype test; highrise structure foundation; foundation reinforcement