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<p>Despite the rapid expansion of large-scale solar farms, field-based evidence quantifying how soil shear strength interacts with composite pile geometry under lateral loading remains limited. This study addresses this gap through 60 full-scale lateral load tests conducted on concrete-encased steel piles at the Meymand Solar Farm in Iran. Piles reinforced with UNP 100 and UNP 140 steel sections and embedded to depths of 1.2&#xa0;m and 1.7&#xa0;m was tested under lateral loading along the strong (L1) and weak (L2) axes. Results demonstrate pronounced anisotropy, with L1 capacities consistently exceeding L2, yielding an average L1/L2 ratio of 2.31. Quadratic regression reveals a strong correlation between L1 and friction angle (R2 = 0.93), indicating that strong-axis resistance is governed primarily by mobilized soil shear strength. In contrast, L2 shows a weak correlation with friction angle, confirming that weak-axis behavior is dominated by pile bending stiffness rather than soil strength. Increasing the steel core size from UNP 100 to UNP 140 produced larger capacity gains than increasing embedment depth, particularly for L1. Comparison with Broms’ theoretical ultimate capacity shows that weak-axis service loads at 10&#xa0;mm displacement mobilize only 16–87% of the ultimate soil resistance, providing a substantial safety margin. These findings advance current knowledge by providing rare full-scale field evidence that decouples the governing mechanisms of strong- and weak-axis lateral resistance in composite solar piles and offers quantitative, design-oriented guidance for optimizing pile section and embedment in dense granular soils.</p>

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Full-Scale Field Investigation of Lateral Load–Deformation Behavior of Concrete-Encased Steel Piles for Solar Panel Foundations

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年5月11日

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  • Iman Golpazir,
  • Ali Dehghanbanadaki,
  • Reza Akherati,
  • Anahita Akherati,
  • Alireza Rezaee

摘要

Despite the rapid expansion of large-scale solar farms, field-based evidence quantifying how soil shear strength interacts with composite pile geometry under lateral loading remains limited. This study addresses this gap through 60 full-scale lateral load tests conducted on concrete-encased steel piles at the Meymand Solar Farm in Iran. Piles reinforced with UNP 100 and UNP 140 steel sections and embedded to depths of 1.2 m and 1.7 m was tested under lateral loading along the strong (L1) and weak (L2) axes. Results demonstrate pronounced anisotropy, with L1 capacities consistently exceeding L2, yielding an average L1/L2 ratio of 2.31. Quadratic regression reveals a strong correlation between L1 and friction angle (R2 = 0.93), indicating that strong-axis resistance is governed primarily by mobilized soil shear strength. In contrast, L2 shows a weak correlation with friction angle, confirming that weak-axis behavior is dominated by pile bending stiffness rather than soil strength. Increasing the steel core size from UNP 100 to UNP 140 produced larger capacity gains than increasing embedment depth, particularly for L1. Comparison with Broms’ theoretical ultimate capacity shows that weak-axis service loads at 10 mm displacement mobilize only 16–87% of the ultimate soil resistance, providing a substantial safety margin. These findings advance current knowledge by providing rare full-scale field evidence that decouples the governing mechanisms of strong- and weak-axis lateral resistance in composite solar piles and offers quantitative, design-oriented guidance for optimizing pile section and embedment in dense granular soils.