Estimation of Lateral Load Capacity of Rigid Short Piles in Sands Using CPT Results

Conventional methods for the estimation of the ultimate lateral pile load capacity are typically based on certain expressions of the lateral soil resistance p(u) and assumed distributions of the lateral soil pressure mobilized along the pile embedded depth. When soils are nonhomogenous, however, the application of conventional methods represents significant difficulties due to the nonlinear and irregular variation of p(u) with depth. In this study, a cone penetration test (CPT)-based methodology for the estimation of the ultimate lateral pile load capacity H(u) was proposed, which can take full account of entire soil profile through the CPT cone resistance q(c). A normalized correlation between q(c) and p(u) was proposed with correlation parameters corresponding to different existing methods. In order to validate the proposed CPT-based methodology, case examples of laterally loaded piles in various soil conditions were prepared and used to compare values of H(u) from original and proposed methods. Calibration chamber test results were adopted to verify the proposed methodology. Field lateral pile load tests were performed to further verify the proposed CPT-based method for field conditions.