ASSESSMENT OF INTERPRETATION METHODS FOR DERIVING P-Y CURVES FROM MOMENT MEASUREMENTS IN LAYERED SOILS

The effectiveness of existing approaches to derive p-y curves is case-dependent, and thus, a systematic assessment of these interpretation methods is necessary. This study compared p-y curves derived using four data interpretation methods. Rather than performing experiments, the numerical simulation program LPILE was used to produce hypothetic moment data along a short pile in layered soils. The deduced p-y curves were compared with the output p-y curves used for numerical simulations to evaluate the accuracy of the interpretation methods. The comparison demonstrated that the cubic spline method and difference method were the best among the four methods for deriving p-y curves. However, the difference method generated a large resistance at the soil surface. Due to this error, the cubic spline method is the preferred existing method for deriving the response of a laterally loaded pile in layered soil. This study is useful for obtaining more accurate p-y curve from experimental data and for planning future experiments more effectively.