Behavior of Laterally Loaded Piles Installed in Layered Soils with a Soft Clay Layer

This paper presents the behavior of a laterally loaded concrete bored pile installed in layered soils with a soft clay layer using a full-scale pile load test and the finite element analysis. The first part of the study consisted of conducting a full-scale pile load test. A three-dimensional finite element model was developed and compared with the results of the full-scale pile load test. The numerical model showed good agreement with the results of the full-scale test. Parametric studies using the numerical model showed that the deformations of the laterally loaded piles depend on the location of the soft clay layer below the ground surface. The lateral deformations increase significantly with the thickness of the soft clay layer when the soft clay layer is within 5 times the pile diameter below the ground surface. Stiffer soil above the soft clay reduces the lateral deformation compared to the case where the soft clay layer extends from the ground surface.