ISSN: 1945-7545
Published Online: 30 March 2005
Page Count: 11

Determination of Multidirectional p-y Curves for Soft Clays

Mayoral, JM
Engineer, URS Corporation, Oakland,CA

Pestana, JM
Associate Professor, University of California, Berkeley,CA

Seed, RB
Professor, University of California, Berkeley,CA

(Received 23 September 2002; accepted 2 September 2004)

Abstract

The evaluation of performance of soil-pile-structure systems under seismic loading is one of the most complex problems in earthquake engineering. In the most common methodology, force-displacement curves are used to describe the nonlinear response of discrete soil springs connecting the piles to the “free-field” soil column using the concept of beam on nonlinear Winkler foundation. Although there is a great interest and on-going research to characterize the multi-directional “free-field” soil response, there is a lack of information and experimental data to formulate p-y curves in multi-directional loading conditions. A new testing device was designed and constructed to obtain high quality data to calibrate numerical tools used to evaluate the seismic performance of structures supported on deep foundations in soft clay. A suite of different ground displacement path scenarios observed during recent earthquakes was simulated to assess the effect of displacement history on measured p-y response.

Keywords:
p-y springs, lateral loading, piles, soil-structure interaction, soft clay behavior

Paper ID: GTJ11697
DOI: 10.1520/GTJ11697
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