Abstract

Some structures like high-rise buildings, transmission towers, offshore structures, and the like are generally supported by pile foundations. Piles of such structures are subjected to large lateral loads and overturning moments due to wind, waves, or both, in addition to vertical compressive load. So, safe design of piles under combined loading (lateral- compressive and lateral-uplift) has become the key concern for geotechnical engineers. Although some works have been done on individual lateral, uplift and compressive loading but behavior of piles under combined lateral and uplift load is not well addressed in literature. With this in view, in the present study, experiments have been carried out on a model mild steel single pile, embedded in homogeneous sand bed prepared by pouring locally available sand (made uniform through sieving) with the help of rainfall technique, to investigate the pile behavior under independent lateral loads (6 tests) and independent uplift loads (6 tests). A parametric study has then been done to find the influence of RD of sand bed and L/D of model piles on ultimate lateral capacity obtained with different values of uplift applied on the model piles. It has been observed from the results that the value of ultimate lateral capacity of piles increases with the increase in both length-to-diameter ratio (L/D ratio) of model piles and relative density (RD) of the homogenous sand bed. This study highlights lateral response of a pile with different uplift loads for varying L/D ratio and relative density of homogeneous sand bed. The dimensions of the mild steel pile cap are120 mm × 120 mm × 10 mm and it is used along with the piles welded over the piles at the top.