Effect of Edge Distance on Lateral Capacity of Piles in Cohesionless Soil Slopes

Recent advances in the understanding of deep foundation mechanisms suggest that the pile foundations can be used in both level grounds and the sloping grounds to appropriately support the heavy axial and lateral loads coming from the superstructures. The lateral load-carrying capacity of the pile in the sloping ground is different from the level ground due to the presence of slope and pile location (i.e., edge distance). In this study, extensive numerical analyses were performed to understand the behavior of a laterally loaded pile in cohesionless soil slopes by using the three-dimensional finite element method. Effect of various influencing parameters like slope inclination, relative density, angle of internal friction, modulus of elasticity of soil, unit weight of soil,L/Dratio of a pile, and pile diameter on the laterally loaded pile with a change in edge distance was studied. Results from the numerical analyses were compared with the previous experimental studies. An attempt has also been made to find out critical edge distance (i.e., where the effect of slope angle is negligible on lateral capacity) of the pile for different cohesionless soils with varying slope configurations. The critical edge distance is found to be varying between 5.0-7.5D, 7.5-10.0D, and 10.0-15.0Dwith slope inclinations of 20 degrees, 30 degrees, and 40 degrees, respectively.