Study on horizontal bearing characteristics of pile foundations in coral sand

Abstract

This paper presents the horizontal bearing characteristics of piles in coral sand and silica sand from comparative experimental studies. A total of 6 model piles with different diameters are tested. The horizontal bearing capacity, deformation characteristic, bending moment, p-y curve, the change in soil horizontal pressure, as well as the particle breakage behaviour of coral sand are investigated. The results show that, in coral sand foundation, the horizontal bearing capacities of piles and the increments of soil horizontal pressures are obviously greater than those in silica sand. Accordingly, the lateral displacement, the rotation of pile head, the bending moment and the corresponding distribution depth in coral sand are significantly smaller than that in silica sand. The p-y curves indicate that the horizontal stiffness of coral sand is greater than that of silica sand. Remarkably, the breakage behaviour of coral sand is mainly distributed in the range of 10 times pile diameter depth and 5 times pile diameter width on the side where the sand is squeezed by pile. Furthermore, in coral sand, the influence of pile size is more pronounced, the squeezing force generated by pile spread farther and its influence range is larger compared to those in silica sand.

Deformation Characteristics of Sandy Soil around a Plate Anchor under Lateral Loading

“…A calculation model of the lateral bearing capacity is therefore difficult to establish. There have been relatively few studies on the tensile mechanism of laterally loaded plate anchors in contrast to the extensive research that has been conducted on pile lateral loads [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. Previous studies on the pull-out resistance of plate anchors and pile lateral loads mainly focused on the force or deformation of the anchor and pile, whereas research on the interaction characteristics of an anchor (pile) and surrounding soil and the deformation characteristics of the soil around the anchor (pile) remains poorly constrained.…”