A Numerical Investigation to Determine the p – y Curves of Laterally Loaded Piles

Kexin Yin, Lianghui Li and Eugenia Di Filippo
Additional contact information
Kexin Yin: Institut de Recherche en Génie Civil et Mécanique (GeM), Ecole Centrale de Nantes, UMR 6183 CNRS, 1 Rue de la Noë, CEDEX 3, 44321 Nantes, France
Lianghui Li: School of Energy and Mining Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology-Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
Eugenia Di Filippo: Institut de Recherche en Génie Civil et Mécanique (GeM), Ecole Centrale de Nantes, UMR 6183 CNRS, 1 Rue de la Noë, CEDEX 3, 44321 Nantes, France

Mathematics, 2021, vol. 9, issue 21, 1-13

Abstract: This paper focuses on a numerical approach to finding the p–y curves for laterally loaded piles. The Drucker–Prager plastic model is employed and implemented within a finite element MATLAB code. The pre- and post-processing code for Gmsh and related numerical tools are established as well. The p–y curve results from this new approach have been validated and compared to the typical design equations of API (American Petroleum Institute) and Matlock. The validation reveals that the code leads to lower p–y curves than the API and Matlock equations when the horizontal displacement is less than 0.35 times the diameter of the pile ( B ). A sensitivity analysis of the number of elements and the interface thickness is presented. The results indicate that the obtained p–y curves are independent of the two factors. Finally, the influence of clay content on the p–y behavior is investigated by the implemented MATLAB code. When y < 0.15 B , the same lateral capacity values are resulted at clay contents of 27.5% and 55%, and they are higher than the ones for 0% clay content. The p–y curves show a decreasing trend with increasing clay content after y > 0.15 B .

Keywords: laterally loaded pile; p–y curve; soil-pile interface; Drucker–Prager model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/9/21/2783/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/9/21/2783/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:9:y:2021:i:21:p:2783-:d:670689

Access Statistics for this article

Mathematics is currently edited by Ms. Emma He

More articles in Mathematics from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().