Limiting Force Profile for Laterally Loaded Piles in Undrained Clay

This paper investigates the limiting force profile (LFP) for laterally loaded piles embedded in undrained clay. Based on the three- and two-dimensional finite-element limit analysis (FELA), the failure mechanisms and methods for calculating the limiting soil resistance under both flow-around failure at a certain depth and wedge failure at ground surface are presented, respectively. For the flow-around failure, the limiting soil resistance increases with the adhesion factor alpha, and an empirical formula is proposed for practical application. Under the wedge failure condition, a curved conical wedge is developed in the front of the laterally loaded pile. Based on the parametric analysis, a generic design model as well as the determination procedures of the model parameters for predicting the limiting soil resistance under wedge failure is proposed. Finally, the proposed design model is validated by a comparison with the centrifuge test results reported in literature.