ABSTRACT
The paper demonstrates the effect of soil-structure interaction on the response of laterally loaded piles and drilled shafts in layered soil (sand and/or clay) and weak rock deposits. The paper also presents the capabilities of the Strain Wedge (SW) model technique and how it accounts for soil and pile property influence on the pile/shaft lateral response. The SW model has been validated and verified through several comparison studies with model- and full-scale lateral load tests. Several factors and features related to the problem of a laterally loaded isolated pile and pile group are covered by the SW model. For example, the nonlinear behavior of both soil and pile material, soil-pile interaction (i.e. the assessment of the p-y curves rather than the adoption of empirical ones), the potential of soil to liquefy, the interference among neighboring piles in a pile group, the pile cap contribution and the consideration of the pile/shaft type (short/intermediate and long) are considered in SW model analysis. The SW model analyzes the response of laterally loaded piles based on pile properties (pile stiffness, cross-sectional shape, pile-head conditions, etc.) as well as soil properties.
